What we have achieved – and how we will move forward together
Open Educational Badges (OEB) emerged from the research and development project MINT.OBadges and was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ) as part of the “Mein Bildungsraum” (My Educational Space) program. The funding period ended at the turn of the year.
The successful completion of “MINT.OBadges” does not mark an end point, but rather a milestone: OEB will continue and will be further developed from 2026 onwards by the partner organization mycelia gGmbH. matrix gGmbH will focus on further application scenarios for OEB, while openSenseLab gGmbH will support the technical development and test application environments in the NGO and higher education sectors. The partners intend to continue working together on the vision behind OEB in the future.
Over the past two years, our hypothesis has been confirmed: the idea of making competence acquisition visible – regardless of when, where, or how learning takes place – is a viable one. Open Education Platforms (OEBs) create the opportunity to make competences visible and usable, as well as to make learning opportunities more accessible. What we have built together now forms the foundation for the next steps.
Our most important milestones
Much has been accomplished during the project: conceptually, culturally, methodologically, and technologically. OEB has evolved into an infrastructure that makes competence acquisition visible in a wide variety of educational and learning environments. Here’s what we’ve achieved:
- Development and iterative enhancement of the OEB platform for creating, awarding, and collecting badges
- Setting up an Open Badge 3.0 server with standards-compliant integration of ESCO as a competency taxonomy
- Integration of competency frameworks (ESCO, Future Skills)
- Establishment of a networking function to promote collective impact
- Integration of three badge types (participation badge, competency badge, and micro degree)
- Connectable learning pathways across various educational stakeholders
- Development of a “backpack” function for learners to create relevance (individual competency profile)
- Badges as a unifying element in real-world laboratories
- Gaining and transferring scientific knowledge
- Strengthening the recognition and acceptance of badges
- Building a committed, open OEB community
- Intensive dialogue between education, politics, business, and research
- Greater equality of opportunity through digital, open, and Clear evidence
- Participation in and presentations at relevant conferences (Forum Education Digitalization, STEM Barcamps, Epic Paris, etc.)
Thus, OEBs today represent an infrastructure that strengthens recognition, permeability and orientation within the education system.
All results remain publicly accessible. Feel free to take a look at our OEB magazine and delve into over two years of project work:
Thank you for over two years of developing together.
We thank all our network partners, the community, our users, sponsors, partners, and everyone who tries out, questions, designs, and develops badges. This collaborative work is crucial to the impact OEB has.
Our future begins now.
Now we look further ahead. The year 2026 marks the start of a new phase in which we will strategically develop OEB further:
- Development of dashboards for data visualization and impact analysis
- Custom PDF certificate layout
- Expansion of ESCO structures
- Support for (educational) institutions in implementation and use
- Expansion of application areas
- Long-term integration of OEB into educational structures
- Use of the developed open-source platform in other projects
Together we are creating an open competence ecosystem in which competences are visible, usable and connectable.
Thinking ahead together
OEB is just getting started. We warmly invite you to actively shape the future – whether as a user, supporter, or partner.
You can find all the information and direct contact details here: