INESC TEC hosted EARTO’s European HR network meeting

INESC TEC hosted the annual meeting of EARTO’s International HR Working Group at the institution’s headquarters; EARTO is the European network of Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs), and the representatives from eight organisations across seven European countries attended the meeting to exchange experiences, share practices and explore common challenges in human resources.

The meeting brought together HR managers from the following European organisations: INESC TEC (Portugal), DTI (Denmark), RISE (Sweden), Fraunhofer (Germany), VTT (Finland), VITO (Belgium), AIT (Austria) and LIST (Luxembourg).

Topics discussed included the future of HR teams and the impact of AI and new working models; new career paths for non-scientific talent; leadership profiles in uncertain environments; well-being and organisational transformation; and people’s skills likely to become increasingly important as the use of AI expands.

INESC TEC’s participation in EARTO has enabled regular collaboration and the exchange of experiences among HR professionals from different European organisations. The network organises annual meetings to discuss emerging challenges in people management and identify new approaches for research organisations.

This year, INESC TEC hosted and organised the meeting, which took place on 14 and 15 October.

“The programme aimed to encourage joint reflection on how organisations can prepare their people, leaders and HR structures to address the major changes reshaping the labour forces,” explained Susana Rodrigues, Head of HR at INESC TEC.

Alongside the working group meetings, the event also featured an open panel discussion for the INESC TEC community on the afternoon of 15 October: À conversa com HR | Pessoas, bem-estar e o futuro das organizações de investigação; Susana Rodrigues was responsible for moderating this session, which welcomed Marie-Theres Raberger (AIT, Austria), Lisa Marie Epple (Fraunhofer, Germany), Annemarie Drasbæk Søgaard (Teknologisk Institut, Denmark) and Marianne Wens (VITO, Belgium).

“Rather than approaching well-being as a set of initiatives or benefits, we sought to explore how organisations can integrate people, culture and comfort into their strategy, creating working environments that foster health, development, engagement and sustainability,” the Head of HR explained.

The panel brought together perspectives from research organisations in different countries and institutional contexts, allowing participants to share a range of experiences and models, while identifying common challenges and opportunities for learning across European organisations.

“This initiative provided INESC TEC an opportunity to reinforce the participation in a European network dedicated to the strategic management of people in research organisations, while fostering an international discussion at the Institute on some of the challenges that will shape the future of work, leadership and well-being in the research and innovation sector,” Susana Rodrigues concluded.