Three days in Thessaloniki!
In September, a large group from our community travelled to Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) for Learning Impact Europe 2026. We came to share our work on interoperability, credentials and AI. We also saw 1EdTech Europe take an important step.
What is 1EdTech Europe?
1EdTech is a global non-profit consortium of education institutions and technology suppliers. Together, its members develop and certify open standards that let learning tools and systems work together. You may already use some of them. LTI connects tools to your learning platform, and Edu-API supports the exchange of student and course data in higher education. 1EdTech Europe brings together the European members. Its current work includes making Edu-API interoperable with the European Learning Model and aligning with European Digital Credentials for Learning and Europass.
A new legal entity, with EUNIS at the table
Since May, 1EdTech Europe has been an independent legal entity. At the General Assembly in Thessaloniki, members voted in its new board. Our Treasurer, Angeliki Agorogianni (AUTh), takes a seat on the advisory board.
CEO Curtiss Barnes placed this in the wider change to 1EdTech’s global governance, with regional organisations taking on more responsibility. A year ago he argued that 1EdTech Europe should be more than a hobby of the global consortium. Now it stands on its own. The whole sector benefits from a healthy 1EdTech that stays “evergreen”, he said: a resource and a community institutions can rely on for the long term. Security was high on his agenda, both in LTI 1.3 and in the growing number of agentic AI tools arriving in education.
Technical Standards Architect Tim Couper looked ahead to 2030. He suggested Europe may end up leading on AI in education, precisely because of the attention we pay to regulation and governance. That makes it even more valuable to bring policy makers and technology experts into the same room. He also proposed finding a way to measure the impact of standards.
Our community on stage
EUNIS members were visible across the programme:
- Angeliki Agorogianni presented AUTH’s GenAI policy work in a European context.
- Colleagues from AUTh and GUnet showed Edu-API implementations and digital identity credentials in practice.
- Thierry Koscielniak presented ViWAS.
- Asbjørn Thorsen (Sikt) asked who is still in control of our infrastructure.
- GÉANT set out what NRENs do for Europe’s learning ecosystem.
- SURF colleagues spoke on credentials, student mobility and course data, and on interoperability, from API discovery to the Higher Education Interoperability Framework.
- EUNIS Ambassador Georgios Roussos was active throughout the week, promoting EUNIS and connecting new colleagues to our community.
Looking ahead
The EUNIS Board is renewing our Memorandum of Understanding with 1EdTech Europe, so our collaboration has a firm footing under the new structure. Many thanks to AUTh for hosting us so warmly, and to 1EdTech Europe for three days of good conversations.
