Yesterday, we had the honour of presenting our project and the preliminary results of our research to representatives from the European Commission's Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), the coordinators of the Pact for Skills' Large-Scale Partnership for the Retail Ecosystem - EuroCommerce and UNI Europa - and JA Europe, representing the European Skills4Retail Consortium.

During the meeting, the research team from the Digital Economy Lab at the University of Warsaw shared key insights from their comprehensive "Analysis of AI Skills Needs and Gaps in Retail", an extensive research work conducted in our consortium countries: Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania.

It was a pleasure to explore potential synergies with complementary EU initiatives:

• The Large-Scale Partnership (LSP) for the Retail Ecosystem, part of the European Commission's Pact for Skills, supports the creation of synergies among various stakeholders in the retail sector, facilitating collaboration and helping to develop common initiatives at all levels to upskill and reskill employees in wholesale and retail across the EU;
• Skills4Retail is an EU-funded skills strategy and vocational education and training (VET) program that supports growth and sustainability in retail and wholesale. Led by market and industry needs, this project bridges the growing digital skills gap in retail, equipping the EU workforce for a dynamic, sustainable future.

We look forward to sharing more exciting developments soon.