Welcome to the Interoperable Europe Academy Community Page! A dedicated space for courses that will help you boost your advanced digital skills in the area of interoperability in the public sector! Become a member and organise your interoperability learning journey, exchange views and opinions with like-minded people, be among the first to find out about the launch of new courses and much more! Would you like to get a snapshot of what makes each language unique? Or do you need to learn the basics of what to say in everyday social situations? Join Online Language Support and learn one of the languages on offer! Click the yellow button on your right-hand to start learning.

Welcome to the сapacity building program for reconstruction! Go to the community and explore all the opportunities that this program offers, starting with our four introductory modules. In the next few days, this platform will be offered in both Ukrainian and English. The set of introductory modules will also be offered with simultaneous translation.

How to make our research more socially robust and closer to societal actual needs?
How to reflect on our research for policy the needs, expectations, values and ideas of citizens concerned?
How to work in transdisciplinary ways?
This toolkit may help with practical processes and tools to carry out research for policy in the spirit of ‘responsible research innovation’.
The toolkit focus is on participatory approaches to engage different actors, including citizens on anticipatory governance and ethics of science and technology.
The guiding case study is on Connected and Automated Vehicles.
Although relevant for the Joint Research Centre scientific officers, it can also be of relevance to others that are engaged in science for policy.

Exacerbated by human-caused climate change, hazards such as floods and wildfires have been ravaging several parts of Europe. The human, environmental and economic losses from disasters are making recovery from the COVID-19 crisis even harder. Under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the European Commission and the World Bank carried out the study 'Economics for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness' that modelled the potential impact of floods and earthquakes on Europe’s society and economy and quantified the costs and benefits of investments in disaster resilience. This course demonstrates why investing in disaster prevention and preparedness makes economic sense. This online course aims to provide participants with the necessary knowledge about best practices in order to ensure efficient deployment and safe use of Aerial Forest Firefighting (AFFF) capacities. After the course, you will understand the steps to follow to prepare for, request, host, and safely assist in coordinating Aerial Forest Firefighting (AFFF) capacities.

Are you an Erasmus+ or European Solidarity Corps mobility participant? The Online Language Support (OLS) available on the EU Academy launched the third edition of its video contest that will give you the chance to win one of 10 Interrail Global Passes! All you have to do is create a short video, from one to three minutes long, based on three topics: - Proverbs and sayings - Slang, oral or regional expressions - The day when it all started Don’t to miss this opportunity to show off your speaking and presentation skills and your unique sense of humour! The contest is open for entries until 16 December 2024. You can find more information in the OLS video contest section available on the language learning community that you joined when you received the invitation to OLS from you sending institution. Read carefully the rules and take your chance! Remember that in your OLS community you will find a community manager ready to support you.

Date: 30/09/2024

Shortly after we launched the EU Academy, in November 2020, we welcomed our 100th learner to the platform. Then we watched excitedly as the 1,000th, then the 10,000th, and then the 100,000th learner joined us. During this time, we continued to work very hard behind the scenes to provide a world-class learning environment to our learners, as well as an excellent publishing environment for the community of content creators that provide the courses, events, communities, video-talks, podcasts and micro-learnings that constitute the EU Academy’s catalogue. The EU Academy is nothing without learners eager to use this content to develop new skills. So in February 2024, a dream really came true for us when we saw the creation of the 1,000,000th learner account. We are proud that over 1 million learners use our platform to build their knowledge and competence in EU policies and programmes. This is really a major milestone for the EU Academy, a platform that was created as an online space to foster a better understanding of the European Union and what it does. We would like to thank all our collaborators, and particularly our community of more than 1 million learners, for their support at all stages of our journey. Let’s keep learning together!

Date: 22/02/2024

Are you an Erasmus+ or European Solidarity Corps participant? The Online Language Support (OLS) available on the EU Academy launched an amazing video contest that will give you the chance to win one of 10 Interrail Global Passes! All you have to do is create a short video, from one to three minutes long, based on three topics: - a fun pronunciation challenge, - an anecdote about learning a new language, or - what motivated you to start learning it. This is an excellent opportunity for you to show off your speaking and presentation skills and your unique sense of humour. The contest is open for entries until 4 February 2024. You can find more information in the OLS video contest section available on the language learning community that you joined when you received the invitation to OLS from you sending institution. Remember that in your OLS community you will find a community manager ready to support you!

