New actions for skills and competences for safe use of current and future nuclear technologies

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to complement and expand the outcomes of HORIZON-EURATOM-2024-NRT-01-02 by contributing to the following:

• Design and implement an action for establishing a European Nuclear Skills Academy, unifying the strategic direction and promoting standardised curricula across all qualification levels (from vocational to academic), thereby contributing to a more coordinated, EU-wide response to the skills shortage. The project will include a demonstration of recognition of learning outcomes and/or acquired skills between organisations in different Member States.
• Launch targeted training programmes, building on existing ones, specifically for critical areas such as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and advanced reactors. This includes building specialised expertise within national regulatory authorities for independent safety assessment of facilities and design concepts, enabling rigorous, efficient licensing, and ensuring rapid deployment and the highest safety standards.
• Complement existing mobility schemes with targeted actions for the most critical professions, tailored to regulatory and industry needs, generating evidence and good practices that can feed into future, larger-scale mobility and skills initiatives.
• The European Nuclear Skills Academy should serve as preparation and as a basis for the possible Net Zero Industry Academy, and for other future related initiatives that may follow the review announced in the Communication on the Union for Skills.

Scope:

This topic builds upon the Skills for Nuclear action and contributes to the expected outcomes specified in topic HORIZON-EURATOM-2024-NRT-01-02. The demand for workers is increasing across all levels and sub-sectors of the nuclear ecosystem – construction workers, technicians, nuclear engineers and scientists, skilled power plant operators, nuclear-aware generalists, and regulatory staff to assess and license new projects.

The recent policy documents, in particular the Communication on the Nuclear Illustrative Programme PINC (^[1]), the Net Zero Industry Act (^[2]), and the Draghi report (^[3]), underline the need for EU action on nuclear skills. These documents emphasise that delivering Member States’ plans for lifetime extensions and new nuclear build-up to 2050 will require substantial investments and a rapid strengthening of nuclear skills and regulatory staffing across the EU to safely implement nuclear plans. This, combined with long lead times to train highly specialised nuclear professionals and regulators, makes early, coordinated EU action on nuclear skills both justified and urgent.

The Nuclear Skills Strategy planned within the Skills for Nuclear project should be complemented by a European Nuclear Skills Academy for attracting, developing and retaining talent, particularly considering existing installations and plans for new build with both current and emerging technologies. Together, the strategy and the preparatory action for the Academy funded under this topic will inform future EU measures on nuclear skills and will also ensure that the EU nuclear sector is well organised and ready to contribute to the future architecture of EU skills-related actions from the outset. The establishment and implementation of the Academy should be informed, as necessary and appropriate, by the outcomes of the review of existing Skills Academies announced in the Communication on the Union for Skills^[4].

The Academy will serve as an EU umbrella initiative bridging education, research and industry, that builds upon all ongoing EU activities, develops complementary training actions, and offers strategic advice to support future initiatives. It will make use of the European Qualification Framework (EQF), the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and (micro-)credentials to support harmonisation and recognition of skills acquired in the Academy. It should cover all relevant EQF levels, ranging from 3 to 8, including the Academic (University or equivalent - EQF 6, 7, 8), as well as Vocational Bachelor and Advanced Vocational programmes (Higher VET – EQF, 5, 6, 7), and Upper Secondary programmes (Lower VET - EQF 3, 4). The activities should lead to the development of a unified EU framework for validating and certifying nuclear skills, demonstrating recognition between organisations in different Member States. This framework aims to break down national barriers to facilitate cross-border workforce mobility, thereby ensuring a resilient, integrated labour market.

The action should explore the possibilities of joint activities involving regulatory bodies and plan specific measures when appropriate, as the assessment of advanced reactors will require different expertise that needs to be built up. European safety authorities should have human resources that are appropriately proportionate and tailored to the tasks they are assigned. These human resources are essential for addressing current challenges in the areas of reactor lifetime extension, small modular reactor (SMR) projects, radioactive waste management, and nuclear fusion. These human resources need to enable safety authorities to carry out their missions with the necessary rigour and independence, based on robust scientific data and in accordance with guidelines set by public authorities.

In this respect, the action shall seek synergies and avoid duplications with the on-going Commission’s support to national nuclear safety regulatory authorities for collaborative and coordinated approaches to emerging challenges in the nuclear sector^[5].

In a spirit of promoting the EU’s strategic leadership on nuclear safety, coordinated action will also be sought with the training activities financed under the European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation.

The consortium will include a variety of stakeholders from industry, research and training organisations, academia, and professionals in the fields of education and human resources management. Regulatory bodies shall also be represented.

Where appropriate, the Commission recommends that consortia use the services of the JRC. The JRC may participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. The JRC would bear the operational costs for its own staff and the research infrastructure operational costs. The JRC facilities and expertise are listed in General Annex H of this Work Programme.

[1] COM/2025/315, https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/nuclear-energy/nuclear-investment-needs_en

[2]

[3] https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/draghi-report_en

[4] COM(2025)90, see also https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/union-skills_en

[5] Granted under decision C(2024)8345 published on https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/funding-and-financing/financing-decisions_en