The EU released in March 2025 “A STEM education strategic plan: skills for competitiveness and innovation”, which provides direction and specific measures to advance STEM education and training in the EU. It outlines three key objectives, summarized in the framework “lead, level up, lift barriers”. The strategic plan is analysed through the lenses of the STEAM approach, in which Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics learning is integrated with the Arts for an interdisciplinary learning experience aligned with societal grand challenges and industry needs.

Scientific research and pilot projects provide evidence of the benefits of the STEAM approach and integrated STEM: both approaches are based on the integrated teaching of the disciplines, project-based learning, real-world applications and collaborative learning. The STEAM paradigm focuses specifically on creativity and the arts, which provide the benefits of building a more versatile knowledge and skill set, fostering creative thinking, and being closer to real-world problems. Successful innovation often happens at the intersection of art and science. STEAM approaches are theorized to be more inclusive than STEM as they are perceived as more attractive to female students and learners from low socio-economic status. STEAM approaches are deployed at all education levels, with recent experimentations including open schooling and living labs to promote real-world learning and transdisciplinary education. With the open schooling approach, schools are open to the local community, involving parents, local businesses, organizations, and artists to solve real challenges that are typically interdisciplinary.

The EU-funded project Road-steamer is focused on STEAM education at the secondary and tertiary levels and aimed at identifying research and policy gaps on STEAM in Europe for providing recommendations. In addition to an analysis of the literature and of the current policies on STEM and STEAM, a series of 12 foresight co-design workshops have been conducted with stakeholders, including industry players, special education students, parents, teachers, education experts, civic organizations, etc. The results provide evidence of several needs currently uncovered by traditional education, such as skills development, training on topics in high demand by employers, career design, teachers' training and resources in multiple EU languages, and a holistic curriculum.

The EU STEM education strategic plan is analysed through the lenses of STEAM and, in particular, the findings of the STEAM co-design activities to outline overlaps and gaps. The most prominent gaps and opportunities for future actions are to be found in the lack/weak focus on:
(1) the arts, design and creativity, and transdisciplinary approaches;
(2) learners with disabilities and diverse abilities or barriers (i.e., language, skills);
(3) career exploration and design (cradle to grave); and
(4) the potential of a variety of hybrid, blended approaches for secondary and tertiary education.

Education research, in particular on STEM, is informed by the research through codesign results of the co-design workshops. As the EU STEM education strategic plan provides direction for education implementation and research funding, a critical evaluation of the plan compared to teachers’, learners’ and stakeholders’ needs can provide further directions for the enactment of the plan, which will affect STEM education in Europe.

Keywords: STEM, STEAM, interdisciplianary education, research on education, research through co-design.