Academic Autonomy in the Digital Age: Key Takeaways from Our Stakeholder Dialogue

Did you join the ‘Academic Autonomy in the Digital Age: A Stakeholder Dialogue’ last Thursday in our Erasmus Data Collaboratory | House of AI?

If not, no worries, we’ve got you covered! Check out some of the key moments and takeaways below.

The dialogue brought together digital strategy experts, opinion makers, and leaders from academia, industry, and the public sector to explore timely and critical questions around academic freedom, data autonomy, and Europe’s digital sovereignty.

Some highlights from the discussion:

Digital sovereignty is about more than the use of technology. Panelists stressed it goes beyond IT infrastructure, encompassing the protection of academic values, institutional autonomy, and the mission of higher education.
Commercial big tech platforms offer advantages such as ease of use and scalability, but universities remain concerned about vendor lock-in and potential loss of control over their data and processes.
Collaboration – through sector-wide procurement, open-source initiatives, or partnerships with European cloud providers – is key for universities to strengthen their negotiating position and develop viable alternatives.
All experts agreed public values, transparency, and academic freedom should guide digital decision-making. European regulations like the Digital Services Act help safeguard these values, though geopolitical tensions remain a concern.
Complete independence from big tech is unrealistic; practical digital sovereignty means balancing the use of big tech with clear rules, transparency, and adopting European alternatives where possible.

A huge thank you to our expert panelists for sharing their insights:

Ilyaz Nasrullah, Digital Strategist & Columnist
Henriette Cramer, Founder at PaperMoon AI, former Director, Algorithmic Impact, Trust & Safety at Spotify
Rob Elsinga, National Technology Officer at Microsoft NL
Wout van Wijngaarden, Chief Information Officer at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Thank you to our moderators: Vanessa Abel (Co-lead for AI & Digital Technology at the Community for Learning & Innovation at EUR and AI Strategy Project Lead at EUR) and Jos van Dongen (Director of the Erasmus Data Collaboratory), who guided the conversations.

And of course, thank you to everyone in the audience who participated in the discussion and helped shape the conversation!