The University of Crete officially launches the Teachers’ Academy for AI Literacy, a new three-year European initiative coordinated by the TALOS AI4SSH Lab, marking a major step in strengthening AI literacy in education across Europe.
Funded under ERASMUS+ EDU 2025 (ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PEX-TEACH-ACA) with a total budget of €1.5 million, the project brings together a consortium of 14 partners from 7 European countries, including universities, teacher education institutions, schools, research centres, and regional education authorities. Over its lifetime, the Academy will train 2,500 primary and secondary education teachers across Europe.

Empowering teachers for responsible AI use in education

The Teachers’ Academy for AI Literacy aims to equip educators with the knowledge, skills, and critical understanding needed to engage meaningfully with Artificial Intelligence in the classroom. Its focus extends beyond technical familiarity with AI tools to include their pedagogical, ethical, social, and humanistic dimensions, ensuring that AI adoption in education is both responsible and inclusive.
As highlighted by Prof. Eleni Katsarou, Coordinator of the project and Professor at the Department of Primary Education, University of Crete, teachers play a dual role: they must understand how AI works as citizens, and at the same time guide students in using these technologies critically and responsibly. The pedagogical dimension is therefore central to the Academy’s design.

A structured, long-term programme

The project officially started on 1 January 2026.

• 2026 is dedicated to the design of educational frameworks, curricula, and training materials, defining the core competencies teachers need to understand AI systems, their possibilities, and their limitations.
• From January 2027, the Academy will roll out hybrid training programmes, primarily online, complemented by selected in-person activities across partner countries.

Rather than focusing on specific tools that rapidly evolve, the Academy emphasizes AI literacy principles: how AI systems function, what they can and cannot do, and how they can be integrated into teaching in a pedagogically sound, ethically informed, and socially sensitive way.

TALOS and the European vision for AI in education

The Teachers’ Academy for AI Literacy builds directly on the work of TALOS, a Horizon Europe–funded programme of the University of Crete dedicated to Artificial Intelligence in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Education constitutes one of TALOS’s core research axes, alongside Classical Studies, Literature, and Archaeology.
Through this new Academy, TALOS extends its impact beyond higher education and research, contributing concretely to European strategies for digital transformation in education, while actively addressing the risk of widening digital divides. Inclusivity, social equity, and sustainability are embedded throughout the programme’s design.
By establishing a transnational network for teacher training and collaboration, the Teachers’ Academy for AI Literacy aspires to become a lasting European hub for professional development, supporting educators as critical evaluators, responsible users, and effective mediators of AI technologies in contemporary classrooms.