The STEAMedge Academy project partners met on 16–17 February 2026, in Athens (Greece) to officially kick off an ambitious collaborative journey. STEAMedge Academy is a newly approved project aiming at empowering STEAM educators across Europe by developing a comprehensive STEAMTech Competence Framework that defines the core competences for effective STEAM education, focusing on emerging technologies and sustainability. Specifically, the STEAMedge Academy project brings together complementary expertise from Universities, schools and organisations specialising in education, digital innovation, and community engagement. Building on this framework, the project will design innovative professional development modules, self-reflection tools, micro-credential certification pathways, and a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), equipping educators with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in rapidly evolving educational landscapes.
More precisely, the two-day Kick-off Meeting (KoM) was hosted by the HOU and took place at its premises in Athens. It marked the launch of the STEAMedge Academy implementation and provided an excellent opportunity for all consortium members to present their institutions, expertise, and roles within the project. Discussions focused on the project’s overall objectives, expected impact, work plan, and key milestones, while also addressing governance and management procedures, quality assurance frameworks, communication strategies, and detailed planning for the first period of implementation.
The partners engaged in a collaborative co-design workshop on the development of the STEAMTech Competence Framework, a milestone output of the project. In addition, the KoM sessions coped with the stakeholder engagement planning, the dissemination strategy, and the alignment of community outreach with the project’s validation and communication needs.
The kick-off meeting created a shared understanding of the STEAMedge Academy vision and reinforced the commitment of all partners to achieving meaningful and high-quality results and a long-term impact at both national and European levels.
STEAMedge Academy is a 3-year project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Teacher Academy program of the European Union. It brings together eleven (11) partners from five (5) European countries i.e. Greece, Belgium, Italy, Latvia and Spain. The consortium consists of the Hellenic Open University (Greece), Coordinator, who is participating with the Digital Systems and Media Computing Laboratory (DSMC) and the Dynamic Ambient Intelligent Sociotechnical Systems (DAISSY) Research Group, under the scientific coordination of Professor Theofanis Orphanoudakis, as well as ALL DIGITAL (Belgium), EUROGEO (Belgium), Ghent University (Belgium), IDEC (Greece), Platon m.e.p.e (Greece), Fondazione Mondo Digitale (Italy), Roma Tre University (Italy), University of Latvia (Latvia), Politeknika Txorierri – PIT (Spain) and UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA (Spain).
Stay tuned for more news, updates, achievements, and key developments as the project progresses!
