The road to FP10: Is human capital the key to competitiveness?

In early June, the European Commission announced the ‘Spring Package’ of the European Semester – a lesser-known part of the EU policy landscape, but in reality a unique framework that provides coordination between economic, budgetary, social and employment policies being deployed in pursuit of the EU’s strategic goals. What made the latest publication remarkable, however, was that – for the first time – the Commission’s agenda for competitiveness was framed in terms of human capital and skills. As highlighted by Executive Vice-President Roxana Minzatu at the launch: “In the end, Europe's strongest asset is not only its single market, its industry, or its technology. It is its people. And a Europe that invests in its people is a Europe that will out-compete, out-innovate, and out-last any challenge thrown at it.”

Against this backdrop, on September 10 Science|Business will convene a closed-door online discussion with EVP Minzatu’s cabinet and members of its international Network to explore how leading research, innovation and education organisations can contribute to meeting Europe’s skills challenge – not just in terms of deepening the talent pipelines for strategic tech sectors that will increasingly shape the future economy, but also providing intelligence to policymakers about how scientific training and careers are evolving in line with the changing dynamics and demands of industry and the labour market at large.  Beyond the ongoing implementation of the Commission’s Union of Skills strategy, the meeting will also consider how a stronger ecosystem for talent and skills development can best be integrated into, and resourced under, the instruments of the EU’s next multi-annual financial framework.