Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WE-TRANSFORM (WORKFORCE EUROPE - TRANSFORMATION AGENDA FOR TRANSPORT AUTOMATION) Reporting period: 2020-12-01 to 2022-05-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project The adoption of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) have shown an acceleration and this process will have a considerable impact on the workforce in quantitative and qualitative terms. The last digital revolution is asking the workforce to interact with ever-smarter machines, an unusual situation demanding higher cognitive, technological, social, and emotional skills. Therefore, it is crucial for policy makers to be well informed and take evidence-based decisions aiming at managing the transition to accommodate the workforce skills adaptation to the new demands. The increased automation is expected to increase productivity and corporate performance, supporting eventually GDP growth, but also be disruptive for society, as well as for certain socio-economic groups. Eventually, the transport industries and all stakeholders will need to rethink the organisation of work as well as its regional and modal redistribution, but first, to manage the transition, leveraging the process through revised human resource management, evaluation, and training techniques.The high-level objective of WE-TRANSFORM is to promote collectively prioritized themes on the future of jobs and working conditions across all existing and evolving transport modes by considering the digitalisation and automation processes that are occurring and are expected to occur within the transport sector. To achieve such high-level objective, three specific objectives have been identified, namely: 1) to set up and foster a collaborative platform for the discussion of the effects of automation on transport labour with relevant stakeholders, mainly through the establishment of a cross-national Living Hub – meant as an inter-continental European-based platform including Japan, Canada, USA and South Korea – that will comprise of the key stakeholders of all transport modes, researchers, decision makers, trade unions and workers’ associations; 2) thanks to the social debate within the Living Hub environment, to co-create user-friendly and shareable knowledge related to automation impacts on transport labour to assess the impacts on workers within all transport modes and related sectors (indirect/induced effects), with attention to specific categories such as women and people with disabilities and to gain a sound understanding and insight into the factors which can drive automation-driven transitions; and 3) to enable and support durable and effective dialogue on innovation and the reality of workforce requirements and conditions. Identified stakeholders will use CI to co-design a comprehensive, evidence-based, action-oriented agenda to minimise the potential negative effects of automation on labour force. Moreover, a business model which includes a multiannual financial plan to make the Living Hub perennial beyond the duration of this project is foreseen. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far In the first reporting period, almost all Working Packages (WPs) have been activated with the exception of WP4, just started, and for WP5 that will begin in M27.Working Package 1 focuses on project management, and so far it has produced all the provided essential deliverables that describe the methodology, steps and path to follow to reach the objectives of the project.In Working Package 2, the Stakeholder Forum has been established targeting workers and stakeholders from all sectors as well as workforce members and unions, public authorities and policy makers, industry for all transport modes, including both passenger and freight transport as well as other sectors (e.g. tourism, banking) also impacted by automation (D2.1). The methodology and the tools needed to make the Living Hub operational for the co-creation of knowledge, through the involvement and dialogue with stakeholders and workers, are contained in D2.2. Two stakeholder workshops have been organised in the first reporting period: the first fully online, and the following as hybrid event (both online and physical presence), both with high participation.Working Package 3 defined the state-of-the-art review on the impacts that digitalisation and automation have on the workforce, through different methods. An in-depth analysis of the state of the art has been carried out using an AI Tool together with the partners’ knowledge. This effort allowed to gather scientific publications, reports, and documents that made clear the lack of knowledge on the studied topic. Numerous projects and initiatives (~87) have been identified but only one EU project (Skillful) and a national project (Leader in the Netherland) were related to the themes treated (D3.1). Lastly, the barriers, gaps, successful and failure factors from automation and digitalisation were analysed and discussed in the focus groups and through a survey and a poll (D3.2).Working Package 6 focuses on the dissemination and communication strategy. Templates, graphical identity, promotional tools, and a monitoring tool to monitor the efficacy of the dissemination campaigns have been produced (D6.1). The website also contains the Knowledge base (D6.2) that is a publicly (previous registration) accessible platform in which the results from the project are gathered to support the public. Lastly, possibly related projects to build relationships with them and analysed their results to build a comprehensive and wide knowledge on the topic were analysed. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) The literature and projects referring to the automotive industry and especially to the automated/autonomous vehicles (cars, ships, and rail wagons) are abundant but not any impact on the workforce was mentioned in such projects. The state of the art related to the impacts of automation and digitalisation on workforce is quite limited, with some research on future skills in transport sector. Thus, the contribution of WE-TRANSFORM is of high importance in a field where there is not an evidence-based information on how the automation and digitalisation have impacted so far and will impact the workforce. In addition, not any dialogue among stakeholders from different transport modes and limited and fragmented social dialogue has been recorded.WE-TRANSFORM has adopted an innovative approach, applying a participatory approach, using Collective Intelligence (CI) in the cross-national Living Hub to construct a policy agenda that goes beyond the usual patterns. To this end, eight Thematic Areas have been defined: 1. Governance of transition; 2. Common skills to develop between same-level workers in different sectors of the transport industry; 3. Minimisation of exclusion processes in the reskilling of the workforce; 4. Platforms for gig workers: implications on jobs production; 5. The role of local and regional authorities; 6. Role of workers in Automated Public Transport Settings; 7. Regulation of transition in the view of collective bargaining; and 8. Automation and sustainability. In the second half of the project, other topics will emerge and be added to the current Thematic Areas.The action-oriented agenda to be formulated in WP5 is fed by the previous WPs and, the just started WP4 will support to evaluate the potential impacts, including all the legal aspects. This will lead to concrete actions to perform and monitoring methods to support workers, by clearly defining roles and responsibilities, as well as key milestones and time-horizons. First eight Thematic Areas overview Project leaflet (rear) Project Leaflet (front) WE-TRANSFORM's Knowledge Base registration page WE-TRANSFORM General Assembly in Riga The Living Hub in the value chain of WE-TRANSFORM
