NATO STO

A rather usual subject of discussions in the NATO context is how to promote a generational turnover in the activities, with particular reference to the scientific context. With this objective, a specific working group, the NATO 2030 Young Leaders Group, was created in 2020 whose main aim is providing fresh thinking on how approaching the emerging security challenges of the decade. The STO itself launched a number of initiatives, such as the SAS-148 Specialist Team on Best Practices in Recruitment and Retention of Early-Career Civilian Scientists for Defence S&T, that analyzed the issue of rejuvenating and establishing a dynamic, highly qualified workforce to addressing emerging challenges. Furthermore, a recently approved activity (SAS-ET-FH) aims to present a report on Gen-Z and Millennials perception of NATO, security forces in general, and understanding of their requirements for inclusion and orientation. One of the themes approached by the SAS-148 team was the relationships between academia and military education in order to attract young researchers. Even if the Technical Report created by SAS-148 focuses on post-graduated, the document dedicates a specific section to the pre-graduated students and what kind of incentives, mainly in terms of internship, are offered to the students by different military or industrial subjects. Do these incentives represent a consolidated way of acting in all NATO Nations? Are the NATO scientific activities sufficiently known in the Universities of different NATO Nations? Other that recurring to internships, are there other means to incentivize the students? Is there the possibility of creating specific and shared educational tools and procedures to homogenize the potential participation of pre-graduated students owing to all the NATO Nations. The proposed activity intends to try to provide an answer to these questions by preparing a possible roadmap to draw the attention of undergraduate students to the great opportunities offered by the research in the NATO context. In addition, in accordance with STO CPoW to attract the best and brightest S&T talents to work in NATO, the activity will be articulated in summer schools that will address the arguments above reported but, at the same time will provide a series of high-level technical lectures. This will give students a concrete understanding of the wide range of research topics addressed by NATO, and to further increase the degree of involvement of course participants, hands-on exercises of an interactive nature will be proposed. The plans to establish an advisory group of early career scientists to advise STB on the development and implementation of a NATO-funded CPoW educational program will also benefit from the proposed Activity. The Activity will contribute to a more diverse NATO scientific community. ITA, TUR and DEU have already conducted a number of preparatory meetings in which the organizational framework has been discussed and approved. HRV, which joined the team during the last SAS PBM, will be made aware immediately of all previous discussions. The intention is to conduct a serial of summer schools with Early-Career Civilian Scientists in order to inform about chances for scientific careers in NATO. The first will be held in Munich in the summer of 2024, followed by similar events in the other participating nations in subsequent years. Results and experiences will fuel further activities.