The impact of EU labour mobility on the Member States of the EU – Förderung EU-weit

Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: • Policymakers gain insights into the economic and social effects of worker mobility across the EU, including effects on wages, fiscal budgets, and social systems for both sending and receiving regions. • The benefits of mobility are maximised through actionable recommendations, which consider challenges such as demographic changes, regional effects, digitalisation and, to a suitable extent, further developments such as the green transition or adaptation to climate change (including its potential impact on the economic development and the attractiveness of regions) or the green transition and discussions around the accession of further countries to the EU and wider geopolitical instabilities. Scope: While the EU facilitates free movement as one of the four freedoms of the single market, the long-term social and economic dynamics and implications for both receiving and, especially, sending regions remain underexplored. These include not only direct effects on fiscal and social budgets but also more subtle impacts, such as on the networks, skills, and experiences that individuals bring back to their home regions, but also on the income distribution in the country from which the movers originate. Gaining a deeper, data-supported understanding of these diverse often complex effects is crucial for shaping policies that effectively harness the benefits of mobility across Europe. In doing so the research shall contribute to the ongoing efforts of strengthening the internal market and make Europe more competitive, while also ensuring social fairness and delivering on the European Pillar of Social Rights, in particular with regard to fair working conditions and ensuring access to adequate income and social protection for all. For the variations across different groups (including - but not limited to - gender, age, level of qualification) could be explored. Harnessing the benefits of mobility is also to be seen in the wider context of the green and digital transitions, necessitating enhanced labour mobility to address skill mismatches and shortages and demographic challenges. Proposals should build on relevant previous research (including from SSH disciplines), some of which has been conducted in previous Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 projects[1]. Proposals should have a clear focus. Quantitative approaches and/or econometrics should be part of the proposed methodology. Approaches which can capture developments over time, such as panel analysis, might thereby be of added value. Projects should analyse the effects of labour mobility on the functioning of social security systems (eventually differentiating between the different pillars of the social security systems, e.g. pension system, health, care, etc.) in countries of origin and destination and their coordination and/or provide research which fosters an informed debate on potential strategies for a future-proof and efficient EU-level social security coordination. Beyond that, the projects may: • Explore ways to improve the quantification of the volume of various forms [e.g. long-term movers, seasonal work and other forms of short-term mobility, postings, cross-border (tele-)work etc] of labour mobility and/or make available figures more comparable across Member States. • Develop economic models to assess the EU-level economic effects of labour mobility. • Pay attention to the ecological effects of labour mobility and link those with the socio-economic effects. • Analyse whether and in which way the composition of movers (e.g. skill-level, age structure, status in labour market, etc.) matters for the socio-economic effects observed in the countries/regions of origin/destination. • Provide a comparative analysis of intra-EU labour mobility with labour mobility in other world regions or to geographical mobility within Member States. • Develop and test a model to forecast labour mobility in different scenarios (e.g. making assumptions about the economic and social development in different parts of the EU). • Take an evidence-based position whether – and in which way - geographical mobility contributes to manage economic change (e.g. whether movers are more willing to work in another sector). • Analyse to which extent and under which conditions regions with net-outward mobility have benefited or can benefit – eventually in the longer run – from this mobility. • Investigate the economic and social differences between labour migration and labour mobility, the experience with EU enlargement might be used to analyse this. • Provide evidence on which policy instruments are most suitable to ensure a labour mobility which is not perceived as unfair (e.g linked to exploitation, social dumping etc.). These aspects illustrate thematic areas which could contribute to the objective of developing a vision for the future of labour mobility in the European Union and to discuss how legal and institutional frameworks can be adapted to support mobility in a way that is both economically and socially beneficial. This includes modernising the coordination of social security and ensuring that policies reflect the realities of modern society and work arrangements. Where applicable, proposals should leverage the data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), as well as data from relevant Data Spaces. Particular efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of this topic is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable). [1] See e.g. HORIZON-CL2-2022-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-02 - The impact of spatial mobility on European demographics, society, welfare system and labour market; https://publications.europa.eu/resource/cellar/a9351b1c-4d31-11ee-9220-01aa75ed71a1.0001.03/DOC_1 ; https://publications.europa.eu/resource/cellar/d697ee14-77ad-11ea-a07e-01aa75ed71a1.0001.01/DOC_1 ; https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/727072 ; https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/794030 ">General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout As described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. Other Eligible Conditions Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks. As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion As described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds As described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes As described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement As described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]]. In addition, as described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions As described in the specific topic of the Work Programme. Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA): Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)  Guidance HE Programme Guide  Model Grant Agreements (MGA) Lump Sum MGA  Call-specific instructions  Detailed budget table (HE LS)  Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" Additional documents: HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 5. Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes HE Programme Guide HE Framework Programme 2021/695 HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions  Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement