The dedicated EmpowerED workshop brought together national decision-makers (including guests from the European Commission and OECD - OCDE), educators, industry partners, and teacher trainers. The core discussion centered on the importance of testing environments for the co-creation and evaluation of AI solutions. Our guest speakers, Anna Åkerfeldt from Ifous, Swedish EdTest, and Anne-Wil Kramer from NOLAI, shared their valuable experiences on how their organizations create and sustain key stakeholder relationships.

Flexibility is Key: The 'shapes' of testbeds (who is involved and how) need to be flexible to suit different contexts, as heterogeneity exists both between and within countries. Our participants noted that ‘quick wins’ (short-term actions that could still have impact) would be to focus on the better dissemination of existing frameworks and resources to schools and teachers, and support existing local initiatives and communities. In the long-term, stakeholders should design actions to ensure cohesion between AI frameworks, allocate funding to AI/EdTech design and testing, and create opportunities to foster trust between stakeholders through regular interactions.

For a comprehensive overview of policy priorities and initiatives across 23 education systems, refer to EUN’s newest Agile Collections publication, "AI in school education.".