Eurydice is an institutional network that collects, updates, analyses and disseminates information on the policies, structure and organisation of the European education systems.

Founded in 1980 on the initiative of the European Commission, the network consists of a central unit based in Brussels at the Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), as well as 4o national units operating in 27 member states of the European Union, in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. Since 1985, the Italian National Unit has been based at INDIRE. 

Eurydice addresses those responsible for educational policies in Europe, at national, regional and local levels, with the aim of increasing cooperation in the education sector and supporting decision-making processes, while improving knowledge of systems and policies. Above all, the network’s task is to support the European Commission in actions taken in the field of education along with other international organisations, in particular, the Council of Europe, OECD and UNESCO. However, in addition, teachers and educational researchers, teacher training institutes and everyone professionally involved in initiatives of mobility and exchange with other countries, can find in Eurydice a worthwhile source of information.

Eurydice offers detailed, regularly updated descriptions of the structure and organisation of education systems at all levels; produces comparative thematic studies in the fields of education and training and reports on data from the education sector (school and academic calendars, teachers’ salaries, subject timetables, etc.).

Since 1995, the network has been part of the Socrates Programme, and since 2007, of the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP). Since 2014, it has been part of Erasmus+, the European Union programme for education, training, youth and sport.

The Italian Eurydice Unit, based at INDIRE, implements, updates and looks after the dissemination of information on the Italian education system. 

It collects and checks, at the national level, information and documentation on topics dealt with at the European level, and provides answers to policy-makers on processes of reforms and innovation in other education systems in Europe, in order to assist with national policy decisions.

It supports INDIRE’s research activities by means of reports and analysis on the main topics relating to the European education and training systems, and investigates the most interesting issues of the national debate in its own series of publications: I Quaderni di Eurydice Italia.