Latvia has opened a European Space Education Resource Office, known as ESERO Latvia, at the University of Latvia in Riga. The office was inaugurated on 21 October and places Latvia in a network of 23 national education offices across European Space Agency Member States and Associate Members. The initiative uses space-related themes to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics, widely known as STEM.
A national partnership in Riga
ESERO Latvia will be delivered by the University of Latvia alongside Ventspils University of Applied Sciences and the Cēsis Space Education Centre. The three organisations bring together experience in space, technology and STEM education. Their partnership is intended to provide activities across school-based and non-formal learning settings, rather than treating space education as a stand-alone subject.
The office is intended to serve children and young people from early childhood through to secondary education. Its planned activities will also extend to families, teachers and other educators. That wider audience reflects the programme’s focus on the people who support learning as well as on pupils themselves. It also gives schools and other education settings a route to use the material in different contexts.
Space as a route into STEM learning
The programme will offer professional-development opportunities for teachers and educators, teaching and learning resources, and interdisciplinary project-based activities. In the wider European network, national offices adapt space-themed resources and training to national curricula and make them available in national languages. The approach is designed to connect classroom subjects with examples from space exploration and space programmes.
For pupils, the emphasis is on developing STEM knowledge, skills and competences through practical and collaborative learning. Activities can bring together science, mathematics, technology and engineering, while also encouraging curiosity about how those subjects are used beyond the classroom. The programme also aims to help young people explore further study and career options in STEM and the space sector.
Funding and oversight
ESERO Latvia is co-funded and jointly steered by the European Space Agency and Latvia’s Ministry of Education and Science. No local funding figure was announced with the launch. The shared oversight means the programme has both an international connection and a national education role, while the local partners are responsible for delivery in Latvia.
The launch event in Riga brought together representatives from the university, the education and economics ministries, and the European Space Agency. It also included a discussion on ways space-related learning could support STEM education in Latvia. The office’s project manager presented its mission, planned activities and the opportunities intended for teachers and students.
Part of a wider education network
ESERO offices operate nationally across the agency’s Member States and Associate Members. Each office provides locally tailored teacher training, interdisciplinary projects and space-themed resources while drawing on material and experience shared across the network. Latvia’s addition expands that network to 23 offices as it marks its 20th year.
The new Riga office is therefore a permanent national point of contact for a programme already working across Europe, rather than a single launch-day activity. Its significance will depend on the range of opportunities delivered for educators and learners in the years ahead. For now, the inauguration establishes the partnership through which those activities are due to be developed in Latvia.
