European Talent Support Network (ETSN) founded in September 2015 celebrates its 5th anniversary in September 2020

The European Talent Support Network (ETSN), established with the substantial contribution of the European Council of High Ability (ECHA), managed by Hungarian President Professor Péter Csermely in the last 8 years, celebrates its 5^th anniversary on 29 September 2020. We have drawn up a short summary of the achievements and chronology of the first five years of ETSN.

The European Talent Support Network was officially founded on 29 September 2015 in the Brussels European Parliament building, in the presence of senior EU officials and MEPs. The founders were the first 14 winner European Talent Centres of the call announced by the ECHA Qualification Committee. The applicant countries committed themselves inter alia to the deployment of a Talent Centre/Talent Point system and to developing a registration system for institutions engaged in talent support activities (Talent Points). The first meeting of Talent Centre representatives held at the same place, with the participation of these 14 centres, adopted the guidelines for the criteria of European Talent Point status.

In the years that followed (2016-2019) the above call has been announced annually, together with calls for Talent Points; as a result, there were 21 active Talent Centres in Europe and 4 outside Europe by early 2020. There were two in each of Austria, Belgium and Germany; one each in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. The four non-European TCs were in India, Peru, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The number of European Talent Points, present in 47 countries already, has exceeded 400. In practice, this means that ETSN is the organisation gathering the highest number of talent-support-focused organisations, however different they might be, in Europe, more than half of which come from European public education institutions.

ETSN increasingly focuses on the coordination of joint European work and the quality assurance of its operation. Therefore, it has been managed since end-2016 by a 5-strong elected Network Council (NC), with Csilla Fuszek from the European Talent Centre within MATEHETSZ acting as Network Council coordinator, and Prof Dr Albert Ziegler as president elected for the second time.

Work within ETSN has led to creating the website and newsletter of the Network (TalentWeb). The annual number of copies of the newsletter has been increased gradually, and it has acquired a special profile with mainly European best practices in talent support in the focus. The newsletter has provided a self-presentation opportunity for several Hungarian best practices in this field. The Network website features a so-called European Talent Map with basic information about the associated organisations.

The year 2019 was marked by ETSN becoming a registered European NGO and by the drafting of its rules of organisation and operation: Articles adopted by the members of the Network almost unanimously (with one abstention). This, of course, has altered the relationship between ECHA and ETSN, as set out in a mutual cooperation agreement. The main difference was that the Qualification Committee became part of ETSN.

The summit of the European Youth Platform has been organised annually since 2016, with the exception of this year (2020). It was hosted by Vienna, Budapest, Dublin and Dubrovnik, and gave the youth an annual opportunity to get acquainted with ETSN in more depth, to present their own education systems, and delve into the issues of talent support.

The Hungarian Talent Centre has organised so-called “Budapest meetings” annually since 2016 for representatives of the Talent Centres of the Network, to pass key strategic decisions, present new Talent Points and establish new network contacts – this meeting could be called the “soul” of ETSN. For the known reasons, we could only organise an on-line meeting in 2020 so far, dedicated to the analysis of changes due to Covid-19.

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Budapest Meetings of Talent Centre representatives, 2016, 2017

As can be seen from the above, ETSN is a young and dynamically developing network; it has acquired hundreds of institution members over 5 years, and it is becoming increasingly well-known globally. Hopefully, this dynamism will prevail in the next 5 years, and intra-Network contacts will strengthen.

Links and articles/writings referred to in the text and in the chronology below will hopefully give the reader an opportunity to study the development of the Network in more depth.
 

Brief chronology of European Talent Support Network events after the 2016 ECHA General Assembly

2015

1. 29 September: Brussels, European Union Parliament Building; Foundation of the European Talent Support Network by the first 14 Talent Centres qualified by the ECHA Qualification Committee; 1^st official meeting of EU Talent Centre representatives
2. 15 October: The ECHA Qualification Committee invites European or in case of Associated Centres non-European talent support organisations to submit their application to become European or Associated European Talent Centres

2016

3. 3 March: 5^th meeting of the Qualification Committee (Vienna)
4. 10 April: 2^nd Call to be a European Talent Centres was published
5. 20 April: successful promotion of the European Talent Support Network in Ljubljana, Slovenia involving 28 European Talent Points in Slovenia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia
6. 8 May: 12 proposals from 11 countries received for the 2^nd Call to be European Talent Centres
7. 10 June:  6^th meeting of the Qualification Committee (Dublin); in July, five new European Talent Centres were accepted from Denmark, Germany and Greece and two Associated European Talent Centres from India and Peru
8. July: the Youth Platform of the European Talent Support Network (having at that time 33 members from 15 countries) elected its interim representative, Armin Fabian, and his deputy Lukas Kyzlik
9. August: the Youth Platform published its description and membership criteria
10. 30 September: 261 proposals received  for the second call on European Talent Points
11. October: election of the 1^st Council of the European Talent Support Network: Albert Ziegler president/chairman, Csilla Fuszek coordinator/secretary, Colm O’Reilly treasurer / Antonios Apostolou / Mojca Jurisevic
12. 27 October: 1^st meeting of the interim Youth Platform Council in Budapest
13. 28 October: 2^nd official meeting of the EU Talent Centre representatives in Budapest
14. 28-29 October: 1^st meeting of the Network Council in Budapest
15. December: election of the first Council of the Youth Platform: Marco Agozzino (Italy), Armin Fabian (Romania), Liliana Gerse (Austria), Lukas Kyzlik (Czech Republic) and Elle Loughran (Ireland)

