An accelerated expansion of knowledge and innovation capacity of the current and future workforce is necessary to find an answer to the societal missions and to encourage economic growth. Strengthening learning through and for innovation and collaboration between public and private parties within learning communities provides opportunities for this. The call ‘Human Capital Learning communities: needed for societal and technological transitions to succeed (KIC)’ focuses on how to accelerate innovation through learning communities.
Rapid societal, economic and technological developments call for an agile response to the constantly changing labour market. In addition to ensuring a sufficiently large workforce, this also entails preparing professionals and students for changing work practices. Training and work play an essential role in initiating and accelerating innovations.
This call focuses on how human capital can contribute to innovations and how to optimise that process. The term ‘learning community’ refers to public-private learning-working practices intended to drive innovation. Knowledge and educational institutions, industry, government and other public-private partners work closely together in these communities. Research, work, innovation and learning are thus linked.
This call for proposals invites research proposals that are aimed at acquiring new fundamental and practice-oriented knowledge about the effective elements of learning communities. Questions to investigate are:
In addition, the call intends to acquire insight into how learning communities strengthen the individual learning capacity, the collective learning capacity and the learning capacity of organisations.
Visit the Call for proposals
The KIA Energy Transition and Sustainability, the KIA Health and Care, the KIA Agriculture, Water and Food, and the KIA Security have each highlighted the topic of human capital and learning communities for the creation of this call.[1] The learning communities to be explored within this call should operate in at least one of the four following research contexts:
I. Energy Transition and Sustainability;
II. Health and Care;
III. Agriculture, Water and Food; and
IV. Security.
[1] The KIA Societal Earning Capacity has also committed itself to this call for proposals, based on its supporting role in contributing to the acceleration and upscaling of mission-driven innovation in all four thematic research contexts.
On Friday 10 March 2023 from 13:00-17:30 NWO will organise a matchmaking event on location at NWO Utrecht for the call ‘Human Capital, learning communities needed for societal and technological transitions (KIC)’. More information will follow soon. If you are already interested in the matchmaking please send a message to kic-humancapital@nwo.nl.
The Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC) research programme stands for groundbreaking innovative solutions with societal and economic impact. Companies, knowledge institutions and governments jointly invest in the commercial application of knowledge to tackle major societal challenges with smart technologies. This is how we secure jobs and income in the future. This is laid down in the Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC) 2020-2023, which is aligned with the central government’s mission-driven top sectors and innovation policy. NWO brings together companies and knowledge institutions and funds groundbreaking research based on their innovative, high-impact research proposals.
More about the KIC
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) funds top researchers, steers the course of Dutch science by means of research programmes and by managing the national knowledge infrastructure.
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