ExpectedOutcome:
Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
- establishment of a long-term, industry-, research- and training-led European initiative to address workforce and skill shortages in nuclear fission and fusion at EU-level, for ensuring safe use of current and future nuclear technologies (including SMRs), and to strengthen capacity-building for nuclear safety, waste management, decommissioning and radiation protection (including medical applications).
- design and testing of a strategy to attract new people to the EU’s nuclear and radiation protection workforce and train and retain this workforce to acquire the necessary skills with a focus on cross-sector and EU-wide mobility, skills transferability and digital skills while promoting diversity, inclusion and gender balance.
- maintain the highest levels of nuclear safety and radiation protection while ensuring EU’s strategic autonomy and competitiveness in nuclear technologies.
Scope:
Scope: The nuclear and radiation protection sector demands a consistently high level of diverse skills[1], and is experiencing challenges to attract the younger generation. Possible gaps in human resources and skills could become critical when considering the importance of the sector in EU Member States.
In this context, the Commission is offering funding through a coordination and support action for a long-term, industry-, research- and training-led public & private initiative to maintain and further develop the skills necessary to ensure the availability of high-level expertise for the safe use of current and future nuclear technologies in the EU.
This initiative will prepare a strategy to identify and quantify nuclear skills shortages across the EU, drawing on approaches from different industries (such as the MATCH programme[2]), the European Human Resources Observatory for the Nuclear Sector (EHRO-N) and Member States, in particular building upon the work already initiated in job taxonomy and national workforce assessments under EHRO-N.
Overall, the proposed strategy should contribute to maintaining the highest levels of nuclear safety and radiation protection. Achieving this objective requires the strategy to also cover aspects relevant to the recently established SMR Industrial Alliance.
The initiative’s strategy and multi-annual action plan should consider increasing (i) activities across sectors and Member States, (ii) collaboration and transnational mobility and (iii) vocational training programmes and should identify the reskilling and upskilling needs of job holders in the sector (identification, validation and certification of skills), including access to nuclear research facilities.
Additionally, the strategy should identify ways to promote nuclear and radiation protection careers and job paths among young people and with teachers, instructors and professors. At the same time it should improve diversity, inclusion and gender representation in the nuclear sector (fission and fusion), including by sustaining in its current form the existing European Masters in the nuclear and engineering field (i.e. organised and delivered by academics in at least three Member States).
The proposed project will benefit from past and current education and training efforts under various programmes and instruments (cf. Euratom Research and Training Programme, Erasmus+, EIT, Instrument for Nuclear Safety, Pact for Skills[3], SAMIRA Action Plan[4]), carried out by national service providers, the JRC and the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN). It will also draw on best practice from various industries and countries.
The consortium will involve a wide variety of stakeholders, from industry, research and training organisations, as well as academia, regulatory bodies and professionals from the fields of education and human resources management.
The initiative should leverage existing EU instruments where appropriate, including the Pact for Skills. The feasibility of the proposed strategy should be demonstrated by a pilot action implemented by the consortium during the lifetime of the project.
[1] World Energy Employment 2023
[2] https://www.conseil-national-industrie.gouv.fr/actualites/comites-strategiques-de-filiere/nucleaire/gifen-presente-programme-match-pour-la-relance-du-nucleaire-france
[3] https://pact-for-skills.ec.europa.eu/index_en
[4]https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/nuclear-energy/radiological-and-nuclear-technology-health/samira-action-plan_en
