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Intergenerational fairness in the context of demographic change in the EU

Last Updated: 8/19/2025Deadline: 15 September 2025€26.0M Available

Quick Facts

Programme:Horizon Europe
Call ID:HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-TRANSFO-10
Deadline:15 September 2025
Max funding:€26.0M
Status:
open
Time left:4 weeks

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💰 Funding Details

Funding Description – HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-TRANSFO-10


What the Grant Funds

* Research & Innovation Actions (RIA) that deepen understanding of intergenerational fairness in the EU in the context of demographic change.

* Quantitative & qualitative studies covering at least three drivers of intergenerational inequality (e.g. education/labour markets, wealth & housing, health & well-being, environmental impacts, technological change).

* Development of forward-looking indicators, forecasts and an actionable policy roadmap addressing cross-policy synergies.

* Social-innovation pilots or experiments that test potential policy measures or democratic co-creation mechanisms.

* Activities that use or enrich FAIR data, especially through EU Research Infrastructures (SHARE, CESSDA, EOSC, relevant Data Spaces).

* Clustering, networking and joint dissemination with other funded Horizon Europe projects and – where beneficial – collaboration with the Joint Research Centre (JRC).


Eligible Applicants & Consortium Rules

* Legal entities from EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries (see Annex B) are automatically eligible for funding.

* Minimum consortium: 3 independent legal entities from 3 different eligible countries (standard HE rule). Larger, transdisciplinary consortia are strongly encouraged (universities, RTOs, civil-society orgs, social partners, public authorities, SMEs, VET providers, etc.).

* JRC may join as an additional (optional) beneficiary.

* International partners from non-associated countries can participate, but funding depends on self-financing or national arrangements.


Financial Framework

* Instrument: HORIZON Lump-Sum Grant (HORIZON-AG-LS).

* Maximum EU contribution per project: €26 million.

* Expected number of projects funded: 1 – 2 (typical for large-budget RIA topics).

* Lump-sum amount must fully cover all estimated eligible costs; no actual cost reporting later. A detailed lump-sum budget table (template in the portal) is mandatory at submission.

* Pre-financing: ~ 60 % of lump sum after GA signature; remaining payments linked to work-package completion.


Implementation Timeline

* Call opening: 15 May 2025

* Single-stage deadline: 16 Sep 2025 (17:00 CET)

* Consortium agreement: recommended before Grant Agreement signature (≈ Q2 2026)

* Project duration: 36–48 months is typical for RIA of this scope.


Additional Compliance Points

* Ethics & Gender Equality Plans mandatory.

* All datasets must be FAIR and – where possible – open access (Plan for Dissemination & Exploitation including RDM mandatory).

* Synergies with EU policies listed under the destination (EPSR, EEA, Equality Strategies, Just Transition, etc.) should be explicit.


Personalizing...

📊 At a Glance

€26.0M
Max funding
15 September 2025
Deadline
4 weeks
Time remaining
Eligible Countries
EU Member States, Associated Countries

🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages

EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for "Intergenerational Fairness in the Context of Demographic Change in the EU" (HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-TRANSFO-10)


1. Single Market Access

Pan-European evidence base → policy leverage: Results that are comparable across all 27 Member States give policy-makers the quantitative arguments needed to adapt taxation, pensions, housing and labour-market rules EU-wide.

450 + million beneficiaries: Action plans and indicators can be tailored once and rolled out everywhere, maximising return on research investment and attracting follow-on funding from ministries, regions, ESF+, and private actors (e.g. pan-EU insurers, banks, employers’ federations).

Standardised metrics for investors & firms: Common KPIs on intergenerational equity can feed into EU Sustainability Reporting Standards (CSRD), giving companies a competitive edge when marketing "fairness-labelled" products across the Single Market.


2. Cross-Border Collaboration

Multinational consortia unlock excellence: Pool leading demographers, sociologists, economists and data scientists from different welfare-state regimes (Nordic, Continental, Mediterranean, CEE) to capture the full spectrum of EU demographic realities.