2017

16. 29 March – 2 April: 2^nd Second European Youth Summit held in Budapest with 63 participants from 17 countries and 20 nationalities (Summits in the future will be held at the ECHA International/Thematic Conference of that year)
17. 31 March: 1^st Network Council meeting in 2017 in Budapest
18. June 2017: homepage of the European Talent Support Network goes live
19. 19 June: 3^rd Call to become a European Talent Point issued (application process made continuous from the beginning of 2018 )
20. 3 August: 3^rd Call to become a European Talent Centre was issued on the ETSN website
21. 20 September: 2^nd Network Council meeting in Ljubljana
22. 22 October: 9 proposals received from 9 different countries to the 3^rd Call to become a European Talent Centre:
23. 16 October: after careful preparation, a summary of the needs of gifted and talented young individuals drafted by he First European Youth Summit in Vienna, 2016 was published: 
24. 11-14 November: Youth Platform Council and Project leaders meeting in Budapest
25. 23 November: ECHA Qualification Committee meeting in Dublin; new European Talent Centres accepted from Belgium, Portugal and Spain as well as a new Associated Centre from the United Arab Emirates.
26. 24 November: 3^rd Network Council meeting in Dublin

2018

27. 11 January: the European Talent Support Network started its regular Newsletter called TalentWeb
28. 9 February: 3^rd official meeting of European Talent Centre representatives in Budapest and 1^st Network Council meeting in 2018
29.  By January: altogether around 350 Talent Points of 42 countries had registered to the Network, and the number of European Talent Centres rose from 14 to 23, including 20 European and 3 non-European ones (located in the United Arab Emirates, in India and in Peru, respectively), over the 2.5 years since the first meeting
30. April: the European Talent Support Network started its plans to become a European NGO and formulated its Articles – please find it enclosed as an Annex of this report.
31. June: Youth Platform Project in the Czech Republic organized by Czech Talent Centre -
32. 8 August: 2^nd  issue of the TalentWeb was sent out
33. 10 August 1^st ETSN General Assembly meeting during the ECHA Conference
34. 8-11 August: 3^rd European Youth Summit was held in Dublin parallel with the ECHA Conference
35. 15 October: 4^th  Call for application to be a European Talent Centre or an Associated European Talent Centre in the European Talent Support Network
36. December: Election of the 2^nd  Council of the European Talent Support Network: Albert Ziegler president/chairman, Csilla Fuszek coordinator/secretary, Colm O’Reilly treasurer / Antonios Apostolou / Mojca Jurisevic

2019

37. January: Election of the Youth Platform Council of the ETSN
38. 21. January: ETSN Council Meeting, Nürnberg
39. 4 April: 3^rd issue of the TalentWeb was sent out
40. 4-6 April: 4^th official meeting of EU Talent Centre representatives in Budapest; ETSN Network Council meeting, Budapest
41. 30 May: 2^nd ETSN General Assembly meeting – on-line voting on the Article; out of the voting 97 institutions 95 voted yes  and 2 abstained
42. 11 July: Registration of the ETSN in the Netherlands
43. 2 September: 4^th issue of the TalentWeb was sent out
44. 15-19 October 4^th European Youth Summit was held in Dubrovnik parallel with the ECHA Conference
45. 15 October: 3^rd ETSN General Assembly meeting
46. 23 November: ETSN Network Council meeting, Dublin
47. 24 November: Launch of the EGIFT project, Dublin
48. 29 November:  5^thCall for Application to be a European Talent Point or to be an Associated European Talent Point
49. 29 November:  5^thCall for application to be a European Talent Centre or an Associated European Talent Centre in the European Talent Support Network
50. 5 December: 5^th issue of the TalentWeb was sent out

2020

51. By the beginning of the year, ETSN had 25 Talent Centre and more than 400 Talent Points in 47 Countries
52. 28-29 February: Youth Platform Council meeting, Budapest and on-line, preparation of the Youth Summit Guideline
53. 8 April: Network Council on-line meeting
54. 17 April: 6^th issue of the TalentWeb
55. 9 May: 5^th (1^st on-line) meeting of EU Talent Centre representatives
56. 14 May: ETSN on-line Qualification Committee meeting
57. 11. June: Network Council on-line meeting
58. 23 June: 7^th issue of the TalentWeb
59. 2. July: Network Council on-line meeting on the Qualification Process