Niels Kerssens is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University. His research focuses on digital autonomy in European public education, with particular attention to how schools, teachers, and public-sector organizations can (re)claim agency in an era of Big Tech and AI.

His NWO Vidi project Reclaiming the Digital Classroom: Securing Public Value in European Education in the Era of Big Tech and AI (RECLaiM-EDU, 2026–2031) investigates Digital Autonomy Innovators (DAIs)—pioneering European initiatives that seek to restore democratic control over digital technologies in primary and secondary education. Building on these empirical cases, RECLaiM-EDU reconceptualizes digital autonomy as a distinctly European strategy for safeguarding public value amid rapid digitalization and growing global technological dependencies. This conceptual and empirical foundation informs the co-creation of the Digital Autonomy Framework for European Public Education (DAF-EU): a strategic roadmap and call to action designed to promote public-interest, bottom-up innovation across Europe and support schools in reclaiming agency over their digital classrooms.

Kerssens’ previous NWO Veni project Platformization of Primary Education: Public Values at Risk (2021–2024) examined how Big Tech platforms reshape public education and challenge fundamental public values. At Utrecht University, he serves as academic lead of the Special Interest Group Platformisation of Education, part of the Governing the Digital Society platform directed by Prof. José van Dijck. This interdisciplinary forum brings together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to critically reflect on platform power, public values, and digital autonomy in education.