TechConnect: a new European project to assess and strengthen human-tech skill complementarity, with the leadership of IRYCIS
TechConnect is an initiative funded by the UE whose purpose is to assess and enhance Human-Tech Skill Complementarity across multiple sectors. The consortium that will carry out the project is coordinated by the Trinity College Dublin and it represents leading institutions while ensuring a diverse geographical spread across Europe. This 3-year-project with 9 partners (GA nº 101177251) has been granted €3 million, within the scope of the Horizon Europe R&D programme, under the call "Assessing and strengthening the complementarity between new technologies and human skills" (HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-11).
As digital and other technologies raise questions regarding their impact on human labour and skills, TechConnect will investigate dynamic interactions between humans and digital technologies, along with their complementarity in skills. TechConnect aims to address this by integrating human skills with emerging technologies to ensure positive outcomes for workers and industries alike. It will encompass a variety of methods such as policy analysis, cross-sectorial industry landscape surveys and in-depth case studies in the healthcare sectors, amongst others.
The IRYCIS team is deeply involved in the analysis of the complementarity between human and technological competences across case studies from a systemic perspective and in the creation of an index of complementarity between human and technological competences based on affordability gap measurements. A multidisciplinary team from IRYCIS is going to participate in the research studies that will be carried out to detect dynamics in the use of technologies in everyday tasks in different biomedical sectors. This is expected to identify the main human, technological and organisational problems that delay the complementarity of competences and to build a predictive model to reinforce the complementarity of human-technological competences. Special mention should be made of the leading role of the IRYCIS team in data management throughout the project, which aims to ensure that the Data Management Plan (DMP) conforms to best practices and specific privacy, data protection and security standards for all data processing activities carried out by the consortium.
At our institution, the team is led by Dr. ELENA GARCÍA BARRIOCANAL PI of Biomedical Data Science and Engineering group (Area 4 - Tools for advanced medicine) and she steers a team composed by Dr. MIGUEL ÁNGEL SICILIA, head of Biomedical Data Science and Engineering group (Area 4), Dr. JULIO ACERO, head of Computer-assisted simulation and personalised surgery group, Dr. EZEQUIEL HIDALGO rehabilitation specialist physician and Dr. SONIA CAMAÑO, head of IRYCIS Biobank.
Grounded in the research-informed, evidence-based and practice-driven approaches, TechConnect will make a meaningful impact on the quality of employment and competitiveness, contributing to social and economic resilience by the alleviation of the 4Ds: "Dull, Dirty, Dangerous or Dear tasks"
"Congratulations to IRYCIS team for its strong leadership in this new European project focused on the generation of AI tools for improving Europe's competitivity and improving AI use."