Knowledge exchange with frontrunners: Leverage best practices from Member States that have piloted intergenerational funds (e.g. FR’s FRR, DE’s Generationenkapital) or youth-centred housing schemes (NL, AT) and transfer lessons rapidly.

Citizen science at scale: Cross-border deliberative panels or digital participation platforms can test solidarity narratives simultaneously in several languages, exposing cultural nuances and building an EU-level constituency for reform.


3. Alignment with EU Policy Agendas

Green Deal & Just Transition: Fair burden-sharing of climate costs between generations; results feed directly into Social Climate Fund design and 2040 Climate Target social impact assessments.

Digital Europe & Skills Agenda: Evidence on lifelong learning gaps informs Digital Decade targets (80 % digital skills by 2030) and European Education Area benchmarks.

Union of Equality Strategies: Intersectional analysis supports Gender Equality, LGBTIQ, Anti-Racism and Roma frameworks, ensuring that intergenerational policies are inclusive.

European Semester & Recovery & Resilience Facility (RRF): Indicators generated can be hard-wired into country-specific recommendations and RRF social milestones, guiding billions in reforms and investments.


4. Regulatory Harmonisation & Data Governance

Common definitions of ‘intergenerational fairness’: Facilitates mutual recognition of social-impact labels, easing policy benchmarking across jurisdictions.

FAIR & EOSC compliance: Using CESSDA, SHARE and emerging Population & Health Data Spaces ensures instant interoperability with Eurostat and national statistical institutes, cutting duplication and raising data quality for policy evaluation.


5. Innovation Ecosystem & Research Infrastructures

Access to top-tier EU RIs: SHARE, CESSDA, GGP, LISSY remote access, plus JRC’s micro-simulation tools (EUROMOD) provide unique longitudinal datasets and policy modelling capacity unavailable to single countries alone.

Synergies with EIT KICs (Health, Digital, Urban Mobility): Pilot social-innovation experiments (e.g. multi-generational co-housing) within living labs located in major EU cities.


6. Funding Synergies & Blending Opportunities

Complementarity chains:

- Upstream: ERC, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions → fundamental knowledge.

- This call (RIA Lump-Sum) → applied, comparative evidence & action plans.

- Downstream: ESF+, Interreg, CERV, EU4Health, InvestEU Social Investment & Skills Window → deployment & scaling.

Seal of Excellence leverage: Proposals scoring above threshold but not funded can tap national Recovery Funds or EIB Social Impact Bonds more easily under a recognised EU label.


7. Scaling, Replicability & Impact Pathways

From pilots to EU legislation: Successful social-innovation experiments (e.g. portable ‘fairness accounts’ for young workers) can inform upcoming EU initiatives on minimum income, minimum wage revisions or occupational pensions portability.

Replicable indicators dashboard: An open-source toolkit (APIs + visualisations) helps municipalities and regions self-diagnose intergenerational gaps, fostering a bottom-up community of practice across Europe.

Pan-European communication campaign: Harmonised messaging on solidarity enhances social acceptance of necessary reforms (e.g. pension age alignment, green tax shifts).


8. Strategic Recommendations for Applicants

1. Build a geographically balanced consortium covering at least four welfare-state models and including JRC for policy interface credibility.

2. Co-create with end-users: Ministries of Finance, youth councils, senior organisations, social partners and institutional investors ensure relevance and uptake.

3. Integrate multi-source data (SHARE + EU-SILC + Labour Force Survey + Copernicus climate data) to link socio-economic and environmental dimensions of fairness.

4. Plan for policy rehearsals: Use EU Council Trio Presidencies, Cohesion Forum or EPSCO Council preparatory bodies to test and refine policy packages.

5. Map follow-up funding (ESF+, Interreg Europe, CERV) in the exploitation section to convince evaluators of long-term EU value.


Conclusion: Operating at EU scale transforms a research project on intergenerational fairness into a systemic lever that can influence legislation, funding allocations and corporate practices across the entire Single Market—an impact unreachable through purely national initiatives.

🏷️ Keywords

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