Effective STEM/STEAM practices are frequently overlooked following their implementation or upon the conclusion of funded projects. Within the framework of the Road-STEAM project, Ecsite is supporting STE(A)M practitioners engaged in developing such initiatives, by creating a concise guide on sustaining STEAM practices. This guide emphasises strategies for exploitation and sustainability through targeted activities and innovative approaches.

Sustainability ensures the long-term maintenance and impact of a project’s outcomes beyond its duration, often without external funding, by integrating tools and methods into existing systems, establishing long-term partnerships, institutionalising results, and maintaining open-access platforms. In contrast, exploitation focuses on the use and application of a project’s results during or immediately after its life to generate economic, social, or policy impact. It involves making outputs accessible to stakeholders such as researchers, schools, industry, and policymakers through activities like knowledge transfer, policy influence, educational programs, and promoting results to relevant sectors. While sustainability emphasises ongoing relevance and value, exploitation prioritises immediate application and influence. However, some activities, such as embedding tools into educational curricula, contribute to both by combining short-term application with long-term integration.

The Road-STEAMer project is developing a STE(A)M Roadmap for Science Education in Horizon Europe and in educational policy across the continent.