Below is a selection of the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) linked to the Harnessing Talent Platform (HTP):
The Harnessing Talent Platform (HTP) is the go-to place for information about the support that the European Commission makes available to EU Member States and regions faced with demographic change and challenges associated with the decline of tertiary educated populations through the Talent Booster Mechanism. It also aims to promote events and best practices and for regions to access the advice and knowledge they need. It can therefore be considered as a catalyst for collaboration, enabling the exchange of ideas, knowledge and resources among stakeholders.
The Commission’s Communication on Harnessing talent in Europe’s regions introduced the Talent Booster Mechanism, a dedicated eight-pillar initiative aiming to boost talent in regions, to help train, retain and attract the people, to develop skills and the competences needed to address the impact of the demographic transition.
The actions include direct technical assistance to regions, access to knowledge and resources as well as support to the exchange of practices and experiences. In this context, 4 working groups have been established to address specific professional or territorial challenges which influence a region’s ability to be competitive and attractive for a young and highly skilled workforce.
As described in the European Commission Communication on Harnessing Talent in Europe's Regions, a talent development trap refers to a situation where a set of related challenges severely limits a region’s capacity for economic and social development. These challenges pertain primarily to a sharp decline in the working age population combined with a low and stagnating share of people with a tertiary education, as well as the departure of a significant share of young people. These issues are generally intertwined with a number of structural problems, such as low economic diversification and dynamism, over-reliance on declining sectors and low innovation capacity, underperforming labour markets, lower adult learning rates, poorer social outcomes and a more limited access to essential services. The simultaneous presence of these constraints reveals the multi-dimensional nature of talent development traps.
The Communication identifies 82 regions where the capacity to develop talent is insufficient to mitigate the impact of their rapid reduction of working age population, hence falling into a talent development trap – or at the risk of falling into such trap. Yet, these regions have been identified at NUTS 2 level and other regions (NUTS 3 or below) may experience the same situation elsewhere in the EU.
In January 2023 the Commission published the Communication on Communication on Harnessing talent in Europe’s regions which identifies two groups of regions, based on a set of indicators that are described in the Annex to the Communication:
Together, the two categories of regions represent 30% of the EU population.
Furthermore, most of the challenges identified in the Communication are linked with the structural demographic trends impacting the EU, with almost all regions concerned, as illustrated in the 2023 demography report.
As part of the Talent Booster Mechanism, regions can benefit from support on the ground through direct technical assistance as part of Pillars 1 and 2, as well as through various instruments, such as the Technical Support Instrument (Pillar 3), the I3 - Interregional Innovation Investments Instrument (Pillar 4) and the European Urban Initiative (Pillar 5).
Information about opportunities to apply for support is regularly updated on the platform’s Open Calls Page.
In addition, regions can:
There is no need of a separate fund as Cohesion policy funds are already dealing with the challenges. The cohesion policy funds include regional allocation which is based on the regions’ level of development , as measured by their GDP per capita.
Furthermore, Article 10 of the (EU) 2021/1060 regulation identifies demographic challenges that need to be tackled in an integrated way. Therefore, many Member States have planned measures to address demographic challenges.
Integrated development tools (ITI, CLLD, Other territorial tools), that are promoted by Cohesion policy at local level will contribute to the development of all regions. Member States can use these to plan a mix of investments corresponding to various policy objectives and using multiple funds (ERDF , CF , ESF+ , JTF ). As such, it would help Member States to attract new economic activities, close the digital gap, provide more education opportunities, improve access to infrastructures, services and cultural amenities and raise the quality of life, thus attracting and retaining talent.
As part of Pillar 7 of the Talent Booster Mechanism, four Working Groups on the topics of Digital, Health, Research & Innovation and Territorial development – in particular urban-rural linkages and quality of life – have been established with the purpose of helping regions address specific professional or territorial challenges which influence a region’s ability to be competitive and attractive for young and highly skilled workforce. The different working groups, each comprised of 20 high-level experts, will meet to discuss the perspective of harnessing talent with respect to the aforementioned themes. The Working Groups’ Members represent relevant pan-European organizations, public authorities at national and regional level, individual agencies, and institutions with a stake in the issue of harnessing talent. More information about the Working Groups and their members can be found on the Harnessing Talent Platform Working Groups.
The applications to the Working Groups closed in September 2023, and their members have already been selected. No new calls for interest are foreseen. However, stakeholders interested in the thematic scope and activities of the Working Groups are encouraged to follow the dedicated website, where all the related information will be posted (link). Additionally, as Working Groups (Core team) might be supported by the Experts’ team (see the scheme) with particular, content-related knowledge and expertise, you may submit your proposal to the HTP Secretariat (working-groups@harnessingtalentplatform.eu). Such proposals will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
As part of Pillar 7 of the Talent Booster Mechanism, 10 academic papers will be published via the Harnessing Talent Platform in order to enhance analytical knowledge on various aspects of talent development and facilitate knowledge exchange. These papers will be written by academics and experts specifically selected for their expertise in the field.
Likewise, 20 good practices related to the talent development trap and population decline will be identified, assessed and shared with the objective of promoting knowledge building and the exchange of experience. The selected practices will have proven successful in addressing and mitigating the talent development trap and population decline or have promoted talent development, and they can be learned from and replicated in other contexts.
If you are interested in having your region featured as a good practice in our Knowledge Repository, we encourage you to submit your suggestion to our dedicated knowledge management team via the EUSurvey submission form.
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