Bridges 5.0

The Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists is part of a large European Consortium implementing the Horizon Europe project BRIDGES 5.0 – Bridging Risks to an Inclusive Digital and Green future by Enhancing workforce Skills for industry 5.0

Call identifier: HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01-26 — A HUMAN-CENTRED AND ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL AND INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES 2021

Call Action: HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01-26 – Workforce skills for industry 5.0 (RIA)

Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion in the period 2021-2027.

Duration of the Project: 48 months (January, 2023 – December, 2026)

Project Coordinator: Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek (TNO) (The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) – (The Netherlands), https://www.tno.nl/en

Partners of the Project:

1. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) (KUL) (The Netherlands), https://www.kuleuven.be/english/kuleuven/index.html
2. Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) (Austrija), https://www.ait.ac.at/en/
3. Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, Patras University (LMS) – (Greece), https://www.eitmanufacturing.eu/partner/laboratory-for-manufacturing-systems-and-automation-university-of-patras/
4. CNAM – Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) – (National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts) (France), https://www.nature.com/nature-index/institution-outputs/france/national-conservatory-of-arts-and-crafts-cnam/513906d334d6b65e6a000f8b
5. Centre d’Études de l’Emploi et du Travail-Lirsa – (The Emplyment and Labour Research Centre) (France), https://ceet-en.cnam.fr/the-employment-and-labour-research-centre-home-1052488.kjsp?RH=1507126380703&RF=1549633005061
6. Departamento de Educacion del Gobierno Vasco (DEGV) (Spain), https://www.euskadi.eus/basque-government/department-education/
7. Technische Universität Dortmund, Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund (TUDO) (Germany), https://sfs.sowi.tu-dortmund.de/
8. Stichting Platform Beta en Techniek (PBT) (The Netherlands), https://ptvt.nl/
9. Mondragon Goi Eskola Politeknikoa Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta S Coop (MGEP) (Spain), https://www.mondragon.edu/en/faculty-of-engineering/about-us
10. The Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (LPK/LCI) (Lithuania), lpk.lt
11. Universita degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro (UNIBA) (Italy), https://www.uniba.it/en
12. Universitetet I Agder (UIA) (Norway), https://www.uia.no/
13. Workplace Innovation Europe CLG (WIE) (The United Kingdom / Ireland), https://workplaceinnovation.eu/
14. Comau Industries (Comau SPA) (COM) (Italy), https://www.comau.com/en/
15. Infineon Technologies Austria AG (IFAT) (Austria), https://www.infineon.com/cms/austria/en/
16. UAB Kitron (KIT) (Lithuania), https://kitron.com/
17. Industrie 4.0 Plattform Austria (IPL) (Austria), https://plattformindustrie40.at/
18. Hybridlab (HYB) (Lithuania), https://www.myhybridlab.com/
19. FH Joanneum UAS (FHJ) (Austria), https://www.fh-joanneum.at/en/
20. Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) (Lithuania), https://ktu.edu/

Associated partner:

Warwick University (IER) (The United Kingdom), https://warwick.ac.uk/

THE BRIDGES 5.0 PROJECT HAS THE FOLLOWING 4 OBJECTIVES:

1. Quantitatively map how jobs are transforming and what new green and digital jobs are emerging in the 4^th Industrial Revolution; and qualitatively understand Industry 5.0 requirements (human- and socio-centric, sustainable and resilience) for these jobs and company practices;
2. Map Industry 5.0 skills and skill gaps at the EU-level and five European institutional contexts for emerging green and digital jobs; and enable monitoring of skill gaps using skills taxonomies/standards;
3. Set up learning trajectories and training pathways, using the enriched Teaching and Learning Factories concepts, and experiment with these interventions to reduce skill gaps for four target groups, i.e. managers, employees, job seekers and students, to prevent unemployment, improve company competitiveness and increase labour market inclusiveness;
4. Engage a range of industry and related stakeholders (policymakers, large companies, SMEs, social partners, Vocational Educational and Training (VET) providers) at regional, national and EU levels. These consortium members co-produce a collaborative (web) platform called Industry 5.0 Platform. This platform facilitates social innovation in the learning field. It also provides these stakeholders and four target groups with recommendations and instruments for new learning and training systems.

These objectives address 3 MAIN CHALLENGES identified in the Horizon Europe Call Workforce Skills for Industry 5.0.

