On 15-16 October 2026, the LINEup consortium gathered in Lisbon for its fifth face-to-face meeting, hosted by EduQA and the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD).

Over two days of discussion, the 14 partners from six countries reviewed the work completed so far, advanced the project’s main research outputs, and began to define the legacy LINEup  will leave behind as it enters its final months.

Key Highlights from the Meeting

First day: from national evidence to a European picture

Most of the first day was devoted to the LINEup book, Educational Inequality in Europe: A Longitudinal and Comparative Perspective, which will be published by Edward Elgar. With all national chapters now drafted and reviewed, authors are finalising their revisions while partners work to bring the individual contributions together into a coherent volume, combining country-specific perspectives with a shared analytical framework..

Partners then discussed the preliminary results of the cross-country chapter, which examines how achievement gaps linked to gender, migration background and social origin evolve throughout students’ school careers in seven European contexts. The emerging picture suggests that inequalities appear early and tend to persist but their trajectories differ across the countries, subjects and assessment measures. The discussion also considered how features of education systems may help explain these differences, highlighting the importance of examining  within their national contexts..

Second day: listening to schools

The second day brought the voices of schools back to the centre of the conversation, as partners discussed the outcomes of the validation workshop held on October 9 with schools involved in the qualitative research across six countries.

Schools broadly recognised their experiences in the findings, particularly the importance of relationships, inclusion, well-being and student voice. They also stressed that effective practices require stable staff, time and resources to be sustained, while  highlighting growing concerns about students’ well-being and the need to support teachers in responding to these challenges..

These reflections will inform the cross-country report on the qualitative research, while the six national factsheets will be published at the end of October drawing on the National Case Studies Report released in July 2026.

Looking ahead: a legacy beyond the project

The final session focused on the legacy LINEup will leave behind. The LINEup Schools Network now connects 87 schools across seven countries, and its next capacity-building activity will be a blended course on Erasmus+ partnerships in November. Partners also began outlining the project sustainability plan, designed to keep resources such as the LINEup Education Data Explorer and the Schools Network open, active and useful after the project ends, while sustaining the collaboration developed over three years of joint work. The consortium also discussed the concept for a final video that will tell the LINEup story through the voices of those involved.

Understanding Educational Inequalities through Longitudinal Data

On the afternoon of October 16, the consortium welcomed researchers, policymakers and representatives of public institutions to the public seminar “Understanding Educational Inequalities through Longitudinal Data: Insights from the LINEup Project”.

The seminar presented LINEup’s main outputs, including the mapping of European longitudinal datasets, the Education Data Explorer and the feasibility study, followed by three national case studies from Greece, Portugal and Spain. Together, the presentations showed how longitudinal evidence can illuminate educational inequalities within national contexts while revealing challenges shared across Europe. Want to discover what the three national cases revealed? Stay tuned for our forthcoming article dedicated to the seminar!

Next stop: Paris

The conversation will continue at the LINEup Final Conference, “From Longitudinal Evidence to Educational Action”, on January 28, 2027, at Campus Condorcet in Paris, hosted by INED. Participation is free, but registration is required by December 11, 2026: Register for the LINEup Final Conference

Stay connected!

As the project approaches its conclusion, the ideas shared in Lisbon will help shape LINEup’s final steps. Stay tuned for further updates and subscribe to the LINEup newsletter, whose next issue will be published on October 26.

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