GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Research should identify means to attenuate the trends of increasing inequalities. Research should therefore also analyse the main features and institutional set up determining effective and well-performing labour markets, also with the view to help accelerating labour market and economic convergence within Member States and across EU Member States.

Research should consider and advise on how current social, cultural, and economic transformations should be best steered, so that they are fair and socially just, and do not further increase existing inequalities or create new ones. Research should include a focus on territorial inequalities and the loss of economic weight of the middle-class and on the COVID-19 economic crisis, with its unequal distributional effects for those suffering the most. Local and regional levels seem to gain momentum, but comparative research is needed in order to understand the roles of local and regional stakeholders in the struggle with inequalities. It is also important to compare the capacity of local stakeholders in such declining urban and rural territories to implement innovative redevelopment policies based on a better understanding of the local assets of “left-behind places”. Finally, research may assess how the digitalisation of societies can contribute to reducing inequalities.