The EU STEM Coalition: working smarter to promote STEM education across Europe
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The EU STEM Coalition: working smarter to promote STEM education across Europe
The EU STEM Coalition is an EU-wide network working to build better STEM education in Europe. Its goal is to shape STEM education policies and practices that foster economic growth, opportunity and well-being for all. Beatrice Boots, Director of the Dutch national STEM platform Platform Talent voor Technologie (PTvT) and Chair of the EU STEM Coalition, tells us about the network’s sharing of good practice and the need for a sustainable approach to STEM education.
How and why was the EU STEM Coalition formed?
Founding members of the EU STEM Coalition first met through a European finance project. The project itself was completed after a three-year period, but it gave us an opportunity to meet and learn from each other. I was representing PTvT, the Dutch STEM platform, and the project involved people from similar platforms in Spain, Belgium and Denmark. We all learnt about different policies, how other countries approached their STEM activities and good practices that we could all benefit from. We realised we could continue learning from each other and apply our learning back in our own countries.
The official start of the EU STEM Coalition was at the Hanover Messe (industrial fair) in 2015. Together with the Dutch Ministry of Education and a selection of companies, we started as a grass roots organisation, thinking we could do things better and smarter. We then noticed a lot of other regions and countries were interested in what we were doing; they shared our goals and wanted to connect and participate. That led to the EU STEM Coalition’s main goal: to facilitate best-practice sharing between countries and regions. We started to run bi-annual meetings, which have become our general assemblies, and invited organisations which we thought could benefit from our approach.
Who are the EU STEM Coalition members?
The EU STEM Coalition is a network of national and regional STEM organisations. Our members include dedicated platforms, national ministries, regional authorities, research councils, innovation agencies, university networks, industry partners and many more. (Our members are outlined on our website.)
What work does the EU STEM Coalition do?
Today, the members of the EU STEM Coalition work together with policy makers, education providers and industry to promote new ways of delivering STEM education and finding and sharing evidence-based solutions to the skills mismatch in STEM. From meeting the demand for STEM skilled people to devising ways in which educational institutions, companies and governments can cooperate, we provide a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, best-practice sharing, and direct support for regions and countries that want to be involved.
How does the network function?
When the coalition first formed, our individual members were – and still are – developing curriculum ideas and working directly with educators, so we specifically didn’t want to repeat that as a larger network. For every country and region involved in the EU STEM Coalition, there are different wants and needs. So, our approach was to discuss each other’s best practices and explore what was appropriate for our specific platform, country or region. In this way, we created a multiplier effect; together, we develop faster.
For example, the Dutch Government funds the Dutch national STEM platform, and we already do a lot of work into getting more girls into STEM. We can exchange ideas and approaches with others, but there’s no need for us to repeat that research on a European level. Different countries and regions have different policies and models – this is not a situation where ‘one size fits all’. For example, Germany has a federal government with 17 Bundesländer (federal regions), and each Bundesländer decides its own education policy.
We now have several members who come from the same country, all working towards their own individual goals. However, what unites all EU STEM Coalition members is the concept of the ‘triple helix’ – that the most productive STEM programmes involve education partners, government partners and companies. And we focus on a sustainable, long-term approach because short-term, temporary projects do not have enough impact.
Why is the ‘triple helix’ so important?
A lot of research shows that if you don’t include the organisations that provide STEM careers, you don’t have the holistic approach that impactful STEM education requires. A lot of children do not choose STEM subjects in school because they don’t see the long-term benefits of taking a particular STEM subject. They ask dismissively, “What can I do with math? What can I do with physics?” If they go on to drop those subjects at high school because they don’t appreciate the value of them, they’re not going to find the answers to where those subjects could have taken them. High school students need to know what STEM jobs are available and what career possibilities are offered by STEM subjects, whether they think they are interested or not! Only when they are taught what companies, organisations and specific careers offer can they make the right decision about which subjects to study – specifically, which STEM subjects to study. Industry has a responsibility to show children what a specific STEM field is all about. Especially now, since so many STEM jobs cross over with other sectors, such as healthcare.
