Project CHAISE (Blockchain Skills for Europe)
A collaborative initiative aimed at bridging the gap between the fast-evolving blockchain technology and the workforce in Europe. Launched in November 2020, the project seeks to improve the employability of European citizens by providing them with the necessary skills and knowledge to work with blockchain technology. The project was founded by a consortium of partners that currently includes 23 members, including the University of Claude Bernard Lyon, INATBA (International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications), FUJITSU, Digital Europe, IOTA, Italia4Blockchain and others, both from private and public sector.
The project is co – funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ program, which provides funding for education, training, youth, and sport projects. The Erasmus+ program provides financial support to projects that help improve the skills and employability of European citizens.
Project Mission and Timeline
Project CHAISE has a timeline of four years, starting from November 2020 to October 2024. During this period, the project aims to develop a „European approach to respond to to prevailing skills and training challenges faced by the blockchain sector“. In practical terms, it has come up with a series of labour market studies, reports, forecasts and analyses, as well as a comprehensive registry of blockchain education offerings , and other useful resources (full list can be found here: Publications & Reports – Chaise Blockchainskills (chaise-blockchainskills.eu ).
The project also seeks to establish a blockchain skills certification progrm and a community of blockchain professionals in Europe.
One interesting fact about Project CHAISE is that it has received widespread support from industry experts, academia, and policymakers. The project has also received recognition from various international bodies, including the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) and the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA).
Project Governance
The project is coordinated by members of the Advisory Borad. This group includes 17 experts, nominated by the founding organizations. Unlike Digital Europe’s website, project CHAISE’s page does not includes names nor job titles of its advisory board members, it only includes names of the organizations these individuals are coming from. Similar, partly anonymous approach has been used in many of the project publications, where organizations are listed as authors, not the actual individuals / groups of individuals who created and coordinated the work.
What's in it for you?
As obviously stated above, the project members compiled and created a plethora of resources, helping young and growing businesses as well as individuals, navigate the European Blockchain space, including the ecosystem, labour market, as well as to keep up to speed with the trends in the industry from the perspective of the European Union. CHAISE’s contribution to promoting and helping build a European Blockchain community is also apparent and it actively invites new members to join the CHAISE Alliance .
Closing thoughts
This European Union – funded initiative is yet another proof of distributed ledger technology having its firm place in the future of digitally transforming society. Some would argue that initiatives like this seek to gain control of the blockchain industry and eliminate decentralized projects however upon closer inspection, you will find many of the well – established names representing decentralization in the crypto world, on the collaboration lists of various government – funded projects such as project CHAISE, which leads us to believe that the two worlds – decentralzied and centralized will co-exist in the future, subject to clear regulatory framework being defined by the official bodies.
In the next article, we are going to provide an overview of INATBA (International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications), one of the key CHAISE members, and author of the labour market reports and analyses we are going to review later in this series of articles.