OpenEU shares its vision for Digital Education with the European Commission

The newly published Innovation Agenda has been submitted as OpenEU's contribution to the EU's 2040 Roadmap for education. 

The OpenEU Alliance has formally contributed its evidence-based Innovation Agenda on Digital Education to the European Commission's Call for Evidence, calling for a human-centred approach to AI in education.

As the European Commission prepares its "Quality Education for All: A 2040 Roadmap", OpenEU's message is clear: technology should serve people, not the other way around. The Agenda, shaped by over 80 experts and students, from Europe and beyond through OpenEU's Think and Do Tank (TaDT), offers an evidence-based roadmap for transforming higher education by putting people — not just technology — at the centre. It advocates for an integrated model where smart, secure, and interoperable digital infrastructures are paired with comprehensive training in AI literacy, critical thinking, and lifelong learning, with ethics, data protection, transparency, and robust governance as its foundational pillars.

"The 2040 Roadmap is an opportunity to ensure that Europe's response to AI in education is guided by educational purpose, human agency, and inclusion, rather than by just technology adoption," said Haline Costa Maia, Lead Author of the OpenEU Innovation Agenda and TaDT Coordinator (Universidade Aberta, Portugal).

"The OpenEU Innovation Agenda brings a higher-education perspective, grounded in a consultation of European experts, showing that sustainable digital transformation also depends on empowering educators and learners, including on AI literacy, ethical governance, and secure, interoperable infrastructures. These principles can help across education sectors and contribute to a coherent European digital education ecosystem." said Leonel Morgado, Co-author of the OpenEU Innovation Agenda and TaDT work package leader (Universidade Aberta, Portugal).

Although the EU's Roadmap's initial focus is on school education, OpenEU's contribution argues that the same principles — human agency, inclusion, and digital sovereignty — must also underpin higher education, as part of one coherent European digital education ecosystem.

The Agenda is the result of a rigorous, multi-phase expert consultation process (the Delphi method) run through OpenEU's Think and Do Tank.

📄 Read here the full OpenEU Innovation Agenda on Digital Education
🔗 View the Call for Evidence: Quality Education for All – A 2040 Roadmap