ASSIST AI emerged from a shared understanding among partners that digital transformation has deepened educational inequalities, especially in adult learning. While digital tools have expanded opportunities, many learners particularly from disadvantaged or marginalized backgrounds still face barriers in access, participation, and digital competence. This limits their potential to engage fully in the social and economic life of their communities.
Recognizing this gap, the ASSIST AI project partners sought to design an initiative that promotes inclusivity, accessibility, and social equity in digital education. The project thus addresses the urgent need to make lifelong learning systems more open, flexible, and responsive to diverse learners’ realities in the digital age.
ASSIST-AI is an Erasmus+ KA220 ADU project which aims to create an innovative, inclusive, and collaborative framework for adult education that merges digital transformation with social inclusion. The programme integrates research, training, and innovation to empower both educators and learners in adapting to new digital realities.
The project activities include co-creation workshops, digital literacy training, hybrid learning experiences, and social innovation labs. These efforts culminate in the development of a hybrid learning platform and an Inclusion Toolkit, piloted and shared across European networks to ensure long-term sustainability and impact.
As ASSIST-AI project partners, our overarching aim is to foster inclusive innovation in adult learning, ensuring that digital transformation benefits all, not just the digitally privileged. The project seeks to combine accessibility, innovation, and social responsibility to strengthen both educational equity and digital resilience.
In doing so, the project contributes directly to several UN Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), by promoting fair access to innovation and lifelong learning opportunities.
The project is built on a set of clear, action-oriented objectives that guide its implementation. These objectives aim to translate inclusion and innovation into tangible results at both the institutional and community levels.
Specifically, the project seeks to:
Enhance digital inclusion and accessibility in adult education through innovative tools and practices.
Build educators’ capacities to design and deliver inclusive, hybrid learning experiences.
Promote gender balance, diversity, and active social participation in learning environments.
Strengthen European cooperation for sustainable, inclusive innovation in education.
The project primarily targets adult educators, trainers, and facilitators working in formal and non-formal education sectors. It provides them with tools and competences to design inclusive learning environments that respond to diverse learner needs.
It also directly engages adult learners, especially those from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds, empowering them to co-create inclusive education practices. Secondary target groups include education institutions, NGOs, policy makers, and innovation hubs committed to integrating accessibility and inclusion into their strategies.
To achieve the project objectives, ASSIST-AI is structured around five interconnected Work Packages. Each WP contributes to a different stage of development, from research and design to implementation and long-term sustainability.
Project Management and Quality Assurance ensuring effective coordination, transparency, and ethical compliance.
Research and Needs Analysis identifying inclusion gaps and digital learning needs among target groups.
Capacity Building and Training developing and delivering inclusive digital learning modules.
Innovation and Co-Creation designing the hybrid learning platform and Inclusion Toolkit collaboratively.
Dissemination and Sustainability promoting visibility, policy dialogue, and continuity beyond the project’s lifetime.
Together, these Work Packages form a comprehensive roadmap that transforms inclusion and innovation into lasting impact across European education systems.
The ASSIST-AI consortium brings together six complementary partners from across Europe, combining expertise in education, technology, inclusion, and sustainability. The partnership is coordinated by Aspire Education Group GmbH (Germany), a leader in EdTech innovation and inclusive digital learning. Other partners include Institut Régional d’Insertion Professionnelle et Sociale – IRIPS (France), an adult education institute specializing in social inclusion and disability support; Federación Andaluza de Padres con Hijos con Trastorno del Espectro Autista – Autismo Andalucía (Spain), a nationally recognized NGO supporting people with autism and their families; Uludağ University Technology Transfer Office (Türkiye), a research-oriented SME providing expertise in AI, machine learning, and special education technologies; Sustainable Development Studies Network – SDSN (Belgium), a civil society organization promoting sustainability and inclusive education; and Associação Marco Autismo e Eu – AMAE (Portugal), a community-based NGO working to improve quality of life for autistic individuals and their families.
Each partner contributes unique added value to the project: Aspire coordinates and ensures strategic coherence; IRIPS leads inclusive curriculum development; Autismo Andalucía drives community outreach and impact assessment; Uludağ University provides technical development for AI-powered learning tools; SDSN leads dissemination, sustainability, and policy engagement; and AMAE ensures local implementation and direct involvement of families. Together, this multidisciplinary team bridges education, technology, and social innovation, forming a strong European alliance to promote accessibility, inclusion, and lifelong learning for adults with autism and diverse learning needs.
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