European Programme Progress

Demographic and Societal Change

The Call for Proposals for “Progress: Supporting a Partnership for Enhancing Europe\'s Capacity to Tackle Demographic and Societal Change” has been published by the European Commission, Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.
In the Europe 2020 strategy for smart sustainable and inclusive growth demographic change is identified as one of three main global challenges that the EU will be facing in the future. In particular ageing is driving societal change and needs innovative policy responses. Increased life expectancy is one of Europe\'s greatest achievements but combined with declining fertility, the ageing of Europe\'s population requires major changes to the way we live, work and prepare for retirement. The population in the age group 15-64 is projected to contract by 48 million by 2050, and the old age dependency ratio will double over the same period.

The objective of the “Progress: Supporting a Partnership for Enhancing Europe\'s Capacity to Tackle Demographic and Societal Change” call for proposals is:
- to co-finance a partnership that can promote greater awareness of demographic and societal challenges and possible policy responses in the European Union among policy makers and lay audiences. For this purpose, grant funding will  be  offered  to  one  project  managed  by  a  partnership  made  up  of  not-for-profit research bodies, public institutions and civil society organisations.

The partnership involved in the current  call for proposals of the European Commission should respect the following  priorities:
- focus on collection and dissemination of key facts, figures, trends and  policy  analysis  regarding  demographic  change  across  the EU  with  the  aim  of reaching a wide non-specialist audience and promoting a well-informed public debate on its implications and appropriate policy responses among the general public in all Member States at all levels of government.
- prepare short web-oriented presentations that  conveyed  essential  messages  on  demographic  trends  and  the  need  to  mitigate  an adapt to them.
- organize  events  where  scientists  and  policy-makers  can discuss  the  body  of  knowledge  in  demography  and can identify research areas that are relevant to shaping the European economic and social system. Such events are crucial for policy-makers because it allows them to get to know how far and reliably research can support  informed  decisions;  and  for  researchers  because  they  get  to  know  the  areas  of priority where their research can be of use for the European policy debate.

Eligible participants within this “Progress: Supporting a Partnership for Enhancing Europe\'s Capacity to Tackle Demographic and Societal Change” call for proposals are non-profit organisations including:
- public bodies
- universities
- research centres.

The actions that can be funded within the  current call for proposal of the European Commission are:.
1) to promote a wider dissemination  of  high-quality  data  and  analysis  so  that  it  can  have  an  impact  on  the policy debate, on attitudes towards demographic change and possibly even adaptations in individual behavior (e.g. regarding family or retirement planning);
2) to  produce  suitable  material  for  use  by journalists or easily consultable by lay audiences, for instance on a web site;
3) to facilitate with the help of panel discussions and seminars for lay audiences the access of journalists to leading experts who would be willing to explain demographic trends and their implications.

The total budget available for this call “Progress: Supporting a Partnership for Enhancing Europe\'s Capacity to Tackle Demographic and Societal Change” amounts to € 500,000. The maximum EU financial contribution will not exceed 80% of the total eligible costs of the selected project. Applicants must contribute at least 20 % of the total cost of the action. Any application which requests a grant of more than 80 % will be excluded automatically from the selection.

The deadline for submitting proposals in the framework of the current call of the European Commission is 11th September 2012.

Further information on the “Progress: Supporting a Partnership for Enhancing Europe\'s Capacity to Tackle Demographic and Societal Change” call for proposals is available on the European Commission’s web site at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=630&langId=en&callId=350&furtherCalls=yes