From small developing islands to small digital islands

November 2025 marked the official start of ARCHIPELAGO — Digital Education Capacity Building for Higher Education Institutions in Small Island Developing States — an Erasmus+ CBHE project coordinated by Harokopio University of Athens. The consortium came together in Athens for the kick-off meeting, hosted at Harokopio University, to align on the work plan, work package responsibilities, and the first year of activities. The consortium spans three oceans: alongside VERDE and HUA from Greece and the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, the project works with the University of the South Pacific (Fiji), the University of the Comoros, and the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Universities in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a distinct set of challenges: geographical isolation, limited digital infrastructure, and high vulnerability to external shocks such as climate change. These constraints limit the adoption of digital education and restrict access to modern learning tools for entire island communities. ARCHIPELAGO's vision is to turn these small developing islands into small digital islands — institutions capable of offering inclusive, high-quality digital learning and administration.

The plan: five objectives, five work packages

• Strengthen the digital skills of students, faculty, and administrative staff.
• Build institutional capacity through digital pedagogy and governance training.
• Develop and implement digital toolkits and e-learning resources tailored to SIDS.
• Create a Digital Knowledge Hub and MOOC platform connecting all partner universities.
• Promote long-term cooperation and sustainability through dissemination and policy recommendations.

VERDE's role

VERDE leads Work Package 2 — Needs Analysis and Toolkit Development — which runs through the project's entire first year, and delivers the Quality Assurance Plan and the digital toolkit for students. The first milestone is already in motion: during the kick-off, the initial questionnaires for the digital toolkits — starting with administrative staff — were presented and discussed with the partners, launching the digital readiness surveys and focus groups that will feed the Needs Assessment Report due in early 2026. By October 2027, ARCHIPELAGO will have delivered three digital toolkits, train-the-trainer workshops and pilot testing at every partner university, a Digital Knowledge Hub with open-access MOOCs, International Cooperation Offices, and policy recommendations for digital transformation in island states.

ARCHIPELAGO is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme of the European Union.