A new European Partnership is to be established as part of the European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, 'Horizon Europe': the 'European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience' (STR). To define this partnership's specific research and innovation priorities, the DLR Project Management Agency conducted four strategic foresight cycles on Supporting the modernisation of social protection systems; Shaping the future of work; Fostering education and skills development; Contributing to a fair transition towards climate neutrality. On this basis, the DLR-PT team elaborated a first draft of the Partnership's strategy for 2027-2033. 

As part of the project, the DLR-PT convened around 40 European experts for a backcasting workshop in Bonn on 28 and 29 January 2026. This two-day event, held under the title of "Towards a Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda for the STR Partnership", aimed to translate four best-case scenarios from previous foresight cycles into concrete research and innovation priorities for the future STR partnership's Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). In the workshop, the DLR-PT's strategic foresight team worked with the Humanities and Cultural Heritage Unit to use the backcasting method. Starting from a desirable target vision for 2040, participants identified key milestones (including those for 2033 and 2037), as well as necessary framework conditions, potential obstacles, and action steps, thinking backwards from the future to the present. Specifically, the participants first developed priority measures and then used these to define research and innovation priorities for the strategy. By the end of the workshop, the experts had developed up to six thematic priorities for each of the impact areas in the future Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.

The European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience is currently being prepared and is expected to start in 2027. The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, with its implementation-oriented research priorities, will serve members of the partnership as a basis for future calls for proposals.

Like everywhere in the world, in Romania, people perceive their work, to varying degrees, as both a source of material well-being and a fundamental aspect of their identity. Uncertainties about how people will work in the future—how they will earn their income and build meaning and purpose through their jobs—are important concerns and often a source of anxiety.

Where are different industries and sectors headed? What is possible, and what is likely regarding the evolution of professions by 2030? Which of these developments are desirable? What can universities and the business sector do to facilitate these changes? These questions motivated our research.

This study encourages futures thinking, understood as an informed exploration of the evolution of a set of professions across various fields. These professions were identified through a dedicated process that included, among other methods, horizon scanning—tracking societal and technological trends that are shaping the global labor market.

The set of professions expected to undergo significant transformation by 2030 was the focus of participatory exercises, fulfilling the foresight function of debating the future. Through interviews with diverse stakeholders—employers from various industries and coordinators of academic programs relevant to the professions analyzed—we aimed to integrate different perspectives and interests into discussions about future developments and strategic choices. This debate was further expanded through a broader online consultation using the Dynamic Argumentative Delphi method, which examined both the expected demand for each profession by 2030 and the adequacy of the current educational offer to meet this demand.

In addition to these foresight efforts, the study presents an analysis of higher education specializations in Romania relevant to the professions of the future. This is illustrated through visual representations of the trends in university graduates who could enter the identified professions.

Through these efforts, we approach the future-shaping function of foresight, which translates into strategic advisory support, integrating insights from both individual and institutional actors into policy-related knowledge. Moreover, this approach aims to facilitate the implementation of public policies by fostering networks, knowledge platforms, and other foresight intelligence infrastructures.

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The study was published in Romanian as part of the project POCU INTL - Quality in higher education: internationalization and databases for the development of Romanian higher education.

Project webpage: pocu-intl.uefiscdi.ro

There is a fascination with the future, as a repository of both opportunities and threats that affects all of us. Concern for what we call "the future of work" is part of this mosaic. Regardless of their geographical space, people think of their work as being, in varying doses, a source of material well-being, but also a component of their identity. Uncertainties about how will people work in the future – how will they earn income and build a purpose, a meaning through their work – is an important topic, and often a source of concern.
What are we heading for? What kind of future is desirable? What is possible, respectively probable, from what we deem desirable? What can be done to get there? All these are legitimate questions that deserve our attention.
In the context of recent waves of technological progress, the future of work is the subject of intensive controversy. Often in the public space there is an overwhelming emphasis on the impact of new technologies on work, neglecting other shaping forces relevant to labor market dynamics. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to open a wider conversation about the future of work on the 2030 horizon.

The perspective used in this paper is a causal and hierarchical one: from drivers of change towards their impact on labor. Most studies on labor market developments start from a context modeled by several global megatrends. Following this logic, the second chapter describes the four main trends identified in literature: i) technological developments, especially automation; ii) globalization, especially cross-border flows and widening inequalities; iii) demographic changes, in particular the ageing population in the global North; iv) climate change, environmental degradation and the development of the green economy.
Within these trends, ongoing or likely transformations have been identified that have or could have an impact on global labor market dynamics. The section describing each megatrend is accompanied by a box with what we call "signals of change" - contextualizing empirical data that serve as justifications/explanations of the phenomena described in that section. In the context of the global transformations we outline here, the fourth chapter presents a catalogue of emerging occupations, by which we mean both existing (highly dynamic) or incipient occupations and occupations that do not yet exist but are likely to exist in 2030 or beyond
The third chapter was added later in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and is a brief overview of the transformations in the global labor market – some already visible, others likely - due to this global crisis.

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The study was published in Romanian as part of the project POCU INTL - Quality in higher education: internationalization and databases for the development of Romanian higher education.

Project webpage: pocu-intl.uefiscdi.ro