EdTech Marketplace

For educational innovation, it is important that educational institutions can collaborate with innovative EdTech providers in a low-threshold way. But those two parties often still find it difficult to find each other under the current complex procurement rules.

The education sector also sees that the direction of digital innovation is still too often determined by large technology companies. If the education sector wants to keep more of a grip on the digital landscape and better safeguard public values, it is time for a different approach.

That is why the Npuls EdTech pilothub, in collaboration with SURF, has started developing the EdTech Marketplace. That is a place where educational institutions can easily put out assignments for EdTech companies. In this way, we can explore new forms of cooperation in small, instructive steps, experiment flexibly with innovative solutions and take more control over how technology contributes to better and fairer education.

DAS (Dynamic Purchasing System) is a secure and proven system for flexible European procurement. It is specifically designed to enable low-threshold and lawful procurement. In the case of the EdTech Marketplace, that cooperation takes place in areas such as digital education tools and innovative EdTech solutions.

Unlike traditional tenders, the DAS the EdTech Marketplace does not focus specifically on one contract or topic, but on the overarching domain 'EdTech'. Providers with a suitable offer can register in a low-threshold manner. The marketplace continuously fills up with a wide range of providers and offers, making it relatively simple for institutions to place a request for proposal. All authorised providers can then respond. Both providers and institutions can join the marketplace on an ongoing basis. This creates a marketplace that moves with developments, offers room for experimentation, innovation and cooperation - without the lengthy, complex procedures of regular tenders.

Within this DAS, we are also experimenting with additional room for innovation. For instance, it is not only possible to buy standard products (the so-called Commercial Off The Shelf solutions), but also custom-made products or other forms of cooperation.

On the requesting side, these are secondary schools, colleges and universities. And in terms of providers, they are any organisation that develops educational technology and meets the eligibility criteria of the EdTech Marketplace.

In fact, the possibilities are endless, but these are some examples of EdTech solutions that are much sought after:

• Extensions of core/shell functionalities for existing learning systems.
• Intelligent technologies for personalised learning pathways.
• Platforms for efficient and fair evaluation of student work.
• Digital support for skill development such as academic writing.
• Systems that link students to current societal challenges.
• Applications for testing and embedding knowledge.
• Tools that seamlessly integrate online and physical education.
• Systems that analyse learning data for educational improvement.
• Interactive game elements that enrich learning processes.

The EdTech market is growing at lightning speed - mainly thanks to large, often American tech companies. They not only provide learning platforms, but also collect huge amounts of (meta)data through these systems. This data is subject to US legislation, putting pressure on the privacy of students and teachers. In addition, algorithms can influence the learning process unnoticed. Students and lecturers often have no insight into this.

This increasing dependence on foreign parties and non-transparent systems is risky. Educational institutions thus lose control over the technology they use, the data they and their students generate and how public funds are spent. This puts the public values for education - autonomy, justice and humanity - as expressed by SURF and Kennisnet in the values guide, under pressure.

The EdTech Marketplace was set up as an alternative. Within this Dynamic Acquisition System (DAS), clear ground rules apply, such as:

• Storage of data within the European Economic Area.
• Open standards to avoid dependence on one provider.
• Transparency about algorithms, ownership and price agreements.
• Accessibility and ethics as basic conditions.