ARCOE - Advancing Research Careers through Organizational Excellence

While Europe produces a growing number of highly skilled doctorate holders, the path to a stable, long-term career can be fraught with challenges. Many early-career academics feel unsupported, and a stark disparity exists between academic and non-academic sectors, with mobility of researchers between these different fields being limited. This mobility gap hinders innovation and limits the potential of Europe’s brightest minds.

To address this, SkillLab is proud to join ARCOE (Advancing Research Careers through Organizational Excellence), a landmark Horizon Europe project designed to build a more resilient, attractive, and interconnected research landscape.

ARCOE Project: Charting New Career Paths for Researchers

Running for 36 months from May 2025, ARCOE is a coordinated effort to drive meaningful organizational change across European research institutions. The project’s core mission is to implement the principles of the European Charter for Researchers, improving working conditions and creating clear, sustainable career pathways.

By fostering a talent ecosystem, ARCOE aims to:

  • Strengthen HR Practices: Support at least 15 organizations in achieving the HR Excellence in Research Award (HRS4R) by aligning their HR procedures with the Charter & Code's principles.
  • Enhance Career Development: Offer targeted career services and training programs focused on high-demand areas like the Green Deal, digital transition, and deep tech.
  • Boost Inter-Sectoral Collaboration: Facilitate networking and mobility between academia and industry through a central Virtual Talent Innovation Ecosystem Hub.

The project brings together a powerful consortium of 13 organizations from 9 EU countries: Fondazione E. Amaldi (Coordinator), AB Corporation, Consorzio Italbiotec, Klynteh Bulgaria, Technical University of Sofia, CSI Center for Social Innovation, EDEX - Educational Excellence Corporation, SkillLab, Athena Research & Innovation Center, Rohealth, University Babes Bolyai, Konnektable Technologies, and Acrosslimits.

SkillLab’s Contribution: From Academic Competencies to Labour Market Value

A significant barrier for researchers is translating their highly specialized skills into the language of the non-academic labour market. How does expertise in theoretical physics or ancient history map to roles in finance, policy, or tech?

This is where SkillLab’s skills-based approach comes in. Our main contribution is to make these pathways visible and actionable. Using our AI-powered technology, we will:

  • Conduct a Detailed Competency Analysis: We will perform an "'as is' competency analysis of researchers" by integrating established frameworks like the European Competence Framework for Researchers (ResearchComp) and the European classification of Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO).
  • Identify Viable Career Transitions: We will analyze the competency requirements of alternative "'go-to' occupations in the market" to identify sectors with high demand for researchers' skills.
  • Visualize Career Pathways: Our analysis will be presented in an interactive format on the Virtual Hub, allowing researchers to explore potential transitions and identify skill gaps for targeted professional development.

For us at SkillLab, ARCOE is a unique opportunity to deepen our expertise in mapping career pathways for a highly specialized segment of the workforce. A key challenge we aim to solve is the practical integration of a targeted framework like ResearchComp—which details 39 core competencies for researchers—with a broad, universal standard like ESCO. Successfully bridging this gap will not only provide immense value to the ARCOE project but will also generate powerful insights for creating a more fluid and skills-transparent European labour market for all.

By making career pathways tangible and data-driven, we empower individual researchers to realise their potential and make informed decisions about their future. At a systemic level, this work directly contributes to strengthening the European Research Area (ERA), tackling talent drain, and ensuring Europe’s research excellence translates into tangible economic and societal innovation.

Learn More About the Project

We are excited to embark on this three-year journey with such a strong partnership. Follow our progress and learn more about this transformative project via the link below:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcoeproject/ 

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