From June 25 to 27, Linz was a meeting point for education stakeholders from all over Europe. Over 130 participants from more than 30 countries came together at the Open Innovation Center of the JKU – for the EdTech Talents Summit 2025, organized by the Linz School of Education and MatheArena.
EdTech Talents Summit 2025 © Andreas Röbl
Our goal was to bring together the most diverse education stakeholders from across Europe – from academia and EdTech companies to teachers and educational publishers. The focus was on open exchange, honest discussions and concrete approaches for collaboration. The summit made clear how valuable it is when different perspectives come together and new impulses as well as networks emerge. Formats like this are exactly what is needed to get education moving.
In review: this was the program of the EdTech Talents Summit 2025
The program was diverse: a top-class panel discussion at the outset brought different perspectives together. Keynotes and workshops – for example on artificial intelligence, gamification, founding culture or impact measurement – provided new impulses and made concrete approaches visible.
Panel discussion: EdTech Synergy - Leveraging Stakeholder Expertise for Educational Transformation
Panel Discussion “EdTech Synergy” © Andreas Röbl
Among the topics addressed were the urgently needed exchange between academia and the market, the role of user feedback in the development process, as well as the fact that a lack of structural financing options in the education sector continues to represent a central challenge for scaling innovative solutions.
On the panel (from left to right): Christoph Kremer (Ars Electronica Center), Miriam Plieninger (EdTech Consultant), Eva-Maria Infanger (MatheArena), Markus Hohenwarter (GeoGebra), Eva Nittmann (EdTech Austria), Janika Leoste (EdTech Talents).
Thomas Chiu:
AI in education
Thomas Chiu © MatheArena
Dr. Thomas Chiu, a leading expert in AI and STEM education, showed how artificial intelligence can be integrated into teaching in a practical way. Using concrete examples, he explained how teachers can use AI meaningfully to prepare students for a technology-shaped future.
Miriam Plieninger: Measuring the Value of Educational Products
Miriam Plieninger © MatheArena
EdTech consultant Miriam Plieninger has many years of experience in the education and EdTech industry, including in leading positions at scoyo and Cornelsen. In her talk, she showed what matters when you want to measure the actual value of educational products.
Yavuz Samur:
Game-changing education
Yavuz Samur © MatheArena
Dr. Yavuz Samur, professor of Educational Technology, invited the audience in his interactive workshop to play themselves – and thereby to experience directly how social interaction and motivation interlock and thus form an essential foundation for successful and sustainable learning.
From Idea to Impact – Cultivating the Mindset for SpinOffs
From Idea to Impact © MatheArena
In this practice-oriented workshop, (from left to right) Olivera Gracanin (Business Upper Austria), Thomas Mitterlehner (Moldsonics), Markus Manz (SCCH), Birgit Wimmer (JKU) and Clemens Zillner (tech2b) discussed how marketable start-ups can emerge from scientific ideas. The focus was on entrepreneurial thinking, typical hurdles in the founding process, and strategies for generating real impact from research.
Upscaling EdTech Start-ups and Initiatives
Networking © Andreas Röbl
At “Upscaling EdTech Start-ups and Initiatives”, the most diverse perspectives came together: leading EdTech companies engaged in conversation with education stakeholders from practice, research and administration. The interactive session laid the foundation for new collaborations and showed how quickly concrete approaches for shared solutions can emerge in dialogue.
What many participants emphasized: the openness, the practical relevance and the shared goal of finding meaningful solutions made the event special. For us, too, it was clear: the summit not only conveyed knowledge but also created new contacts, concrete project ideas and motivation. Educational innovation begins with encounter – and that is exactly what this summit made possible.
MatheArena & EdTech Talents – a European education project with impact
EdTech Talents is an international project supported by the EU funding program Horizon Europe. The aim of the project is to specifically promote innovations in education through collaboration between universities, EdTech companies, civil society and policymakers. To this end, partners from several European countries are working on how digital education offerings can be developed, tested and implemented over the long term.
Horizon Europe is the EU’s largest research and innovation program. It supports projects that actively address societal challenges such as educational equity, digitalization and future skills – with clear quality standards and scientific support.
Panel Discussion © Andreas Röbl
Dr. Janika Leoste, Principal Investigator of the EdTech Talents project
Opening Words © Andreas Röbl
Eva-Maria Infanger (MatheArena), Zsolt Lavicza and Filiz Mumcu (EdTech Talents) opened the summit and warmly welcomed the international guests.
MatheArena is one of three non-academic partners in the project consortium – together with Lurtis (Spain) and BLINC (Germany). Our role: we contribute practical know-how from the EdTech field, participate in pilots, advise on implementation, and help advance the exchange between research and application.
What impact do we have with this?
Teachers gain access to practical, scientifically supported learning solutions. Parents and schools gain trust in responsibly developed digital solutions. And on a societal level, too, it becomes clear: educational approaches with European networking and sustainable impact are emerging here.
MatheArena thus stands not only for math learning apps, but for the active shaping of future-proof education in Europe.
Photos: Andreas Röbl, MatheArena