From 9 to 11 December 2025, Bialystok University of Technology hosted 25 representatives of the SKILLBRIDGE consortium from Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, Spain, and Serbia. The meeting marked the start of the project “Shaping the Future of Deep Tech Work and Skills through Alliances for Education and Enterprises”, co-financed with €1.8 million under the prestigious Erasmus+ Alliances for Innovation competition.
Partnership for Innovation
The SKILLBRIDGE project is a success from the outset. Its proposal competed against 350 others in the Erasmus+ Alliances for Innovation call. Ultimately, only 24 projects received funding. The initiative is led by the Polish Technology Partners Foundation, with Prof. Rafael Popper, an expert in sustainable innovation management and visiting professor at Bialystok University of Technology for the past two years, as the main coordinator.
Read more: Professor Rafael Popper joined Bialystok University of Technology
– We had a very well-thought-out strategy for building this alliance. In each of the five partner countries, we created a triad: a university, a vocational training center, and a technology park or innovation hub. This arrangement allows us to establish durable national-level collaboration bridges, which we then connect into a European network, – explains Rafael Popper.
Goal: Digital and Green Transformation
The main aim of SKILLBRIDGE is to close the skills gap between what schools and universities teach and what modern industry needs.
– We face a major challenge: modernizing education at universities and vocational schools, – says Łukasz Nazarko, PhD, project manager on behalf of Bialystok University of Technology. – We want to embed deep tech competencies, such as artificial intelligence, automation, and cybersecurity, into education. But that’s not all. These hard skills will be combined with green competencies based on sustainable development principles and strategic foresight skills.
Łukasz Nazarko, PhD from the Faculty of Management Engineering also emphasizes that the SKILLBRIDGE project aims to prepare graduates from universities and vocational schools for new challenges. They will actively contribute to digital and green transformation in Poland and Europe once they enter the labour market.
Tools for the Future: Foresight and Artificial Intelligence
The SKILLBRIDGE project focuses on modernizing curricula by developing advanced digital competencies: deep tech, artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, Industry 4.0 technologies, and so-called green competencies (technical, social, and managerial).
– The future depends on us, and technologies are evolving faster than educational programs, – notes Rafael Popper. – Five years ago, no one talked about AI; today, it is ubiquitous. Teachers often don’t know how to use it effectively. This project studies future professions and skills and then modernizes the content and teaching methods. This way, a student acquiring knowledge today will be ready for tomorrow’s challenges.
Bialystok University of Technology plays a key role in SKILLBRIDGE, leading the work package on curriculum modernization. The modernization will include designing new courses, improving course content according to the latest knowledge, proposing innovative teaching methods, and updating reference materials. Modern approaches such as immersive storytelling, virtual and augmented reality tools, and artificial intelligence will be used.
Project Outcomes
One of the lasting results of the project will be the establishment of a network of Foresight and Innovation Centres (CFI). Their task will be to support educational and business institutions in strategic future thinking and effective acquisition of European funds.
– CFI is an organizational framework that will help institutions engage in a systematic process of thinking about the future of technology and the economy, prepare foresight analyses—not in a one-off act, but continuously, feeding the modernization of education and supporting universities in defining strategic directions in their curricula, – explains Łukasz Nazarko.
International Consortium
The SKILLBRIDGE project brings together 14 institutions from 5 countries. Poland is represented by the Technology Partners Foundation (Leader), Bialystok University of Technology (the only higher education institution from Poland), and INFOTECH Schools (Technical Secondary School and High School in Bialystok).
Bialystok University of Technology is the sole representative of the Polish academic community. The university project team, which will include representatives from all six faculties of BUT, will be led by Łukasz Nazarko, PhD (team leader) and Justyna Grześ-Bukłaho, PhD (deputy leader).
Foreign partners include leading universities, vocational schools, and innovation centres from Lithuania (Vilnius), Croatia (Zagreb), Spain (Barcelona), and Serbia (Belgrade).
SKILLBRIDGE consortium members:
Technology Partners Foundation (coordinator/leader), Poland
Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
INFOTECH Schools – Technical Secondary School and High School in Bialystok, Poland
Manufacturing Innovation Valley, Lithuania
Vilnius University, Lithuania
Vilnius Vocational College of Technologies and Business, Lithuania
Zagreb Innovation Centre, Croatia
University of Zagreb, Croatia
Učilište Studium, Croatia
La Salle Technova Barcelona, Spain
La Salle – Ramon Llull University, Spain
Business Technology Incubator of Technical Faculties Belgrade, Serbia
Belgrade Metropolitan University, Serbia
Petnica Science Center, Serbia
The interdisciplinary SKILLBRIDGE project received €1.8 million in funding under Erasmus+ Alliances for Innovation. Its implementation will last three years.
Author: Monika Rokicka
