In a world in upheaval, education and workforce development are more than ever essential levers to improve productivity and reduce inequalities. To achieve concrete results, all people in all economic spheres must be able to acquire the key skills that will enable them to understand, integrate and take advantage of today's changes. Failure to include the whole population in this movement is likely to accentuate social inequalities.
Under the leadership of principal researchers Benoit Dostie (HEC Montreal) and Fabian Lange (McGill University) for the Skills theme, Raquel Fonseca (ESG UQAM) and Markus Poschke (McGill University) for the Inequalities and Poverty theme, and under the coordination of Genevieve Dufour (CIRANO), activities for the 2025-2026 thematic year will focus on four interconnected themes:
- Education and training
- Impacts of digital innovation and AI
- Labour markets
- Inequality and poverty
The 2025 - 2026 annual theme will benefit from the strategic support of several key partners, such as the Chaire de recherche sur les enjeux économiques intergénérationnels (CREEi), the CIRANO Pole on the Socio-economic Impacts of Digital Intelligence, and the Observatoire international sur les impacts sociétaux de l'AI et du numérique (OBVIA), the partnership with the Centre de Recherche Mathématiques (CRM), and the collaboration with partners in the Programmation de recherche à portée gouvernementale (PRPG) involving various ministries such as the Ministère de l'Éducation (MEQ) and the Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur (MES), as well as the Conseil de l'innovation du Québec (CIQ).