So, the triple helix consists of the industry which provides STEM careers, the government which sees the importance of STEM for their national income and welfare, and the schools and teachers who work with students every day. With the triple helix at the forefront of our minds, we aim to do three things: learn from each other, help others and organise ‘task forces’.
What does a ‘task force’ do?
We might be focusing on a specific theme in STEM education, such as a particular underrepresented group in STEM studies. We then ask the people in our network to form a task force to bring in their expertise and to gather information and data related to this theme, collate it and share it with any other members who are also focusing on that particular theme. As each member’s STEM platform or organisation is already working on projects relevant to them and funded by their own national sources, our role is not to repeat the work but to share findings across the network. We are a learning community in an ecosystem with many partners that are important for the maximum result; we learn from each other and from the work that is already being done across Europe.
How do you support STEM organisations who are not yet members of the EU STEM Coalition?
We encourage them to think about the elements of the triple helix. If you are a STEM organisation, how do you involve industry? How do you involve government? How can your approach be more strategic and sustainable? A holistic, long-term approach is needed to show students what future possibilities STEM offers. Touching on the subject once or twice won’t have the impact we want.
A STEM-focused approach needs to be sustained, and we can explain how this is being done in different countries – in Denmark, Belgium, Spain, France or the Netherlands, etc. For example, my approach on the Dutch STEM platform is different to the Danish approach (which is partly due to political context). It’s then up to each organisation to decide which of these possible approaches is the right fit for them.
The EU STEM Coalition has a holistic strategy behind it, and it’s really important that the individual members do what is right for their region because they’re all going to be different. But together, we are having an impact. As a coalition, we have a strong voice and a chance to make change.
What achievements are you proud of as an EU STEM Coalition member?
I am proud that, as a coalition, our members have already worked together for such a long time. Sometimes we have project funding and sometimes we don’t, but the coalition is still here because members value it. Though we are all busy in our own countries, we all find meeting each other and exchanging information worthwhile. We are all motivated by the possibilities we have in our own countries and the desire to help others to do better. That is the power of the network – and something we can all be proud of.
There have also been many tangible impacts. For example, members in Sweden had been doing a lot of STEM-related projects, but there was no government STEM policy. Swedish EU STEM Coalition members spoke with Belgian and Dutch members. The network shared advice about getting industry representatives into schools and getting the government more involved. Some partners in the network went to Sweden several times, holding meetings with the Swedish parliament and university representatives. In December 2024, the Swedish ministry announced its STEM plan, which was published in February 2025. Several members of the EU STEM Coalition helped our Swedish partners move to the next step.
How can individual schools or teachers make use of the EU STEM Coalition?
The EU STEM Coalition is a gateway to find out what’s going on in your own country. We provide an overview of what we are doing as a network and key events and programmes taking place. Teachers can visit our website and search for members in their country to find out more. Some members work across different countries. For instance, one of our partners is Science on Stage, an organisation that brings STEM teachers together from across Europe to learn from and inspire each other.
What does the future hold for the EU STEM Coalition?
We know what to do – how to interest particular groups of young people, for example. We’ve done a lot of research, and we have evidence to support our strategies, so now we need to think about how evidence-based approaches can be done long-term. How do we get companies to make a lasting commitment, for instance?
As a network, we have advocated for more priority on STEM in Europe, so we are very happy about the STEM Education Strategic Plan the EU Commission announced in the summer of 2024. This plan will be executed under the Union of Skills agenda. Exactly how and what roles the member states will have is yet to be seen, but, hopefully, EU STEM Coalition members will be involved – because our expertise means we can contribute to the plan immediately and build on what already exists.
Our three key words are always implementation, implementation and implementation! We don’t have to start new things; we need to implement and sustain the things that we know work. An infrastructure for implementing further STEM programmes is already there in Europe, now we have to grow our movement and get better results together!
Website: stemcoalition.eu
Do you have a question for Beatrice?
Find our how STEM Fellowship is empowering young people across Canada to use computational thinking:
www.futurumcareers.com/unlocking-young-peoples-potential-through-big-data
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