Badge Europe aims to create a widely adapted and technically innovative Conceptual Model and Toolkit for the implementation of Digital Badges as a growth-focused training incentive across Europe. It is a Strategic Partnership between the Folkeuniversitetet (Public University) in Norway, which delivers high-quality, affordable classes to a large population of adult learners; the Stichting Bloom (Bloom Foundation) in the Netherlands, an organization focused on learning among vulnerable groups of society, including those distanced from the labour market and migrant communities; and relevantive GmbH in Berlin, Germany, an agency specializing in UX consulting that has focused on online skill-sharing and non-linear learning paths. The project will span 30 months, and will be focused around an iterative research and development process involving over 100 learners, 30 employers and 30 education providers from the three participating countries.Digital Badges are an online mechanism for making visible and validating a wide range of skills and learning. The purpose of Digital Badges is to overcome two main obstacles to development in the workforce and social equity: to incentivize learning and training across a maximum range of the populace, and to leverage competencies latent in jobseekers and the active workforce, focusing on those competencies that are vital to the modern economy but which are not easily validated by existing qualifications. As such, Digital Badges are a unique instrument with an enormous potential to transform the lives and careers of individuals, the impact of educational organisations, the success of public policy, and the strength of the European market and society. Of special importance to the project is the ability of Digital Badges to impact the professional lives of those who have not been integrated into existing educational frameworks, have not followed traditional career paths, or have not received formal qualifications. This may include individuals who exit school without a degree, former workers who have been disengaged from the labour market, adult learners with non-linear career or training paths, socially and economically vulnerable adults, and asylum seekers and refugees.By offering these populations a technologically enabled path toward motivated learning and transparent validation, Digital Badges will encourage social entrepreneurship across Europe, creating new pathways of incentive and qualification that will be well matched to develop the workforce for the rapidly evolving European labour market. However, to ensure the effectiveness of Digital Badges, comprehensive research and innovative solutions are required.Although disparate initiatives around Digital Badges already exist in Europe, there has been no comprehensive, research-based, fully inclusive initiative to create wide implementation based on the needs of all stakeholders; this project will undertake to be that initiative. The necessary culmination of this project will therefore be the Digital Badge Toolkit: a set of relevant, practical, and immediately actionable documents designed for stakeholders to begin taking advantage of Digital Badges for their individual and organizational goals. To create a Toolkit that is maximally effective across Europe, the project team will: 1) research the Digital Badge landscape in Europe and globally; 2) run consultation sessions with stakeholders across multiple European nations, including learners, employers, educational organizations, and policy makers; 3) lead innovation workshops that will leverage the team’s combined educational, technological, design, and management experience to conceive of powerful user-focused solutions; and 4) develop and compose the documents that will comprise the Digital Badge Toolkit. The work team will consist of ten lead researchers from the three participating organizations: the Folkeuniversitetet (NO), Stichting Bloom (NL) and relevantive (DE).The team brings important and varied approaches to integrating a wide range of adult learners into social and work life, and their different countries' contexts will provide critical insight into the research landscape, helping to ensure the development of a conceptual model that applies cross-nationally.