On November 6 and 7, the International Congress of “The Great Transformation of Work” was developed. The Congress was organized by the International Doctoral School of Human Capital Formation and Labour Relations of the University of Bergamo (Italy) and ADAPT. By reading the programme, one may understand the significance of the topics discussed and the top-level quality of the speakers.

This annual Congress promotes an approach to different papers and research projects developed by ADAPT that address the main issues that the organization investigates: the evolution of the visions of labour; challenges and opportunities that come from technological development; the crisis of subordination; the role of high level training and research projects in non-academic areas; the way in which representation structures and traditional forms of dialogue change; and, finally, the problems and opportunities that arise from demographic changes, particularly migration flows and ageing societies. It is the most important research centre in Italy on these matters.

ADAPT with its international network and its recent initiative – CIELO (Community for Labour Studies and Researches)-, is in the middle of an exploratory phase, together with staffingamericalatina, of multiple cooperation and collaboration opportunities between both organizations. As of now, staffingamericalatina has become one of the collaborative entities of CIELO.

ADAPT is a non-profit organization created by Marco Biagi in the year 2000 that seeks to promote studies and research projects about Labour Law and Industrial Relations. Since 2007 ADAPT is also a Doctoral School on Industrial Relations. Currently, ADAPT is a solid and well-known research network, financed by 80 collective partners and is formed by almost 150 researchers and PhD candidates. Activities are spread through a network of almost 30.000 people enrolled in their newsletters (written in Italian, English and Spanish).

The strength of ADAPT has always been to value the international dimension of its researches and, nowadays, has over 40 international collaboration agreements with research centres and universities from all over the world. Together with its international partners, ADAPT develops research projects, papers and international events.

Martín Padulla, Managing Director of staffingamericalatina, is already a member of the new international community of Spanish speaking professors and researchers that ADAPT recently launched called CIELO (International Community for Labour Studies) . CIELO has around 150 members, including professors, researchers, lawyers and scholars who come from Spain, Latin America, Italy and Portugal. They study different themes related to work and industrial relations and are committed to the goals and principles established in CIELO’s Manifesto.

CIELO’s objective is to build an Open Access network for the Spanish speaking population similar to the ones there are in English speaking nations (particularly the Labour Law Research Network and the IZA – Institute for the Study of Labour).

CIELO’s webpage is an Open Access collector of studies and useful material for investigations and scientific information about the world of work in Spanish speaking countries. During the next few weeks CIELO will also launch a newsletter, made possible thanks to the contributions of all the members of the community.

It is an initiative that follows the example of ADAPT, which has worked as a community and over the past 15 years has gained several international projects and financed almost 300 PhD candidates and scholarship researchers.

We all live under the same CIELO (the Spanish word for sky) and our goal can be no other than to overcome the current limits of individual investigation and public financing, to contribute and build the future of work together using strong alliances among the academic world, social interlocutors, public institutions, foundations and institutions.

An international autonomous and independent network of collaborators, represents a unique opportunity to build together the future of work, having an impact not only on scientific reflection, but on legislative production, education and training policies, on the dynamics of national Social Security systems. In other words, on the construction of a modern, global and inclusive labour market.

Next year the First International Open Congress will be developed in Portugal, an important event for the Future of Work.