TEN-A: Trans European Network Academy

Commission of the European Communities

Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture

The TEN-A project is a cooperation of several leading educational institutions and technology companies throughout Europe, funded by the European Community. TEN-A itself is an online world-class brokerage and delivery service, linking educators and trainers for the exchange and distribution of learning resources. This online "broker" can be described as an entity that offers an attractive electronic marketplace, where offer can meet demand.

Brokerage services have two types of users: those who offer their products for sale (providers) and those who buy the products offered (consumers). TEN-A facilitates the exchange of Learning Resources between organisations whose members are registered users of the services. The organisations may be universities, business schools, public and private training institutes or companies, while the individuals using the service are teaches, researchers or training managers.

The technology system that enables effective brokerage and delivery services is the TEN-A brokerage and delivery platform. This platform exists as a prototype and shall be validated for the European market during the following TEN-telecom market validation phase. TEN-A enhances the availability of high quality, up-to-date Learning Resources for a wide audience. The benefit for buyers is that the organisation can get Learning Resources cheaper than producing them itself. The sellers can get payback on the investment on the Learning Resources.