Without well-educated and trained personnel, industrial activities are impossible. This is obviously true for the nuclear industry where a large set of skills, competences and attitudes are needed in all technology fields, not only nuclear. In addition, training of specialists in nuclear sciences and engineering is of outmost importance. This is why, during the last decades, in Europe, considerable efforts have been made by the higher education institutions supported by the states, the European Union and the industry to offer young students updated curricula internationally recognized, embedded in high quality research environment. These efforts took place in a difficult context that is described in the first part of this paper, a context whose lessons need to be considered for the present and the future. Since this difficult context is linked to the reluctance of a significant fraction of the European Society to recognize the benefits of nuclear fission in the de-carbonated energy mix, the second part of this paper is devoted to the necessary dialogue about sustainability with the general public and the public authorities. The analysis includes all three aspects of nuclear energy sustainability, namely ecological, economic and social, as well as some key issues for gaining in trustworthiness. Communication about nuclear research appears to be one of these key issues, a challenge for all of us.