OKWT Professors’ Platform Receives New Funding to Scale Up Impact Across Education

The Professors’ Platform Education at the Intersection of Arts, Science and Technology (OKWT) has once again received funding from Regieorgaan SIA. In this fourth trajectory, the platform will focus on scaling up and increasing impact, not only within educational practice, but also at the level of policy and governance.

OKWT develops and researches future-oriented education in which different knowledge domains come together, with art acting as a catalyst for innovation and transformation. In previous trajectories, the platform established a strong foundation for interdisciplinary education in primary, secondary, special and vocational education. This new phase extends that approach into higher education, creating a continuous learning line from primary education through to university level.

Within the new project, the OKWT professors will work on strategic input for educational policymakers. These policy recommendations will be developed around three urgent societal themes identified through the recent OKWT Research Agenda (2025) and in dialogue with schools, professional programmes and practitioners.

The themes address major challenges for future-oriented education and call for inter- and transdisciplinary approaches that benefit from the activating role of the arts:

Living in the Digital Domain

How can education prepare students for a society in which digital citizenship, technology and creativity are inseparably connected?

Care and Mental Wellbeing

How can education contribute to resilience and wellbeing by connecting care, technology and the arts?

Art and Creative Production in Relation to Artificial Intelligence

What is the role of art, journalism and creativity in the age of artificial intelligence, and how can this be shaped within education and professional practice?

To explore these themes, OKWT will organise three interdisciplinary focus sessions involving educational professionals, policymakers, administrators, researchers, artists and students. The outcomes will be translated into three accessible policy zines containing design principles and recommendations for curriculum development and educational policy.

The platform brings together professors from institutions across the Netherlands, including CARADT professor Michel van Dartel, professor of Situated Art and Design at Avans University of Applied Sciences.

The coordination of the platform is carried out by CASE (Centre for Arts & Sciences Education).

The renewed funding marks an important next step in strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration between arts, science, technology and education, while increasing the societal impact of research and educational innovation.

Professors in the Platform

• Melissa Bremmer and Emiel Heijnen (Professors of Arts Education, Amsterdam University of the Arts)
• Monique Leygraaf (Professor of Equal Opportunities, iPabo University of Applied Sciences)
• Florian Cramer (Artistic Research & Emerging Forms of Cultural Production, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences / Willem de Kooning Academy)
• Nardie Fanchamps (Professor of Education in Connection, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences / de Nieuwste Pabo)
• Nick Degens (Professorate of (Dis)Connected Technology & Creativity, Utrecht University of the Arts)
• Michel van Dartel (Professor of Situated Art and Design, Avans University of Applied Sciences)
• Bert Bredeweg (Professor of Didactics of the Beta Sciences, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)
• Symen van der Zee (Professor of Innovative Education, Saxion University of Applied Sciences)
• Daniëlle Arets (Professor of Journalism and Responsible Innovation, Fontys University of Applied Sciences)
• Falk Hübner (Professor of Artistic Connective Practices, Fontys University of Applied Sciences)

Network Partners

Marga Douma-Alta, professorship Art & Mind and Monique Pijs, professorship Numeracy (ROC of Amsterdam and Flevoland); Rianne van den Berghe, Associate Professor Education and (Learning) Technology (iPabo); Ilse van Lieshout-Smeets, teacher-researcher (de Nieuwste Pabo); Moniek Warmer, Arts & Culture section primary/secondary education and Jos Tolboom, Mathematics, Informatics and Digital Literacy section secondary education (SLO).