Date: 30/11/2023

In 2022, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced the European Year of Skills. On the initiative, President von der Leyen said: “We need much more focus in our investment on professional education and upskilling. We need better cooperation with companies, because they know best what they need. And we need to match these needs with people's aspirations. But we also have to attract the right skills to our continent, skills that help companies and strengthen Europe's growth.” The European Year of Skills is an EU initiative that puts skills at the centre-stage with the purpose of helping people to get the right skills for quality jobs. Moreover, it aims at helping companies – in particular, small and medium enterprises – address skills shortages. Throughout 2023 and until May 2024, the European Year of Skills will promote a mindset of reskilling and upskilling, helping people to get the right skills for quality jobs, through a series of targeted initiatives and events. The EU Academy is an obvious partner to the European Year of Skills as it is already very active in promoting the development of new skills in the area of policy and programme implementation through high-quality pedagogical content created by the EU. By July 2023, it counted with more than 1,000,000 enrolments in its courses. Through its partnership with the European Year of Skills, the platform will contribute actively to the success of the initiative, in particular with regards to the development of professional policy-relevant skills. Why not browse the EU Academy catalogue to find courses that can help you to develop the skills relevant to your next job!

Date: 24/07/2023

In June 2023, the EU Academy won its first award: the European Commission Joint Research Centre’s Excellence Award in the category of Knowledge Management.

As the EU corporate e-learning tool for external stakeholders, the EU Academy is the EU-wide project that any EU institution, service or agency can use to host their pedagogical contents for external audiences to follow. However, the project has a specific location within the EU: the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). It was in the JRC that the project was born and launched. The Joint Research Centre provides independent and evidence-based science and knowledge to support EU policies so that they can positively impact society. Every year, the JRC organizes the Excellence Award to recognise the remarkable value of the projects that the organization creates and implements. We are thrilled to share that the team behind the EU Academy won an award in the 2023 edition of this competition! We wanted to share the great news with our EU Academy community. 70 projects competed in the 2023 edition of the JRC Excellence Awards. After the evaluation and deliberation by the panel of experts that served as jury of the competition, 15 awards were given across 7 different categories. The EU Academy team was the only recipient of the aware in the category Knowledge Management.

Date: 06/06/2023

On 2 February 2023, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and 15 EU Commissioners travelled to Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian Government. The meeting took place back to back with the EU-Ukraine summit, the first since the start of Russia's unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine and the granting of candidate status. The College discussed with the Ukrainian government EU support to help Ukraine rebuild its cities in a high-quality, sustainable and inclusive way with the New European Bauhaus community. In March, the New European Bauhaus, together with Ukrainian partners (Covenant of Mayors East, Ro3kvit, ReThink) will launch a capacity-building programme for Ukrainian municipalities to prepare the reconstruction. This programme will be available at the EU Academy. For that purpose, an online community called ‘Introduction to Capacity Building for Reconstruction’ was created on the platform for teams from small, medium and large municipalities in Ukraine to be able to improve competences and expertise on re-building; to receive tangible and practical help for rebuilding in local communities; and to connect and build a network of rebuilding actors and exchange best practices to address the most pressing challenges. While the community is only available to representatives of Ukrainian municipalities, at a later stage its webinars will be open to a broader audience.

Date: 03/02/2023

Complementing the existing collection of courses available on the EU Academy, the course 'Energy: First Grid Position in the Race to a Greener Future' demonstrates how energy is woven into the fabric of life and how its production, distribution and consumption greatly affect the environment.

