In January 2019 BEYOND4.0 started its journey with a 3-day Kick-off Meeting in Leiden, the Netherlands, and hometown of the project coordinator TNO. During those days the project partners introduced their teams and presented their ideas in carrying out the work in the coming years. About 28 persons participated from nine institutes: Warwick University, Technical University Dortmund, Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge (BU), University College London, University of Turku (FI), National conservatory of professions and jobs (FR), University of Helsinki, and the University of the Basque Country. The EC-Project Officer Kerstin Wilde joined the meeting and presented viewpoints how the EU regards monitoring our project. During the Meeting we visited the IT-company DECOS, a ‘paperless’ software building company who aims to maximise self-management among its staff.

In the period February-May several Work Package leaders made preparations to start the work. Meanwhile, relations were established with two sister projects of the same H2020 call. Technequality will study how technological innovations will impact social inequality and labour market outcomes, while Plus investigates how technology impacts workers and the labour process in the platform economy of urban areas in a selection of European cities. We will cooperate with both projects in upcoming events – such as the “European Week of Regions and Cities” (Brussels, October 2019) – and try to align our research activities.

In this period we launched the website www.beyond4-0.eu or .org and developed templates, logo’s, brochures, postcards and stickers. Also an Internal monthly newsletter saw the day of light. Some members of our consortium held presentations about our project, for example, at the ‘Technequality expert meeting’ (25 April), an ‘international trade union forum for the integration of Western Balkans’ (14 June) and on TV: ‘digitalization and disappearing profession on BlombergTV in Bulgaria’.

Palacio Municipal de Miramar, San Sebastian

The University of the Basque Country and the local government of Gipuzkoa province hosted the 1st BEYOND4.0 Summer School 2019: ‘Work and Welfare in the Digital Age: what we know and what more we need to know’ (3-5 June 2019, San Sebastian). About 40 participants stemming from BEYOND4.0-partners, local policy makers / researchers / consultants, Technequality, Plus, Eurofound, and a diverse group of PhD Students, worked on and listened to, and engaged in the issue how to study digital transformation and social impacts in its many forms. This was a great preparation of our tasks in the various WPs. Two company visits were included in the programme. CAF S.A. is a large company building trains, and Irizar S. Coop. is smaller company building busses. In the first company a part of the employees owns shares, while the other company is a ‘cooperation of employees’.