A digital toolkit for fair green and digital labour market transitions
Europe’s green and digital transitions are changing the jobs people do, the skills they need and the opportunities available across regions. To help understand these shifts and support evidence-based policy, the EU-funded ISABEL(opens in new window) project has developed a set of digital tools to help researchers and policymakers ensure that the way in which regional labour markets are being transformed is socially fair, geographically balanced and economically sustainable. The project was launched in 2025 to study how the green and digital transitions are reshaping employment across Europe. A year later, having completed its conceptual and methodological research, ISABEL has delivered the initial versions of its digital research and policy support tools. These tools will help generate valuable information on the transition-driven transformation of Europe’s regional labour markets.
Platforms, data shops and observatories
During the first phase of the project, the team set up a multidimensional conceptual framework that helped it to identify industries, occupations and skills likely to face either increased risks or new opportunities from the green and digital transitions. It also reviewed research methods and policy approaches to get a better grasp of how labour markets are changing. This scientific foundation has now resulted in the first tools forming part of ISABEL’s integrated digital research ecosystem. A major component is the ISABEL Platform, a user-friendly digital environment combining labour market data, AI, document processing and visualisation services. “Designed with transparency and data security in mind, the platform enables researchers and policymakers to access and analyse information through a single environment while ensuring that data remain within the European research infrastructure,” reports an ISABEL press release(opens in new window). The ISABEL Platform will serve as the central hub for accessing all the project’s outputs. Another tool is SNAP (Smart oNe-stop digitAl data shoP), an open-access research environment that combines primary and secondary datasets on jobs, skills and socio-economic conditions across European regions. SNAP allows researchers to explore scientific literature, analyse data and generate tailored datasets through user-friendly interfaces, enabling real-time regional labour market analytics. ISABEL has also released the first version of FAROROMO (FAir gReen transitiOn of Regional labOur Markets Observatory), its regional observatory tracking job creation and destruction. FAROROMO leverages interactive maps, dashboards and visual analytics to help users visualise regional shifts in European employment, highlighting the disparate effects of the green and digital transitions. To support these tools, ISABEL has created a European regional labour market database that offers greater detail on labour market restructuring than conventional employment statistics do. It has also developed web crawlers to automatically gather labour market data from sources such as online job advertisements, policy documents and patent databases.
Beyond tool development
ISABEL is conducting large-scale surveys with employers and workers in its six living labs in Denmark, Greece, Poland, Serbia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Their purpose is to examine employment history and transitions, recruitment practices and changing skill needs. In the second half of the project, the ISABEL (mInimize coSts and mAximize Benefits in the transitionary European regional Labour markets) team will hold interviews, focus groups, workshops and co-creation activities in these living labs to further improve and validate the ISABEL Platform, SNAP, FAROROMO and the forthcoming Digital Policy Writer Assistant. Analytical insight, forecasting capabilities and policy support services will be progressively integrated into the platform. These efforts will help create an even broader ecosystem that addresses real user needs, delivering practical support for labour market analysis and evidence-based, region-specific policymaking throughout Europe. For more information, please see: ISABEL project website(opens in new window)
