The Guild Position Paper: Skills and competencies for innovation

In her Political Guidelines, President von der Leyen championed the creation of a 'Union of Skills' to address labour and skill shortages across the EU. To implement this vision, on 5 March the European Commission will present a new strategy focusing on improving basic skills, upskilling and reskilling of adults, circulation of skills across borders and ensuring Europe's leadership in talent attraction.

What does this mean for research-intensive universities? Since many different educational providers offer learning opportunities, it is crucial to emphasise the distinctive role of universities, driven by research and scholarship. Universities have the responsibility to equip students and researchers with knowledge in key subject domains that require both increasing specialist depth and interdisciplinary breadth; and to truly embrace the evolving set of competencies needed in a rapidly changing world.

The Guild members identifyLink opens in a new window six key challenges in delivering on this ambition – ranging from resources, regulation to knowledge valorisation – and offer recommendations for supporting students and researchers to best contribute to Europe’s future. We also note a proliferation of initiatives across different EU programmes addressing similar objectives.

Key recommendations include:

1. European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)

Re-focus the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) on education-related activities and move away from the present model of labelling existing education programmes towards the development of new programmes jointly with the other actors of the KICs’ local ecosystems. Instead of demanding revenue streams from education, the KICs should also ensure that these new courses are incorporated into the universities’ programmes.

2. European Innovation Council (EIC)

The EIC provides relevant funding for strengthening the skills of EIC-supported innovators. Since this support is unlikely to create systemic impact, we recommend complementary measures, to be implemented outside the scope of the EIC, to support universities in the development of sustainable education and training programmes.

3. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Expand the MSCA under the next framework programme and maintain its focus on excellent research that already has a clear positive impact on researchers’ skills and capacity to develop and commercialise innovation. Equitable R&I partnering with colleagues in different knowledge ecosystems around the world is an example of a key skill that can be scaled up and consolidated for Europe’s competitiveness.

4. Erasmus+

Continue with the current priorities of the green and digital transformation and ensure that the programme provides opportunities to develop transversal skills that can spur innovative approaches across all study fields.

 

Marco Masia, Head of Entrepreneurship at the University of Vienna: 

“In our entrepreneurship programmes, we help students and researchers develop enterprising competencies. They work together in interdisciplinary groups to elaborate solutions to societal challenges. This is of uttermost importance to prepare future generations to navigate an increasingly VUCA world (characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). If Europe invests now in providing such competencies, it will be able to become competitive on the world stage while sticking to its core values.”

 

Jo Angouri, Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Internationalisation at the University of Warwick: 

“Research-led universities must leverage their distinctive strengths to foster innovation in teaching and lifelong learning. Models that enable universities to engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration are needed, not just to respond to change, but to play a leading role in societal and economic resilience. Operating within dynamic and complementary ecosystems can provide opportunities for individualised pathways and problem-solving education that are not always possible within traditional structure and resourcing. Promising initiatives are emerging from alliances, yet significant barriers remain. We are now at a stage where we need the right tools and incentives to move beyond the initial phase of experimentation towards a sustainable, pragmatic, and well-resourced framework that integrates innovation into mainstream higher education.”