The project aimed to identify and empower key actors linked to the local social fabric of the community so that they could function in an Open Ecosystem in an inclusive and holistic way. We aimed at empower adult learners and relevant stakeholders from civil society to promote cooperation, participation, and democratic citizenship. Through the implementation of the activities we had four main objectives: Support the various stakeholders in identifying, and developing key competencies for cooperation and problem-solving; Improve the skills and competencies of learners and other adult education staff so that they feel supported in promoting an open ecosystem; Enhance learners' democratic dialogue with relevant community stakeholders for an open ecosystem; To help the community and relevant stakeholders to identify local problems, so that they can work together to solve concrete challenges using a participatory approach, and promoting democratic ideals.
In 2021, a consortium of six partners from three European countries envisioned a project called Innovation for Open Ecosystems (I4OE), as a means to answer the questions: how can we support community stakeholders in adult education to engage and collaborate effectively in an open ecosystem? The main aim was to reach out to educators, local policy-makers, business decision-makers, non-governmental organizations, and members of civil society, adult learners and citizens overall, in order to empower them to promote cooperation, participation, and democratic citizenship in an educational context. We argue that small-scale partnerships of the type investigated may guide quality development within education, with relevance to adult education quality and access initiatives. Therefore, I4OE was designed to help the community and relevant stakeholders to develop a framework that could be useful to identify local problems, so that they can work together to solve concrete challenges using a participatory approach, promoting democratic ideals. This is something that is not experienced as much in the adult education context, which we consider to be a need.