• CHALLENGE 1: Industry 5.0 as a human-centric and socio-centric approach. To varying extents, European industry is becoming digital, data-driven and interconnected (DESI, 2020). So far, Industry 4.0, as the expression of the 4^th Industrial Revolution, has mainly been driven by technological considerations (Müller, 2021). However, past research shows that productivity gains require optimising the social and technical systems within and outside organisations (Guest et al., 2022). The new Industry 5.0 extends Industry 4.0 by emphasising technological, social, and environmental dimensions (Breque et al., 2021). In BRIDGES 5.0, a sustainable, resilient Industry 5.0 will need to be human-centric and socio-centric: complementing the needs of individuals with those of society. A human-centric approach puts core human needs and interests at the heart of the production process rather than taking emergent technology as the starting point and examining its potential for increasing efficiency. A socio-centric approach recognises that technologies are part of systems that are organised to further societal and ecological values. This theoretical framework involves an active and holistic European approach that puts technology at the service of European citizens, workers and future generations. BRIDGES 5.0 will develop the concept and model of Industry 5.0 so that its importance and achievability is apparent to all stakeholders, including, importantly, companies in Europe. Industry 5.0 is a new ‘mindset’ for European industry; thus, the first challenge is to ‘upscale’ this mindset to all European companies and stakeholders.
• CHALLENGE 2: Skilling for a green and digital Industry 5.0. Skills are important for Industry 5.0 (Müller, 2021). As with any new technology, these skills emerge through technological demands and organisational choices (Levy & Murnane, 2004). These skills need to be supported by training, education and other forms of learning that: 1) recognise that skills development is the responsibility of a broad set of stakeholders in Society and Industry; 2) are integrated with digital technology to avoid skills gaps and ensure better skill matches between supply and demand; and 3) combat the polarisation between high-skill and low-skill jobs and foster job upgrading, reskilling and upskilling strategies over a lifetime. This skilling strategy must be premised on companies (large and SMEs) better empowering their workforces because workers: (1) have the expertise, knowledge and the most direct link to technology; {2) are best placed to identify what skills are needed to be developed, from which companies can design participative training opportunities. Companies should use workers’ talent and innovative capacity and create environments that support workers’ innovative work behaviours and reward workers’ skills and knowledge (Dosi, 1988). The second challenge is to find out the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of this new skilling for a green and digital Industry 5.0.
• CHALLENGE 3: Policy support for a green and digital Industry 5.0. Industry 5.0 foresees an alternative future in which industries focus more on the interests of a wider set of stakeholders, within and outside the organisation. As the EU wishes, a productive, sustainable and resilient future is possible if companies adopt a human-centric and socio-centric approach (see the new European Industrial Strategy and Skills Agenda). To this end, BRIDGES 5.0 will work with a range of stakeholders across different levels, developing collaboration between Industry 4.0 platforms (e.g. the Trilateral Cooperation between the German, French and Italian platforms). BRIDGES 5.0 is unique because four companies are consortium partners to help develop this Industry 5.0 Platform. The European social partners – ETUC, IndustriAll, CEEMET and BusinessEurope – are also part of the partnership network, allowing the project from its start to have stakeholder engagement and commitment to 5.0 objectives. DG RTD has proposed a set of actions to help upscale the concept of Industry 5.0. The OECD (2020a) recommends that countries strengthen the governance of their skills systems to develop the relevant skills and use skills effectively. BRIDGES 5.0 will improve several national skilling strategies for a green and digital Industry 5.0 and inform the European Skills Agenda. The third challenge is to deliver an Industry 5.0 Platform that can support policy and practice.

In short, BRIDGES 5.0’s first objective translates Industry 5.0 human- and socio-centric requirements to be recognizable and doable for industry; the second and third translate the skills approach into skilling strategies for companies, industries/sectors and countries; and the fourth develops an EU-wide networked web platform to support skilling policies for the transition to Industry 5.0. Current national Industry 4.0 Platforms will be integrated into this effort and will become the owner of this Industry 5.0 Platform by the end of the project. The outcomes of BRIDGES 5.0 are: the right supply of skilled workers who will enable companies to optimise the gains from digital technology, the right skills to deal with the green and digital transition, both to achieve a sustainable, resilient and fairer future for Europe. Table 1.1 provides an overview of the measurable and verifiable KPIs from BRIDGES 5.0’s objectives.

Table 1.1 Overview of BRIDGES 5.0 objectives, KPIs, target values, means of verification

During the BRIDGES 5.0 project, the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists:

• will analyse the need for future competences and skills and new company practices in relation to Industry4.0 revolution and dual industry transformations (including the emerging of new green and digital jobs), also identify emerging gaps for the successful implementation of the Industry5.0 requirements; comparing European countries and Lithuania;
• together with 2 large international companies operating in Lithuania, will implement an experiment – to develop and test a new way of formation and improvement of qualifications and skills of the “green” and digital Industry5.0, which will be then offered on a European scale as one of the Teaching and Learning Factory implementation strategies;
• will contribute to the preparation of European guidelines (blueprints) for national Industry 5.0 learning trajectories and training pathways, using the enriched Teaching and Learning Factories’ concepts;
• together with the project partners, will prepare general content outlines of future competences and skills trainings;
• as one of the coordinating parties of the national Industry4.0 platform in Lithuania, the LCI will network with the appropriate national and European level stakeholders throughout the whole project implementation period; the results of the project will be immediately communicated and integrated into the activities and strategic documents of the national Industry4.0 platform (especially on the topic of human resources planning and formation);
• will make strategy proposals and coordinate the integration of the Lithuanian Industry4.0 platform into the European Industry5.0 platform. This platform will facilitate social innovation in the learning field and provide various stakeholders and four target groups (i.e. managers, employees, job seekers and students) with recommendations and instruments for new learning and training systems.