Demographic change - one of the most urgent topics on the sustainability agenda - is galvanising politicians, business and society Europe-wide. The age structure of future populations significantly influences competitiveness and innovation strength, and is one of the most important location factors.
  

The idea

Companies have joined together with econsense to form a Laboratory "Demographic Change": a think tank to strategically tackle the challenges of demographic change in Europe. Effective dialogue with relevant stakeholders seeks to develop strategies for sustainable human resource policies in Europe, to assist companies with the paradigm shift, and to make an active contribution to strengthening competitiveness, and to the EU Commission`s CSR alliance.  
  

Dialogue with stakeholders

The work conducted by the laboratory focuses on dialogue workshops, which, in addition to transferring best practise, are particularly concentrated on harnessing the strengths of representatives from all relevant stakeholder groups - to systematically identify problems and future areas requiring action in each important area, and to develop concrete solutions. 
 

Scientific support

The platform for implementing this strategy is a study project at the Rostock Center for the Study of Demographic Change, which supports the work of the Laboratory by looking specifically at the risks associated with demographic changes, and how these affect companies working within the EU-27. The final results of the workshop and the online-tool were presented in Brussels on 8 May 2008 under the auspices of EU Commissioner Spidla. 

Learn more about the DEMOGRAPHIC RISK MAP! 

Workshops throughout Europe

The dialogue workshops are also relevant outside the laboratory context, where they can be institutionalised as a contribution to the CSR alliance, and further developed in the sense of a European tour. This opens up a unique opportunity of discussing with stakeholders the country-specific characteristics within the context of change within Europe, to look beyond one´s own fences, and to learn about new approaches.