In November 2025, the Learning Planet Institute was officially designated a UNESCO Category 2 Institute (C2C), under the auspices of UNESCO in France.
Validated by the 43rd session of UNESCO’s General Conference, this designation represents an exceptional recognition of the Institute and of two decades of educational innovation, excellence and commitment to transforming education worldwide.
International status of excellence
UNESCO Category 2 institutes and centres form a global network of institutions of excellence in the Organisation’s key fields of expertise and competence.
Building on their recognised expertise, these institutes play a significant role in advancing UNESCO’s priorities, programmes and global development agendas.
Strengthened legitimacy
This designation as a UNESCO Category 2 Institute enables us to:
- Increase our visibility among UNESCO’s 193 Member States, as well as policy-makers, academic institutions and international partners,
- Act as a reference organisation in pedagogical innovation, the sciences of learning and educational transformation,
- Strengthen international capacities and cooperation through access to UNESCO’s international and intergovernmental networks,
- Create new opportunities for collaboration and knowledge-sharing with global communities of practice and UNESCO’s network of centres of excellence,
- Scale up the international dissemination of our methods, tools and practices.
This partnership also entails reciprocal commitments for the Institute, including active participation in UNESCO initiatives and the alignment of our programmes and activities with UNESCO’s priorities and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (ODD) (SDGs) for 2030,
in particular through:
- Activities with international or regional reach that contribute to global and regional development agendas
- Expanded research and development in learning transitions, including AI for education, education for the SDGs, learning transitions, collective learning and pedagogical innovation
- Capacity-building for young people, teachers, educators and education leaders worldwide
- Amplifying youth voices in decision-making on the future, in partnership with UN bodies
- An active contribution to achieving the SDGs, especially SDG 4 on quality education
- An active contribution to the achievement of the MDGs, in particular MDG 4 on quality education
These commitments are fully aligned with our expertise and with the mission we have pursued since our founding in 2006 — a mission that this UNESCO recognition both acknowledges and amplifies.
A new relationship with the French State
This designation also transforms the relationship between the Learning Planet Institute and the French State.
The Institute becomes a key actor in French education diplomacy, positioning France as the host country of an internationally recognised centre of excellence in education.
It opens up new opportunities, including access to funding programmes dedicated to international institutions based in France, state-led scientific and educational cooperation schemes, and large-scale international public–private partnerships.
The designation as a UNESCO Category 2 Institute comes just a few months after the Learning Planet Institute became the first French hub of the United Nations University in March 2025.
These recognitions coincide with the Institute’s 20th anniversary (2006-2026) and the launch of its ambitious Learning Planet Academy in January 2026.
A historic partnership
- Since 2014, François Taddei, founder and President of the Learning Planet Institute, has held the UNESCO Chair “Learning Sciences”, jointly hosted by Université Paris Cité and the Institute.
- Since 2019, the Learning Planet Institute and UNESCO have co-led a global community of practice dedicated to transforming education and co-creating a learning society. As part of this collaboration, the LearningPlanet Festival has been co-organised every year since 2020 around the International Day of Education (24 January), in partnership with hundreds of pioneering organisations in education, culture, science, and social and environmental impact, as well as thousands of students and young activists from around the world.
- In 2025, the Learning Planet Institute officially became a UNESCO Category 2 Institute (C2C) under UNESCO’s auspices in France.
The Learning Planet Institute is also the 1st Pole of the United Nations University in France.
