11-11-2025 –, Foyer 3
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) facilitated teacher-driven EdTech innovation through its educational innovation program BOOST!. Over a period of five years, this resulted in 125 pilots, with around 30 showing strong potential for wider use. While such initiatives demonstrate creativity and relevance, the challenge lies in moving beyond isolated experiments to scalable EdTech solutions. Teachers often lack the time or desire to lead this process, which raises the question of how the TU/e can take responsibility for scaling innovation.
In this session, TU/e’s scaling managers Karel and Tessa share best practices for scaling EdTech in academic environments. They introduce different scaling pathways - from internal rollout to spin-off creation - and propose a TRL (Technology Readiness Level) model tailored to EdTech developments. The framework emphasizes alignment with Public Values to ensure that innovations contribute to our societal and academic mission. The aim is to inspire a future where higher education institutions take a leading role in shaping EdTech, not merely as consumers, but as active co-creators of EdTech innovation driven by public values.
Educational innovation succeeds only when it meets real needs in the classroom. At Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), we have discovered that empowering teachers to experiment is a powerful way to generate meaningful EdTech solutions. Over the past five years, within the BOOST! program for educational innovation and digitalization, teachers were given the freedom to test their ideas. This led to 125 pilots, of which about 30 showed clear potential for broader application within or even beyond the university.
The challenge, however, is clear: how do you ensure that promising initiatives do not remain isolated experiments? How do you turn a teacher-driven pilot into a robust, scalable EdTech product, especially when teachers themselves rarely have the time or ambition to lead such a process?
At TU/e, we’ve developed a systematic approach to scaling EdTech. In this session, we share our experiences and introduce tools that help institutions bridge the gap between pilot and product:
• Best practices: What works (and what doesn’t) when scaling innovation in academic settings.
• Scaling strategies: Pathways from internal rollouts to spin-offs and startups.
• Technology Readiness Levels for EdTech: A maturity model adapted from Life Cycle Product Management to assess when a pilot is ready to scale.
• Public Values: Ensuring innovations support academic and societal missions, not just efficiency or market logic.
We illustrate this approach with the case of Remote Labs, which allows students to access and control laboratory equipment remotely 24/7. The project demonstrates how our tools can guide the journey from local experiment to institution-wide adoption, and potentially to solutions with impact across the higher education sector.
Our aim is to spark a conversation about sustainable EdTech innovation. We envision a future where educational institutions are not passive consumers of externally developed tools, but active co-creators shaping the next generation of learning technologies.
Innovatie- en opschalingsmanager bij de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Ik ben gepassioneerd over EdTech, innovatie en werk graag aan dynamische en complexe vraagstukken.
Opschalingsmanager EdTech bij de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven