On April 22, 2022, at the end of the XXXIV PhD Cycle of the Doctoral Program in Labour, Development and Innovation at the Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, three PhD students of Prof. Silvia Muzzioli were awarded the PhD degree. Bernard De Baets acted as co-supervisor of Luca Gambarelli, with a thesis entitled "Assessing market risk in the EU", and also provided guidance to Filippo Damiani, with a thesis entitled "Innovation, social cohesion and inequalities in Europe: a poset-based approach", and Filippo Ferrarini, with a thesis entitled "Regional competitiveness, HRM practices and firm innovation at European level". Their research was dramatically impacted by COVID-19, with Luca only participating in Teams meetings from his UGent dormitory in the fall of 2020, and the Filippi only meeting live with Bernard for the first time at the Workshop "A multi-criteria approach to social indicators" on May 18 at the Marco Biagi Foundation after years of Teams meetings. They are all bound to collaborate in the years to come.