Over recent decades a distinctive European Union (EU) agenda has developed related to the complex issues of improving the attractiveness of the teaching profession and the quality of teacher education and professional development (Sorensen et al. 2021; Symeonidis, 2021). Since the EU’s jurisdiction is limited in education, EU governance relies on soft modes of enhancing cooperation that seeks to mobilise and encourage national and sub-national actors to experiment when addressing education policy issues (Graf & Marques, 2022; Héritier & Rhodes, 2011). In this respect, the recent policy initiative of the Erasmus+ Teacher Academies provides an intriguing case for policy analysis. A flagship initiative forming part of the current EU strategy to create a European Education Area, these teacher academies are associated with the Europeanisation of teacher education and training, an area of education which remains particularly embedded in the governance logics of member states (Menter, 2022). This paper has the objective to analyse and discuss the extent to which the Erasmus+ Teacher Academies represent a case of experimentalist governance (Eckert & Börzel, 2012; Sabel & Zeitlin, 2012), and the ways in which the policy initiative potentially contributes to Europeanisation (Lange & Alexiadou, 2007; Radaelli, 2008). Our entry point is based on the observations that the teacher academies involve the creation and financial support of networks of teacher education and training providers in order to modernise teacher training with a view to green and digital skills, inclusion, and expanding international mobility. Network partners are meant to work together in innovative ways, whereas the European Commission appears to represent a hub monitoring and distributing knowledge and experiences gained in the projects. Our analysis involves tracing the key ideas, actors and mechanisms driving the policy initiative, the roles of project partners, and the workings and outcomes of their interaction, including the roles and influence of the European Commission as a hub orchestrating the academy networks. We draw on comprehensive desk research, review of the academic literature on experimentalist governance, and an empirical inquiry of key policy documents and interviews with professionals with first-hand knowledge about the development of the policy initiative so far. The paper contributes to the empirical study of this recent EU policy initiative as well as the theoretical discussion around modes of experimentalist governance in a particular area of higher education and skills development that is deemed central for the well-being of education systems and societies overall.

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