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  • funding programme

KA2-Forward-looking project

  • project code

101259597

  • duration

01/02/2026

- 31/01/2029

(36 months)

  • countries

Belgium, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal

  • partners

Coordinators:

INSTITUTO PEDRO NUNES (IPN)

Partners:

GISIG GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS, FONDAZIONE E. AMALDI, ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS UNIVERSITY, STICHTING DOTSPACE, EfVET, LDA, QUASAR - HUMAN CAPITAL

ROOT

The ROOT (Resources for Orientation and Occupational Transition) project is funded by Erasmus+ as part of its Key Action 2 (Forward-looking projects) and aims to support career guidance, upskilling and reskilling of adults with a focus on the Earth Observation (EO) sector.   

The ROOT project addresses the need to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of career guidance and counseling for adults at all knowledge levels, with a focus on employees, employers in micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and career counselors. By empowering individuals to make informed upskilling and reskilling decisions, ROOT supports personal development, business resilience, and workforce adaptability in a rapidly evolving labour market. Under Topic 5, “Improving career guidance to support adults’ participation in training,” ROOT will establish three Living Labs to pilot innovative, real-world approaches to career guidance and adult learning. These Labs will unite stakeholders from the quadruple helix —industry, academia, government, and civil society—to co-create solutions tailored to the downstream Earth Observation (EO) sector, which is largely composed of SMEs up to 50 employees, particularly in the downstream domain, making it a critical focus for targeted support and sustainable growth.  

ROOT will also be beneficial for other sectors, among others renewable energy (e.g. wind and solar technician training), the circular economy (e.g. waste management and sustainable design), digital health (e.g. AI in diagnostics and telemedicine) and smart manufacturing (e.g. robotics and IoT).   

Activities

  • Methodology on career guidance: A methodology will be developed in the first phase of the project, in order to analyse various components of the skills needs and the degree of access to career guidance for the target group, i.e. EO employees. It will serve as the basis of the Living Labs further developed in the project, through outputs such as a policy analysis report, a stakeholder engagement framework and guidelines for career guidance. Such instruments will inform the design of a career counselling programme and tools for employees and counsellors. 
  • Living Labs: One of the main outcomes of ROOT consists in the creation of Living Labs in three European regions, which will enhance access to career guidance and counselling. They will be a multi-stakeholder collaboration effort for regionally adapted solution, aligned with Regional Smart Specialisation Strategies and EO thematic pilots. 
  • Career guidance materials and content: Throughout the ROOT project, materials and tools will be developed to provide effective services in the Living Labs, as well as tailored solutions for career guidance to employees and employers. Against this backdrop, ROOT partners will carry out data analysis and issue materials, reports and guidebooks as learning outcomes. 
  • Sustainable exploitation of the project: By documenting and evaluating the pilots, the project will produce replicable frameworks and toolkits that can be adapted to different contexts and industries. The project will also contribute to the EU agenda on digital and green transitions, by fostering digital skills, creating room for innovation in other domains, such as: renewable energy (e.g. wind and solar technician training), the circular economy (e.g. waste management and sustainable design), digital health (e.g. AI in diagnostics and telemedicine) and smart manufacturing (e.g. robotics and IoT).
     

Expected results

To effectively implement and test the ROOT project’s objectives, the Living Lab methodology was chosen as a practical framework for piloting innovative solutions in real-world settings due to its emphasis on:  

  • Real-world experimentation aligned with EO sector needs, offering a setting for co-creating and testing innovations;  
  • Multi-stakeholder collaboration for inclusive, scalable and regionally adapted solutions;  
  • Strategic alignment with Regional Smart Specialisation Strategies and EO thematic pilots;  
  • Workforce development through upskilling and reskilling across all knowledge levels;  
  • Built-in evaluation for continuous improvement and replicability across sectors and regions;  
  • A partnership structure that ensures broad engagement and long-term sustainability, involving regional actors and European career guidance infrastructures.  

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