Have you ever wondered how solar panels work, what implication excessive energy consumption has on the environment or if the new power LEDs really make a difference to your electricity bill? The free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Energy: First Grid Position in the Race to a Greener Future” has the answers to these and many other questions, backed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) scientific expertise. Complementing the existing digital collection of scientific material produced by the Joint Research Centre that is available on the EU Academy, this new course demonstrates how energy is woven into the fabric of life and how its production, distribution and consumption greatly affect the environment. The e-course’s modular content encompasses short videos, quizzes and practical activities and showcases proven practices, technologies and policies that are tasked with helping our society transition to a climate-neutral and resilient economy. In the course, users will familiarise themselves with simple, yet powerful, daily actions that are friendlier to the environment, discover the potential of solar energy and identify the benefit of nearly and net zero-energy buildings. As for its sister e-courses, “Energy: First Grid Position in the Race to a Greener Future” stems from a collaboration between the Joint Research Centre and teachers to ensure sound scientific knowledge is reformulated appositely for students, making it an excellent add-on to any school programme covering the topic. Further courses in the series, related to alien invasive species and soils, can be found on the EU Academy. The e-course is available in English, French, Italian, German and Dutch.

Date: 04/10/2022

On 1st July 2022, the beta sign that was part of the EU Academy logo since its soft-launch in November 2020 was removed. This implies that the platform is entering into a new stage of its lifecycle and that it is more robust both technical and content wise.

The EU Academy was made available as an educational publishing platform to European Union’s staff and their trusted partners in November 2020, when its first version was released. Since then, its black and yellow logo was accompanied by a small grey label including the word “beta”. This meant that the platform was still being tested and that, eventually, users could face technical difficulties. On 1st July 2022, after almost 20 months of tireless testing and permanent improvements, the EU Academy abandoned the beta label and became just the EU Academy. Although this might seem a small graphic detail, it is a major step in the lifecycle of the platform since it means that it has gained in solidity, both technical and content wise. The removal of the beta sign from the logo is not a standalone or isolated event. It goes hand in hand with the recent and much awaited onboarding into the EU Academy of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC), who joined us with their Erasmus Plus Online Language Support (OLS) and European Solidarity Corps programmes. With this move, DG EAC became one of the most active users of the EU Academy. Last but not least, again on July 1st, the EU Academy team was delighted to have reached and surpassed the 25,000 enrolments in the courses it makes available for learners Europe- and worldwide. This being a figure reached during the testing phase, we cannot wait to see how many more avid learners will join us as of today!

Date: 04/07/2022

The European Commission has launched a new online course, helping built environment professionals to embrace Level(s), the EU common language for the sustainability performance of buildings.

Level(s) is a free tool to assess, report on and improve the sustainability performance of buildings from design until end of life. Based on circularity principles, Level(s) uses a small number of indicators to measure carbon, materials, water, health, comfort and climate change impacts. Level(s) bridges the ambitions of the European Green Deal and the realities of professional building operations. It supports the Circular Economy Action Plan, the Renovation Wave and the Sustainable Development Goals. Kęstutis Sadauskas, Director for Circular Economy and Green Growth at the European Commission, says: “by using Level(s), building and sustainability professionals, investors and policy makers can help to transform the built environment into a sustainable and circular one.” The course 'Level(s) - Sustainable performance in buildings' is a simple entry point for applying circular economy principles in our built environment. The course explains the principles and concepts and offers advice on how to use them throughout the life cycle of a building project. Level(s) is designed to be used by buildings and sustainability professionals in their working environments. The Level(s) macro-objectives and indicators are also being adopted by policy makers, procurers and public authorities in EU Member States as a means of integrating circularity principles into laws, systems and procurement practices. In addition, investors and landlords can use Level(s) when monitoring sustainability performance across a property portfolio. Level(s) is referenced in EU policies and legislation including the taxonomy for sustainable activities, the proposed revisions to the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and in the revised Energy Efficiency Directive ─ giving the built environment sector all the more reason to embrace Level(s).

Date: 03/02/2022

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre launches the second of a series of courses on biodiversity: "Soils, a burst of life".

