Attraction needs direction

What comes after talent chooses Europe?

Europe is increasingly attractive to global talent. Its universities, research strengths and innovation ecosystems give students, researchers and founders compelling reasons to build their futures here.

That was the starting point for the Choose Europe panel, an online webinar hosted by the EIT Higher Education Initiative. It brought together Jovana Chakir (Educational Strategy & People Development Leader, Crimson Education), Rajarshi Rakesh S. (MD & CEO, RJB Renewable Holdings BV), Sarah Anto (Founder, FundHER), Annelies Van de Ven (Policy Officer, European Commission, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions), and Viviana Rojas (Founder & Community Leader, PersonalBranding.pe and DigitalMente) to examine Europe’s offer to global talent.

Yet the panel did not stay focused on attraction for long. It moved to a more pressing question: what happens after talent arrives?

Can students see a future beyond graduation? Can researchers find the right pathways? Can founders move from idea to growth without getting lost in fragmented systems?

Europe has no shortage of opportunity. The challenge is making those opportunities visible, connected and easier to navigate.

Talent chooses futures, not institutions

One observation surfaced early in the conversation: students no longer choose universities in isolation. To them, education may be the point of entry, but they begin thinking about what comes next long before graduation.

Drawing on her work with internationally mobile students, Jovana Chakir explained that rankings and degree programmes are only part of the decision. Students also look at the opportunities around them: careers, research, networks and entrepreneurship, alongside the life that becomes possible during and after graduation.

Viviana Rojas reinforced this point with her own journey from Latin America to Europe. Education, she explained, can create access to opportunities that may otherwise remain out of reach. Europe continues to attract people because it offers knowledge, mobility, networks and the possibility of a different future.

Europe’s task is to make the journey from study to opportunity easier to see and follow.

Europe has the offer, but it needs a clearer story

Europe also has a tendency to undersell itself.

Several of the panellists reflected on the clarity with which other innovation destinations communicate their offer. Silicon Valley has become shorthand for entrepreneurship. Singapore has built a strong identity around innovation, connectivity and growth.

But Europe’s challenge is different.

Its strengths are substantial, but often presented in isolation: research excellence, quality of life, entrepreneurship support, public investment, healthcare and social stability. Together, they form a far more powerful proposition.

Sarah Anto introduced the idea of a distinctly European dream: not a copy of another region’s model, but a confident expression of Europe’s own strengths. Strong public institutions, access to education, research infrastructure, healthcare, innovation ecosystems and quality of life already form a compelling offer.

The task is to tell that story clearly.

Attraction and retention are part of the same journey

The most practical part of the conversation was also one of the most revealing.

The panel did not begin with abstract policy debates. It talked about housing, visas, bank accounts, language support, internships and the uncertainty that often follows graduation. These issues rarely dominate conversations about competitiveness, yet they shape whether talent can settle, belong and build a future.

Jovana noted that students continue choosing Europe after they arrive. Viviana added that the problem is often not a lack of opportunity, but fragmented information. Scholarships, internships and support programmes may exist, but they are spread across institutions, platforms and processes.

Rajarshi Sahai stressed the importance of stronger connections between universities, industry, investors and communities. These links often determine whether an initial opportunity becomes a lasting commitment.

Founders feel this friction most directly. Sarah contrasted the speed and scale of Silicon Valley with the stability, healthcare, public support and lower personal risk she found in Europe. Rajarshi also pointed to the regulatory complexity and fragmented markets that make scaling harder, while Viviana highlighted how often support is discovered too late.

Attraction and retention are not separate challenges. Retention begins the moment talent arrives.

Building on what already exists

Annelies Van de Ven brought an important note of perspective to the conversation: Europe is not starting from scratch.

Erasmus Mundus, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the European Research Council and other European mobility and research programmes already provide a strong foundation. Across Europe, many institutions are also showing what effective support can look like, from helping international students and researchers settle in to building stronger links between academia, industry and entrepreneurship.

The challenge is consistency. A talented person’s experience can still depend heavily on the institution, city or country they enter.

Annelies highlighted the value of peer learning and sharing successful approaches more widely. Progress does not always require a new programme or policy. Sometimes it means making proven solutions easier to adopt and scale.

The foundations already exist. The next step is making them work as a more coherent system.

The opportunity ahead

The clearest lesson from the conversation is that Europe’s challenge is no longer simply attracting talent. It is turning opportunity into a journey people can actually follow.

That means helping students see what comes after graduation, giving researchers clearer routes into long-term careers, and making it easier for founders to find the networks, support and capital they need. It also means ensuring that successful approaches can travel further and faster across Europe.

Europe already has many of the ingredients. The next step is to connect them more clearly, communicate them more confidently and make the experience more consistent.

Because when talent chooses Europe, arrival should not be the end of the decision.

It should be the beginning of what comes next.