Europe has the scientific excellence, talent and health system foundations to become a global leader in biotechnology. Yet despite these strengths, many promising innovations still struggle to move from research into clinical trials, large-scale development and commercialisation.   

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The new  EIT Health Think Tank report, Skills, Scale and Science: Uniting European Innovation Ecosystems through the Biotech Act, published in April 2026, makes the link between skills and commercial pathways explicit. Drawing on insights from 15 cross-sector health biotechnology experts, the report sets out what Europe can do to turn scientific excellence in the biotech sector into real-world impact as global competition accelerates. 

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The report arrives at a crucial geopolitical and EU policy moment.  

Biotechnology is increasingly recognised as a strategic sector for Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and technological sovereignty. The sector contributed €38.1 billion to EU GDP in 2022 and supports more than 913,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs across the Union - three quarters of them in the healthcare sector. However, Europe is experiencing a relative decline – global commercial trials have fallen by since 2012 and investment in European health biotech reached €25 billion between 2015 and 2025, compared to €219 billion in the US in the same period. At the same time, Europe accounted for 21% of the world’s top 10% publications in life sciences in 2022, close to China’s (24%) the United States (22%).  

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However, this strength is not translating into economic impact, and the EU stands to lose high-skilled jobs and the strategic capacity to produce the medical products citizens depend on.

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The gap between policy and industry needs

The European Biotech Act aims to improve biotech innovation from research and development through manufacturing, market access and scale-up. To achieve this Europe needs a specific workforce made up of translational researchers, regulatory professionals, clinical-trial staff, bioprocessing technicians, data and AI specialists, and operational leaders.  

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EITH’s report highlights skills gaps in the professional and commercial value chain that the Biotech Act needs to achieve its objectives. Critical skills gaps identified by the report emerge in the areas of translational development, manufacturing, regulatory expertise and commercialisation. BRIGHTskills’ own research, drawing on focus groups across digital transformation, AI and data, regulatory excellence, sustainability and leadership, also identified a growing demand for integrated skillsets that combine technical expertise with regulatory understanding and strong transversal competencies. However, as both BRIGHTskills and EITH identify even if Europe produces strong scientific talent, many professionals lack practical, industry-ready experience, and existing training programmes are not yet sufficient or agile enough to meet evolving industry needs.  

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From ambition to reality: what needs to change 

Bringing insights from cross-sector focus groups involving stakeholders from industry, academia, healthcare and entrepreneurship EITH's report emphasises the importance of more flexible, industry-aligned training, including modular courses and stronger collaboration between academia and industry to address strategic policy objectives and employer's workforce needs. The report’s findings identified five actions relevant to the BRIGHTskills community, requiring coordinated implementation across the European Commission, Member States and regional authorities — and, crucially, a workforce ready to put them into practice:

• Use new coordination bodies to amplify existing strengths and tackle challenges in funding and skills; Bodies should have clear, universal, understanding of skills gaps and employers’ workforce needs.

• Enable faster and more predictable multi-country clinical trial set-up by harmonising processes and reducing unnecessary administrative burden across Member States. Faster trials require companies to have trained regulatory professionals, clinical research staff and trial-management capacity.  

• Improve alignment across regulatory, market access and reimbursement pathways to create clearer routes to market for biotechnology products. Each time European regulation changes the workforce must be retrained.

• Offer tools, incentives and implementation support to translate the principles of the European Health Data Space into practice. In BRIGHTskills “implementation support” means concrete assets that bridge policy and frontline practice: short courses, train-the-trainer guides, competence frameworks for the data, AI and digital roles the EHDS will create. High data-protection standards and competitiveness can co-exist, but only if the workforce understands both.

• Strengthen Europe’s biotechnology workforce by linking existing skills and leadership programmes and enabling greater cross-border talent mobility. 

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These actions signal the need to adapt to more integrated and rapidly evolving regulatory and innovation environments. Professionals will increasingly require up-to-date regulatory knowledge, interdisciplinary skills and the ability to apply new frameworks in practice.  

BRIGHTskills is working to provide concrete contributions responding to employer's actual workforce needs. In addition, the project is working to strengthen training pathways by providing materials training providers can quickly deploy to improve workforce readiness, support innovation uptake and ensure Europe can translate its scientific excellence into real-world impact.  

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Looking ahead: from potential to impact 

The publication of this report comes at a timely moment, as Europe continues to shape the implementation of the Biotech Act and related policy initiatives. It´s central conclusion is both clear and constructive: Europe already has the foundations to lead in biotechnology, but it must now become better at connecting them. Stronger skills pipelines, better translational support, more coordinated ecosystems and improved innovation pathways will be essential if Europe is to remain competitive and resilient in the years ahead. 

Click here to read the full report

Discover the BRIGHTskills Training Courses here

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