EU officials and experts on migration, employment and innovation met in Brussels to launch a new “Talent for Innovation Attraction Platform.”
The meeting on March was co-chaired by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs and its Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, the European Commission announced on Tuesday.
It brought together specialists from the Commission’s Labour Migration Platform and the European Innovation Council Forum, alongside other stakeholders working in migration, employment, research and education.
Attendees discussed how to attract and retain workers for innovation-related sectors, with participants citing labour shortages in those areas.
Some EU member states raised concerns about “lengthy” visa procedures and about qualification recognition and skills validation processes that they described as complex and varied.
They also cited difficulties in transitions — including from study to work, and from academic research to business and market activity, including the creation of start-ups — while noting a need to maintain security checks and detect fraud.
Next steps and wider policy context
The new platform is expected to gather national expertise and insights on attracting innovation talent and to support work on the “necessity and feasibility” of an “Omnibus” approach to improve admission processes for global talent studying, researching and working in key sectors.
Its next meeting will focus on talent attraction and retention in education and research and is scheduled for May or June 2026.
The platform was announced alongside the European Commission’s first EU Visa Strategy, adopted on 29 January, and a related recommendation on attracting talent for innovation.
