IER News & blogs

IER is delighted to celebrate the graduation of Dr Gianni Anelli-Lopez, who took part in the University of Warwick’s January 2026 commencement ceremony. Gianni completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor Terence Hogarth and Dr Jeisson Cardenas Rubio, with his dissertation titled “A multidimensional approach to measuring skill shortages: insights from the Chilean labour market.”

IER's Peter Dickinson joined meetings in the Horizon Bridges 5.0 project in Vienna.

He led one of the workshops as part of the foresight element of the project, discussing the policy implications across a range of potential scenarios that the transitions might bring.

At the end of January, Professor Peter Elias, CBE and Prof Chris Warhurst of IER attended the 3rd Global Labour Markets Conference (GLMC) in Riyadh. There were over 5000 delegates at the conference. Now an annual event, the GLMC is a bit like Davos for labour markets, attended by lots of government ministers, company CEOs and senior trade union officials.

Drawing on his recent experience of co-developing the UK Standard Skills Classification, Peter was asked to talk about how skills could be measured. Chris was asked to talk about policy development to help support the business case for good jobs.

The Skills2Capabilities project has formally concluded, marking the end of a three-year Horizon Europe collaboration that explored how skills systems can better support labour-market transitions across Europe. The project, coordinated by 3s (Austria), brought together seven interlinked work packages to tackle some of the most pressing questions facing Europe’s labour markets: how to support workers to update their skills, navigate career transitions and stay resilient throughout life – and how to give employers access to a workforce ready for the demands of green and digital transitions.

The IER's Prof Chris Warhurst, Prof Gill Dix, Prof Philip Taylor, Dr Eli Dutton, Hilda Ragnarsdottir and Dr Laura Boothman were pleased to co-host a sandpit with Orthopaedic Research UK on 21 January. Prof Martin Underwood and Dr Fatema Dhaif from the Warwick Medical School also joined the event, alongside sector representatives and Government leads on health and work.

The event's focus was on 'Designing sustainable work to support and prevent musculoskeletal conditions across the working life course'. A key theme was the sustainability of jobs and careers. The group discussed opportunities both to prevent poor musculoskeletal health and accommodate the needs of those with health conditions to enable them to thrive in the workplace.