Nowadays, many European citizens face high risk of unemployment due to fast changing requirements of the job market. Technological changes, decreasing relevance of traditional working competencies and key meaning of new ones put many Europeans in high unemployment risk (i.e. due to automation or inadequacy of their competencies) or employment. Especially constant innovation related changes, new technologies or business models, create the need for fast adaptation and developing corresponding competences which are not immediately available at the job market.
In this scope, taking into account especially the major role of SMEs for EU economy, open innovation (OI) provides companies unique chances to engage in forefront innovation in face of often insufficient resources. This however requires recruiting specialised staff that could support OI processes. Despite increasing (and expected to increase further) role of such positions as OI specialist/manager, networks and partnerships coordinator, knowledge manager, managers struggle to source recruits with required competences in this scope, while many EU adults face unemployment or high unemployment risk.