EMREX part of the Once-Only Technical System Projectathon
During the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) Projectathon in November 2024 the EMREX community was present. There was a session focused on the integration of EMREX with the OOTS using a technical bridge, highlighting its potential for improving cross-border educational data exchange. The discussion emphasized leveraging existing systems, addressing challenges, and exploring synergies with other EU initiatives.
EMREX team (from the left Jan-Joost Norder, Tor Fridell) at the Projectathon, November 2024
The session focused on implementing several OOTS procedures that require education data and on leveraging and integrating the existing EMREX system to facilitate cross-border education data exchange, promote the OOTS platform, and address key challenges. Participants reviewed the progress made in the development and deployment of the OOTS–EMREX bridge and looked forward to its future use. They also discussed synergies with other ongoing and future relevant developments such as the EUDI Wallet and Erasmus Without Paper (EWP). The session included participants from competent authorities using EMREX, the national OOTS teams of several Member States, other relevant competent authorities as well as participants from DG GROW, DG EMPL, DG EAC and DG DIGIT. In the November 2024 Projectathon, Rinis again provided hosting of the bridge for the EMREX community. The code was updated and documented, considering requirements from EMREX. It contained functional extensions (such as error handling, formats) and leveraged new functionality for bridges in the EC Common Services. It executed successful exchanges with 2 Evidence Providers and several Evidence Requesters and fully conforms to the OOTS Technical Design Documents. The bridge functions as a translator, adapting data formats (e.g., ELMO to ELM), ensuring secure identity verification, and supporting data exchange in formats like PDFs. This approach prioritizes efficiency and avoids unnecessary duplication of systems.
Launch of the Interoperability Framework
European Higher Education Interoperability Framework (HEIF) is a European Commission initiative developed by the higher education interoperability working group and the consortium under the European Digital Education Hub (EDEH). The HEIF supports European University alliances and higher education institutions in enhancing the interoperability of European higher education ecosystems to foster collaboration, efficiency, and innovation. In January the Framework was launched, after a long development period where experts from Europe have taken part, including people from the EMREX sphere.
– During the launch period there were sessions to explore the implementation guidelines of the European Higher Education Interoperability Framework;
– showcase the variety of tools made available to the European University alliances and higher education institutions;
– introduce the practical application of the implementation guidelines;
– explore the governance model proposal of the European higher education interoperability and its role in creating the harmonised and interoperable European higher education ecosystem that fosters collaboration, efficiency and innovation.
Progress report from the Large Scale Pilot DC4EU
Some of the members of the EMREX community have taken part in the EU-funded Large-scale pilot DC4EU (https://www.dc4eu.eu). The goal is to connect the EMREX Network to the EUDI wallet. Specifically the plan is to develop bridge functionality. The participation is expected to add value both to the EMREX community and other organizations handling or in need of educational data. The aim of the project is to create a working pilot installation of a digital wallet that conforms to the EUDI wallet framework. The EMREXIANS participate in two tasks, one is to create an EMREX gateway to the wallet and the other is to create conversion possibilities between the two data formats, ELMO and ELM. This way the wallet can transport educational data between any parties, not limited to higher education institutions. The project is due to deliver later this year and so far both tasks, converter and gateway are well under way of completion. The converter can do the conversion both ways, from ELMO to ELM and also from ELM to ELMO. We expect to run the piloting activities this spring.
EMREX Executive Committee’s meeting in Warsaw 7-8 January 2025
EMREX Executive Committee had its annual hybrid meeting in Warsaw 7-8 January 2025. Executive Committee discussed on multiple actual topics related to the service, ELMO, SDG-OOTS, EUDI Wallets, governance and dissemination of the service and ELMO, upcoming events (fairs and meetings with employers) etc. At the final of the meeting, all members of the Executive Committee told actual news from each member country. It was great to hear that in 2024 the number of exchanges had increased significantly in Norway, the Netherlands and in Finland, comparing to previous year. Thank you again for all EMREX Executive Committee’s members for active participation on a meeting, and especially thanks to Janina and University of Warsaw for organizing the event.
Hybrid meeting of the EMREX Ececutive Committee in Warsaw, January 2025
EMREX updated strategy
In 2022 the EMREX Executive Committee reated a new mission and strategic goals to foster and empower the network. After three years it was time to review the progress made and the status.
The benefit of EMREX, with its electronic data exchange solution, is to empower individuals to control their own student data and exchange throughout lifespan, across borders for various purposes in a GDPR-compliant way. Regarding other purposes EMREX is used by different actors that contribute to digitalization, for the benefit of the data owner. It is constructed to empower individuals to control their own student data and exchange throughout lifespan, across borders for various purposes in a GDPR-compliant way.
At the last EMREX EC meeting in Warsaw, it was decided to renew the current mission and update the strategic goals. The new mission is more in line with the progress that’s being made in some EMREX countries where the growth in exchanges is driven by job recruitment and fraud prevention. The EMREX executive committee (EC) acknowledges these facts which resulted in the following:
EMREX wants to lead the way in the sharing of learner outcomes in a secure and reliable way to enhance the free movement of citizens worldwide to study and work where they want. Using EMREX will greatly improve the exchange of digital data, prevent fraud and will save time and costs in administrative processes for organizations
Furthermore, the EC agreed that it wants to further strengthen the collaboration – with focus on governance – between the current active full members. The plan is to do so by signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the Full members organizations. The EC aims to do so by the next annual assembly which will be hosted around 14-15 of May 2025. The exact date will follow soon. Next to this the EMREX EC also agreed on goals to increase membership and exchanges what all in all will result in a sustainable and hopeful EMREX future. The details of the new mission and strategic goals will be published on the website soon.
ELMO2.1 published
We are pleased to announce that ELMO Version 2.1 now has been released. The main update is to provide additional support for the education scenarios for Single Digital Gateway and Once Only Technical System:
• Support for Enrolment. • Adding a Duration-element in addition to the existing date period of education. • Documentation on how to add NQF level in addition to EQF.
Other updates are
• Change in the specification of country, enable us to use the complete ISO 3166 country list. • New types of attachments. • New document type: Certificate. • Temporarily reintroduce learner.bday to ease the transition to ELMO2.x. • More documentation of Result of recognition introduced with ELMO 2.0 and adding an Identifier for Result of recognition. • A new technical status element for data delivered.
More details on this release can be found here: https://github.com/emrex-eu/elmoschemas/releases.
Save the date – annual assembly
The annual assembly for the EMREX user Group will take place on May 13. It will be a hybrid meeting on location in Tartu, Estonia and online. More information will follow.
Get in touch
EMREX portal is available at emrex.eu. To contact us write to info@emrex.eu. To get support write to support@emrex.eu.