Under a service contract for the European Commission empirica is going to benchmark public policies and public-private partnerships and make recommendations for scaling up best practices and re-focusing funding programmes and incentives in Europe specifically related to the acquisition of high-tech skills.

The European Commission has awarded this contract to empirica with the aim to mobilise a large number of stakeholders and Member States contributing to the success of the EU high-tech skills strategy and efforts to facilitate the uptake of digital and key enabling technologies by European enterprises, especially SMEs and start-ups. The results are supposed to inform policy-makers and business and social leaders regarding more effective policies, partnerships, funding programmes and incentives to increase the high-tech talent pool, employment and the competitiveness of the European economy and to contribute to the further evolution and improvement of European and national initiatives on high-tech skills. The focus will be on high-tech skills which encompass the skills needs related to digital technologies (e-skills) and a group of six key enabling technologies (KETs) including: micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, industrial biotechnology, advanced materials, photonics, and advanced manufacturing technologies. PwC Netherlands and experts from the empirica ENIR network (European Network for Innovation Research,
www.enir.org) are supporting empirica over the coming two years in this task.