A new multi-language e-course on soil organisms enriches and completes the Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on biodiversity. Published on the EU Academy, “Soil, a burst of life: the hidden world beneath our feet” reveals the ins and outs of the huge variety of species that live belowground and explains why their role is essential to all ecosystems on which plants, animals and even humans rely. From earthworms and moles to colourful springtails and tiny bacteria, these mysterious underground residents are responsible for the health of our planet in multiple ways. They influence food production, regulate the climate and even support medicine discovery. Therefore, their protection against threats is paramount. What is soil biodiversity and where can we find it? Why it is at risk and how can it be protected? These are some of the questions this course addresses. Through short videos, quizzes and practical activities, learners will embark onto a fascinating journey of discovery, familiarising with the European Union’s initiatives aimed at soil biodiversity protection. The course “Soil, a burst of life: the hidden world beneath our feet” results from a collaboration between the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and teachers. This approach ensures the learning material is backed by sound scientific knowledge but reformulated for students, making it an excellent add-on to any school programme covering soil biodiversity. The e-course is modular – its content comprises independent units of study that can be combined or taken individually at the learners’ own pace. The course currently features five languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish), with the Dutch and Portuguese versions foreseen in 2022.

Date: 06/12/2021

The European Commission launched an online course on the European Citizens’ Initiative to help Initiative organisers receive in-depth knowledge of the instrument and acquire the skills needed to successfully use it to have a say in EU legislation.

In October 2021, the Secretariat-General of the European Commission launched an online course on the European Citizens’ Initiative, a unique participatory democracy tool that allows European citizens to have a direct say on the formulation of EU policy. The course helps organisers receive in-depth knowledge of the instrument and acquire the skills needed to successfully use it to have a say in EU legislation. The course provides practical guidance for the development of successful European Citizens’ Initiatives, from the idea to the requirements for successful online and offline campaigning, the collection of signatures and data protection requirements, as well as helping organisers and campaigners with advice on building pan-European support networks, fundraising and advocacy. The course, which is open until 10 December 2021 and free to enrol, takes up to 4 hours to complete, and learners can follow it at their own pace. For Adriana Mungiu, Policy Officer in charge of the European Citizens’ Initiative at the European Commission, “while the rules for running a European Citizens’ Initiative have been simplified, being successful still requires specific knowledge and skills. The course supports interested citizens to acquire the basic knowledge needed to start and successfully manage a European Citizens’ Initiative. It provides participants a good foundation to get started and takes them through all the stages of the Initiative lifecycle, focusing on the key skills required at each step. Participants who complete the online course can continue to engage with the ECI community on the ECI Forum, and make use of additional resources available there.” The course was developed by the European Citizen Action Service, a leading European citizen organisation specialising in support of European citizen rights and digital participatory democracy. ECAS implements on behalf of the European Commission the European Citizens’ Initiative Forum and other related activities.

Date: 28/10/2021

In June 2021, the EU Academy course ‘Science for Policy – Maximise your Policy Impact’ surpassed 700 enrolments.

Early in 2021, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre launched a course under the Science for Policy umbrella with the aim of helping researchers to communicate more effectively the results of their work. Developing this competence is key to help researchers to liaise better with policymakers, who might have difficulties in dealing with research outputs that are not presented clearly and concisely. The course provides the skills that researchers need to increase the impact of their research results on policy and society at large. Designed for early to mid-career researchers, the course equips participants with state-of-the-art knowledge and best practice examples from the field. Participants engage in interactive games and self-assessments to gauge their progress. The 60 minutes course can be followed at the learner’s convenience and own pace. The course ‘Science for Policy – Maximise your Policy Impact’ was one of the very first courses published in the EU Academy. Taking as a baseline the participation of researchers in the ‘Evidence for Policy’ summer schools organised by the Joint Research Centre, an objective to reach 300 enrolments within the first 6 months of the course was established. But researchers around Europe have shown an unexpected interest in the course, and within the first 6 months, 700 enrolments have been achieved. For Lene Topp, in charge of the course, “the high interest in the course shows that there is a real interest among researchers to further improve their skills to increase the impact of their research results on policy and society at large. It also proves that the participants appreciate the mixture of state-of-the-art knowledge with best practice examples and interactive games”. Access the course description and enrol here:

Date: 28/06/2021

Developed within the EU-funded project SISCODE, the MOOC ‘Co-creation for policymakers: an introductory course’ is now available on the EU Academy.

