The VUB lays the foundations for responsible AI in European education

Brussels expertise forms the pedagogical blueprint for a large-scale Erasmus+ project on digital skills.

05/06/2026

BRUSSELS, 5 June 2026 - AIM-PRO (AI Literacy for Multidisciplinary Professional Readiness and Outreach), an ambitious new European initiative aimed at a responsible AI culture and forward-looking digital skills, has been officially launched. With the active participation of the Free University of Brussels (VUB), the project brings Belgian expertise in educational technology and pedagogical innovation to a large-scale European partnership.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence is transforming education, the labour market and society at an unprecedented rate. AIM-PRO responds to the growing need for accessible, human-centred and multidisciplinary AI education. This three-year project, funded to the tune of €1.5 million by the Erasmus+ programme (Alliances for Innovation), brings together 15 partner organisations from Belgium, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. The initiative is under the scientific coordination of the University of L'Aquila (Italy) and was officially launched at a kick-off meeting in Italy.

Within the consortium, the VUB is playing a crucial role in laying the scientific and practical foundations of the project. The MILO (Future Classroom) team at the VUB is working closely with the Centre for Digital Education at the University of Leeds to define the pedagogical requirements for the entire AIM-PRO ecosystem. This collaboration has already resulted in the strategic design of training strategies and target group profiles, which serve as the basis for all the learning resources to be developed.

"With AIM-PRO, we want to translate AI literacy into tangible, inclusive and directly applicable tools for teachers and professionals," explain Jo Tondeur (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Sarah Howard (University of Leeds). "This project will give us the opportunity, for example, to re-translate and validate our research into effective training strategies for future teachers in other contexts. In this way, we will help to ensure that the project does not remain stuck in abstract theory, but that academic knowledge about AI integration and training takes concrete and meaningful shape in practice."

AIM-PRO will focus on three strategic pillars in the coming years: increasing AI knowledge and digital skills; fostering sustainable and ethical AI practices; and strengthening innovation, resilience and entrepreneurship. The project will provide publicly accessible educational frameworks, pedagogical guidelines, digital tools and formal certification pathways specifically tailored to the needs of higher education institutions, vocational training providers and SMEs.

As the uptake of AI and the needs of the labour market vary considerably from one European country to another, the project focuses on national contextualisation. In addition to its contribution to educational technologies, the VUB is also acting as the national focal point for Belgium. The university will actively link the results of the project with local stakeholders, schools, teachers and businesses to ensure that European innovations are perfectly adapted to educational practices and labour market needs in Belgium.

Contact:

Jo Tondeur: e-mail Jo.Tondeur@vub.be, tel. 0494542050