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TNO

TNO is one of Europe’s largest research organisations (4648 staff and EUR 570 million turnover for 2006). TNO covers a wide range of disciplines and sectors. The Innovation Policy Group (IPG), which is part of TNO Quality of Life, is a multidisciplinary group working on the problems and challenges of technological, economic and societal innovation. The researchers of the IPG have in-depth knowledge of the interactions between technology, economics, markets, organisational structures, environment, culture and policy and know how to turn this knowledge into useful visions, concepts and strategies.

Open University Nederland

Open Universiteit Nederland (Open University of the Netherlands, OUNL) develops, provides and promotes innovative higher distance education of top quality, in collaboration with networks and alliances. As the prime university for lifelong learning, it addresses the wide-ranging learning needs of people during their course of life, plus the need to achieve a considerable increase of the knowledge level of the community at large. The OUNL is strongly anchored in Dutch higher education through its educational, research and innovation activities, and operates successfully in the field of lifelong learning. It is a pioneer in open higher distance education and leader in educational innovation, in the Netherlands and internationally.

The Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC) is a Centre of Excellence in the fields of Learning Sciences and Technology Enhanced Learning. It carries out research, develops systems and provides sustainable and evidence-based solutions for the advancement of learning at work, at school, at home and on the move. This is accomplished by combining state-of-the-art research in the Learning Sciences with the innovative powers of new media, mobile devices and the Internet. New solutions are extensively tested in our laboratories and in real practice, following the principles of open innovation. With the portfolio of activities CELSTEC is able to help partners innovate and improve their education, training and professional development system in all essential aspects. Under its former Dutch name, OTEC (Onderwijstechnologisch Expertise Centrum), the institute gained worldwide recognition as successful centre for research and innovation. In 2008 it’s research programmes received the highest average score from all educational research programmes in the Netherlands.

Attic Media

Atticmedia is a dedicated design and technology production house, specialising in the development of interactive eLearning content. We pride ourselves on developing high-quality, custom built bespoke courses, and have experience working across all age groups and a wide variety of life-long learning sectors.

On the Interactive Learning side we develop educational and training websites, intranets and CD-ROMs for our clients. We cover a large number of sectors, age groups and interests, working with our pool of specialist content experts to develop the content. We have developed eLearning for pre-school, primary, secondary, FE, corporate training and a variety of charities.

On the Audience Engagement side of the business we develop large, engaging online communities, content sharing sites, and games. We have developed a wide variety of techniques, often classified under the web 2.0 definition, but always focussed on ensuring that the audience is actively engaged in the content in a way that benefits all – users, stake holders and owners of the site.

IPTS

The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), based in Seville (Spain), is one of the European Commission research institutes jointly constituting the Directorate General Joint Research Centre (DG JRC). As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the European Union. The mission of the IPTS is to provide support to the EU policy-making process by developing science-based responses to policy challenges that have both a socio-economic as well as a scientific/technological dimension.

This project is managed by the IPTS Information Society Unit under the theme “ICT for Learning, Innovation and Creativity”. This theme addresses research and policy aspects on how to harness the potential of ICT to develop innovative education and training practices, improve access to lifelong learning and to deal with the rise of new (digital) skills and competences for employment, personal development, inclusion and citizenship. Research is aimed at understanding better how to realise the potential of ICT applications for making learning more efficient, equitable and innovative, encompassing formal, non-formal and informal learning. The Future of Learning project is managed by Christine Redecker and Yves Punie on behalf of IPTS.