“Co-creation” and “co-design” are buzzwords that are frequently used in product and service innovation. But what about in public sector policy making? Getting the right input from all relevant stakeholders, including those most affected by any policy development, is critical to getting policy choices right. So how best to establish meaningful engagement with all stakeholders that is fulfilling and useful to all involved? The MOOC ‘Co-creation for policy makers: an introductory course’ introduces participants to the use of co-creation and design methodologies in policy making, and is especially tailored for professionals working in this field. The course is delivered through five modules developed over five weeks, and guides participants through the main building blocks of co-creation and design. In each module, experts in the field walk participants through the specific aspects of the co-creation process cycle. Among topics explored are the limitations of current policy-making practice, the strong need for innovation to improve efficiency, the benefits of using user-centred methods and service design, the vital importance of problem framing, the role of different stakeholders, power dynamics, prototyping and new forms of action. The idea is for professional policy makers to come away with new tools and new inspirations to turn their policy objectives into sustainable solutions whose benefits and impacts can be evaluated and assessed effectively. The course is subtitled in six languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish. Access the course description and enrol here:

Date: 26/05/2021

Today, marks the launch of a new, improved and more dynamic version of the EU Academy. And there is lots more in store in the months ahead!

In November 2020, the EU Academy ‘soft’ launched to enthusiastic reviews from our publishers and learners. This was an important milestone for the project team. Today, we are happy to announce that we move one step closer to our official launch with the release of a new version of the platform, which we codename beta+. This version has been developed with the generous input and feedback of numerous colleagues, partners and friends of the EU Academy. In this release, several functional and user interface improvements have been made to the homepage, search and explore pages, dashboards, user profile, and the learner in-course and in-event experience, among others. We also launch today the EU Academy news centre from which you are reading this article, so watch this space for further news in the months ahead. Paul Hearn, the EU Academy Business Manager, shared his excitement about this major technical development: “Early feedback from our learners and publishers has been very positive. This release takes us one step closer to our goal of offering our customers a world class platform to learn about EU policy making and its impact”. At the EU Academy we are relentless in our pursuit of excellence and customer satisfaction. If you have ideas on how we can improve your user experience of the platform, or about which content you would like to see published here, please do get in touch! Contact email: eu-academy-info@ec.europa.eu

Date: 17/05/2021

Municipalities and local government actors around the world are key players to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Today the European Commission launches a new course aimed at helping decision-makers to develop effective Climate Action Plans for their municipalities.

Today the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre launches a new online course entitled 'Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy - Cities taking action against climate change'. Frans Timmermans, European Commission Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal and co-chair of the Global Covenant of Mayors, introduces the course as follows: “If you are watching this, you probably consider climate change a serious problem. So do 9 out of 10 Europeans, and many, many people around the world… We need cities, because half of the world lives in them, because they generate 80% of the global GDP”. The new course targets municipal decision-makers, planners, and citizens. It supports them in obtaining the necessary know-how and developing the appropriate skills to create, support, and implement a successful Climate Action Plan that can turn their cities’ climate ambitions into concrete actions. Valentina Palermo, the Project Lead for the course added: “The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy – Cities taking action against climate change course builds on the more than ten years long experience and expertise of the Joint Research Centre in leading capacity building activities for local climate action worldwide. We involved numerous stakeholders and developed multiple learning approaches to ensure an interactive and in-depth journey. The course will reach users in different regions of the world that share the same vision towards a sustainable, decarbonised and resilient future.” The Global Covenant of Mayors is a bottom-up initiative involving more than 10,000 cities and local governments worldwide.

Date: 17/05/2021

About the EU Academy

The EU Academy is an EU-owned online hub containing first-hand knowledge, high quality educational resources and valuable insights, directly produced by the EU institutions, for individuals whose work is related to its sphere of action. The aim is to facilitate their easy and smooth understanding and successful implementation of EU policies in a wide array of fields. The mission of the EU Academy is to provide a modern and engaging learning environment that can foster and improve the quality of the application of knowledge on EU-matters in a simple, smart and inspirational way.