Professor Maria Savona
Maria Savona, Professor of Innovation and Evolutionary Economics at SPRU – the Science Policy Research Unit in the University of Sussex Business School, has been appointed to the European Commission’s new High-Level Expert Group (HLG) on the Impact of the Digital Transformation on EU Labour Markets.
The creation of the HLG was announced on 7 May 2018 by the European Commission Directorates-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT) and Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (EMPL) to analyse the impact of the digital transformation on EU labour markets and advise the Commission on policy options to mitigate potential exclusionary effects.
Alongside Prof Savona and the group’s chair Prof Maarten Goos (University of Utrecht), a further eight members, representing a broad range of stakeholders and expertise across Europe, were appointed from over 80 applications received by the Commission.
HLG members will be responsible for:
- analysis of how to shape the transformation and what framework conditions to be put in place to make it smooth and human-centric;
- identification of the potential social impacts (risks and opportunities) of digitalisation, in particular the large-scale application of artificial intelligence, and the expected job losses and gains;
- developing responses to the impact digitalisation has on skills requirements;
- exploring viable ways to manage digitalisation's impact on labour law and working conditions;
- identifying ways to use digitalisation (in particular artificial intelligence) to make labour markets more inclusive;
- assessing the impact of digitalisation on income distribution and existing inequality and ways to respond to it;
- defining ways to adapt social security systems to ensure a high level of social protection for all forms of employment;
- evaluating mechanisms to adapt the tax and benefit system to ensure that fair contributions are paid and loopholes are avoided e.g. revision of taxation models;
- breaking down the potential effects of digitalisation by industry and sector of the economy.
The HLG met for the first time on 18 September 2018 in Brussels. With four more meetings planned, the HLG will issue its recommendations to the Commission before the end of February 2019. Prof Savona is in charge of organising the second HLG meeting on Inclusive Innovation and will be responsible for recommendations to the EC on Inclusive Innovation Policy. This relates to her recent work at SPRU, joint with Tommaso Ciarli, Alberto Marzucchi and Edgar Salgado-Chavez, on the ESRC TEMPIS project, which looks at the effects of innovation on employment and inequality in the UK local labour markets.
Commenting on the announcement of her appointment, Prof Savona, said: “I look forward to bringing an articulated SPRU and University of Sussex Business School view forward, and I trust this can be a chance of real impact. The exciting thing about this expert group is that it includes a variety of stakeholders and not just academics.”
Dean of the Business School, Prof Steve McGuire, congratulated Prof Savona: "'Professor Savona has an outstanding reputation for her work on the economics of innovation and its impact on the workplace. Maria's work has been influential in UK policy debates and her presence on the EU High-Level Group speaks to the esteem in which she is held.”