AIdapted has put forward a series of proposals concerning the draft Applicant’s Guide for “Schools for the Future” (Școli pentru viitor), a call funded through Romania’s Education and Employment Programme, with a budget of approximately €52.85 million and grants ranging from €700,000 to €1 million for projects focused on functional literacy and/or STEAM performance and excellence.

The proposals are based on an analysis of the guide, its evaluation grid and the documents underpinning functional literacy interventions. Their main objective is to ensure that the final call provides more appropriate conditions both for projects addressing large groups of students and for schools developing centres of STEAM excellence.

The main changes proposed by AIdapted are:

  • Clarifying the meaning of functional literacy, making it clear that it does not refer exclusively to remedial activities for students experiencing difficulties. For high-performing students, it may also include advanced learning, critical reading, argumentation, source evaluation, AI literacy, media literacy and scientific reasoning.

  • Differentiating between the three types of projects allowed under the guide — literacy-focused projects, STEAM excellence projects and mixed projects. Although their objectives and target groups may differ substantially, they are currently subject to the same funding range and general evaluation grid.

  • Reconsidering the criterion based on the number of participants. The guide requires a minimum of 400 students and progressively awards additional points, up to a maximum of five points for projects exceeding 512 participants. We proposed giving greater weight to the quality and intensity of the intervention rather than relying primarily on the size of the target group.

  • Recognising demonstrated STEAM excellence. We proposed a moderate scoring bonus for schools or other eligible entities able to demonstrate outstanding student results in recognised international STEAM competitions. The current evaluation grid rewards general experience and the achievement of indicators in previous projects, but does not specifically reward demonstrated international performance.

  • Making better use of SmartLabs and infrastructure already financed through Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and other programmes. In addition to purchasing new equipment, we proposed explicitly allowing funding for diagnosing, configuring, upgrading, repairing and recommissioning existing STEAM infrastructure, together with the human resources required for its effective use.

  • Introducing STEAM-specific results for excellence projects, such as intensive training and mentoring programmes, projects and prototypes developed, teams prepared for competitions and measurable progress in STEAM skills, without making the winning of awards a mandatory project outcome.

Overall, we consider “Schools for the Future” a highly valuable funding opportunity, particularly because it can support STEAM training, equipment, mentoring and the participation of students and teachers in national and international competitions. AIdapted’s proposals are not intended to change the philosophy of the call, but to better adapt its funding and evaluation mechanisms to the significant differences between large-scale educational interventions and programmes focused on performance and excellence.

We also welcome the views of schools, teachers, STEAM teams and other potential beneficiaries, either in the comments section or at aidapted.ro@gmail.com.