Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
Reduction of the working time, understood as a coordinated reduction in weekly working hours concentrated into an extra free day per week without a corresponding decrease in pay, has existed in the economic debate for more than a century, yet much of its potential impact on economic, social, and environmental aspects remains unexplored.
Detailed Call Description
Recently, various initiatives at national, company, and sectoral levels have been launched to test the employment and societal outcomes of these reduced working arrangements. Past experiences generally show some positive evidence on workers’ well-being and wages, with marginal impacts on employment levels, but mixed outcomes regarding productivity. Yet, understanding the feasibility of working time reduction across different sectors and occupations is key to assessing its impacts on inequality, societal fairness, and overall economic growth. Moreover, the gender perspective and impacts on workforce inclusion in the working time reduction context is an area that is yet to be thoroughly understood. There is a wide range of environmental outcomes from working time reduction to be also considered, including energy costs and savings, energy poverty, and consumption patterns.
More insights are needed to understand the full battery of enablers, barriers, benefits, challenges, and policy implications arising from implementation of working time reduction, including at organisational level, across a diverse variety of sectors.
While feeding into the expected outcomes, the research project should assess the impacts of working time reduction along at least two out of the three axes: economic, social, and environmental.
These may include but are not limited to the following channels:
- Social impacts on workers, including well-being at the workplace, health outcomes (including stress levels), work-life balance, gendered employment outcomes, labour market inclusion;
- Economic impacts, including effects on productivity, employment, economic growth, hiring and staff retention, absenteeism, firm costs, overall economic demand, innovation;
- Environmental impacts, including on energy expenditures and savings, energy poverty, emission reduction, consumption patterns, sustainable lifestyles.
Applicants are encouraged to employ a variety of SSH research methods, including quantitative micro-economic analysis or behavioural and other experimental research methods.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: €3.40 million.
Thematic Categories
- Employment
- Environment and Climate Change
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Social Affairs & Human Rights
Eligibility for Participation
- Central Government
- Disabled Persons
- Employees
- Employers
- Large Enterprises
- Legal Entities
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Services Providers
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- Trade Unions
- Vulnerable Consumers
- Youth
Eligibility For Participation Notes
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.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Persons to Contact:
Mr. George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy