La Baule Conference 2010

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Brainpower Forum

Training, attracting and retaining talents for innovation and added value

2009 theme: Smart People, Competitive Economy, Global Challenge

Europe+ puts human capital at the top of European Union priorities:

In 2008, the Europe+ Foundation will be building on its annual World Investment Conference (WIC)—an event that brings together over 1000 global leaders from politics and business—to launch a new thematic conference: the 1st Brainpower Forum.

This new Forum has focused on developing an effective human capital strategy for Europe. It is a direct spin-off of the 2008 WIC: among the 52 recommendations to emerge from those debates, and that were submitted to Jose Manuel Barroso on March 12 in Brussels, was a call for a permanent forum emphasizing the essential role of human capital in building a knowledge society, with a renewed focus on the Lisbon strategy.

The Brainpower Forum has thus considered the implications of human capital as a prime lever for value creation, innovation and competitiveness. Organized in cooperation with the European Commission and the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research, and an official event in the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, it has focused on the need to provide Europe with both a lasting competitive edge and a greater role in global competition for brainpower.

More efficient higher education for a more attractive Europe:

The Brainpower Forum aims, first, to analyze and promote best practices of building stronger links between the three pillars of the brainpower ecosystem: higher education, research and the corporate sector.
Just as the European Union has created the European Institute of Technology to train promising students and attract the best people from abroad, Europe needs to promote the quality of its business, science and law universities—to challenge, then change, the ranking established by Shanghai University. This is all the more important given signs of a looming shortage of skilled labour.

Better health, a driver for a sustainable competitiveness in Europe:

The second aim of the Brainpower Forum is to investigate and promote perspectives for sustainable skills development—in a word, ways to give Europe a lasting edge in creativity and innovation by making the most of the potential of professional environments.
With many national health systems facing serious difficulties, the EU must promote private-sector initiatives, including financing healthcare action, developing prevention systems, and launching initiatives to ensure employees’ well-being.