Research report

Nathalie Greenan, Silvia Napolitano, Valeria Cirillo, Matteo Deleidi, Steven Dhondt, Maria Luisa Divella, Gerben Hulsegge, Roy Peijen, Nico Pintar, Francesco Prota, Wolfram Rhomberg

Bridges WP2 assesses the transformations of jobs in the context of so-called “fourth industrial revolution” and the necessary workforce skills for the development of Industry 5.0.
This document presents a measurement framework and a data strategy on which the WP2
partners have built a consensus, taking into account the results of WP1 and based on a
literature review and internal seminars. It includes a first overview of the possible
operationalisation of the concepts used in WP2 with the selected data sources.
WP2 mobilises the available statistical information to analyse the relationship between the
digital and green transformation and its outcomes regarding human-centricity, resilience and sustainability.

We will conduct four tasks in interaction using and combining in innovative ways existing
high-quality data sources. Two tasks will develop an EU-wide level statistical perspective at
the sectoral (T2.2) and regional (T2.3) levels. Two other tasks will elaborate further through
an in-depth statistical approach in five countries (T2.4) and in the manufacturing sector
(T2.5). This report summarises the results of the first task of WP2 (T2.1), which objective is
to analyse different data sources from the same theoretical point of view to be able to
compare the results obtained from the various tasks and to draw clear conclusions from them.

The measurement framework develops around some key ideas:
I. Technology requires a significant number of social and political choices,
signifying that it is neither deterministic nor neutral. As such, our focus lies on
organisations strategic choices to increase their productive knowledge. The central
idea of our measurement framework revolves indeed around the role of knowledge,
which we consider a collective resource transcending the confines of individual
firms
II. We identify Industry 5.0 practices as those that produce the knowledge inputs
needed to achieve the objectives of Industry 5.0. They lie in tangible and intangible
investments that increase the stock of knowledge about the production process. We
identify four categories of investments: in the learning capacity of the organisation,
in the environment preservation capacity and in the adoption and use of digital
and green technologies. These investments are interdependent, and synergies can
be created by combining them. These practices generate innovations resulting from
the implementation of new ideas in the production process, which we describe as
knowledge outputs.
III. We then look at the outcomes of the implemented Industry 5.0 practices grouped
under the three objectives of Industry 5.0, human-centricity, resilience and
sustainability, to assess whether and to what extent organisations’ strategic choices
are effective in moving towards Industry 5.0.
IV. We recognise that organisations are embedded in larger structures like Global Value
Chains (GVC), sectors or territories, which influence their market power, production,
adoption of technology, absorptive capacity, likely to orient their strategies. We
therefore take into account the possible levers and barriers to achieving Industry
5.0 by including context scenarios as transversal to our measurement framework.