Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society 2026

Projects funded under this destination should contribute to the following expected impacts in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027^[1]:

• Strengthening social and economic resilience and sustainability
• Boosting inclusive growth and reducing vulnerabilities effectively

The expected impacts reflect the two-pronged nature of the destination. On the one hand, research funded by this destination will improve the understanding of how the macro drivers of change (technological change, climate change, new global trade patterns, along with migration, human mobility, and other demographic changes) impact society and inform policy makers on how to mitigate negative consequences and harness newly created opportunities. The results obtained should improve the understanding of the interplay between different drivers of change and their social, ethical, political, and economic implications. The improved understanding of these challenges and their economic, social, and distributional impacts will fill in the research gaps while also inform the design and assessment of policies addressing existing and emerging challenges, including in the areas of education, well-being and mental health.

On the other hand, research and innovation investment should be geared towards deepening the understanding of how ongoing changes impact society, with a specific emphasis on the key objectives of boosting inclusive and sustainable growth and effectively reducing vulnerabilities, poverty and inequalities. This knowledge should provide valuable insights to policymakers to design and assess policies that effectively address vulnerabilities while capitalizing on emerging opportunities.

Overall, the destination’s activities will help promote the EU’s inclusive growth, resilience, and fair transition towards climate neutrality, by providing solid analytical evidence to implementing actions related to:

• The European Pillar of Social Rights, and its Action Plan with its three ambitious targets (78% employment rate, 60% of population with yearly training, and reduction of the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030)
• the European Education Area and its EU-level 2030 targets
• The Union of Skills (including envisaged initiatives on skills portability and the European Strategy for Vocational Education and Training, the Pact for Skills and the Skills Agenda)
• the first-ever EU Anti-Poverty Strategy and the European Affordable Housing Plan
• The Union of Equality policies and strategies, including:
  • the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030^[2] (in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities^[3]); the European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882), and the European Disability Card
  • The Gender Equality Strategy 2020 – 2025 and the Directive combating violence against women and domestic violence
  • EU Anti-racism Action Plan 2020-2025
  • The Strategic EU Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion and Participation 2020-2030
  • The LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025
• The Communication on Demographic change in Europe: a toolbox for action
• The EU’s just transition policy framework, in line with the 2040 Climate Target Plan, including the Just Transition Mechanism, the Social Climate Fund, and the Council Recommendation on ensuring a fair transition towards climate neutrality
• The new Pact for European Social Dialogue and the Council Recommendation on strengthening social dialogue in the EU.
• The European Child Guarantee
• The Council Recommendation on adequate minimum income
• The Commission Communication on a comprehensive approach to mental health
• The new Pact on Asylum and Migration and its accompanying actions, initiatives and legislation.

A new European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience^[4], focused on the social sciences and humanities (SSH), will be launched to make use of their potential to foster resilience, fairness and inclusiveness, and social cohesion in the light of changes in climate and environment, technology, demography, and unexpected shocks. The Partnership will fund research and innovation activities in the areas of the future of work, modernisation of social protection and essential services, education and skills development and a fair transition towards climate neutrality.

Applicants are encouraged to consider, where relevant, the services offered by the current and future EU-funded European Research Infrastructures, particularly those in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) domain^[5].

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 research is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).

To maximise the impacts of R&I under this Destination in line with EU priorities, international cooperation is encouraged whenever relevant in the proposed topics.

Research on social and economic transformations funded by topics in the present Work Programme will build upon its predecessors in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe and further push the boundaries of state-of-the-art knowledge. It will do so by further engaging with a vast array of stakeholders, not limited to universities and research centres, but also extending to social partners (trade unions and business organizations), civil society organizations, practitioners, VET providers, and SMEs.

The destination will rely on a carefully balanced mix of actions, to bring together a balanced and appropriate set of stakeholders to achieve research of the highest quality, while aiming at providing recommendations to policymakers at European, national, regional and local level that could have a beneficial societal and economic impact. In order to facilitate the latter, it will maximise the feedback to policy and the dissemination and exploitation of research and innovation results and practices in the domain of social and economic transformations.

[1] https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/6abcc8e7-e685-11ee-8b2b-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A52021DC0101

[3] https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-persons-disabilities

[4] see topic HORIZON-CL2-2026-02-TRANSFO-01 in this Work Programme

[5] https://ri-portfolio.esfri.eu/ for example CESSDA - Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives

Expected Outcome:

Projects should contribute to either the first and second (combined), or the third and fourth (combined) of the following expected outcomes:

• Improved implementation of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum through evidence-based insights in asylum and migration management, age assessment of minors, and resettlement frameworks, ensuring fair and efficient migration governance.
• Insight into legal pathways addressing both EU Member States’ needs and potential offers of circular and permanent migration schemes in selected partner countries.
• Enhanced health equity for migrants, including refugees by integrating robust health data into national systems, addressing governance barriers, and tackling intersectional inequities in healthcare access, identifying data/indicators on basic needs in health and sanitation, including as compared to adequate treatment.
• Comprehensive evaluation of long-term social inclusion and integration strategies, providing evidence-based policy recommendations for labour market access, housing, education, health (including mental health), recognition of qualifications and validation of skills, youth participation, and social, political, and cultural inclusion.

Proposals should state clearly which expected outcomes their proposed research will contribute to.

Scope:

The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum^[1] has introduced several key mechanisms requiring robust evidence to support their effective implementation. Proposals should conduct a comprehensive analysis of the Pact’s components, including, for instance, the solidarity mechanism, the age assessment framework for minors, crisis and force majeure migration management, the EU externalisation policies on global migration patterns and the Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Framework. This analysis should account for diverse national institutional landscapes and propose tailored policy recommendations that uphold human rights and enhance practical implementation.

The landscape of health data concerning migrants, including refugees is fragmented, incomplete, and often of low quality. This situation is compound by political, governance, legal and structural aspects that challenge the effective integration and utilisation of available data.

Proposals should map the existing landscape of health data integration for migrants, including refugees across national health information systems, evaluating existing data collection frameworks, methodologies, and technologies used to gather and integrate health information on migrant populations, highlighting potential systemic and organisational barriers. They should identify challenges and best practices that have successfully facilitated data integration while maintain high standard of data privacy and security and provide policy recommendations.

Moreover, there is a lack of research exploring how intersecting factors such as age, gender, disability and legal status influence health outcomes among migrant and refugee populations, including older migrants. Addressing these gaps (including through a contribution of SSH disciplines) is essential for the development of informed policies that ensure equitable health care access and improve overall health outcomes with special consideration to persons in a vulnerable situation. Proposals should incorporate analysis of the impact of intersectional factors in access to health for migrant and refugees' populations.

Beyond health, understanding the long-term impact of social inclusion and integration^[2] strategies, is critical. Proposals should develop comprehensive and comparative evaluation frameworks to measure the effectiveness of existing strategies at the EU, national and local levels, identifying best practices at all levels (EU, national, local) and particularly the role of small and medium-sized towns; municipalities and recommending innovative policy adjustments. Areas of focus should include labour market access, mobility options of asylum seekers within the Dublin framework, housing, youth and women participation, the contribution of private sector and non-state actors and the broader social, political, and cultural inclusion of migrants, including refugee communities, including the role of education, as well as linguistic competence in the language of the receiving country. Proposals are encouraged to explore the biographical dimensions of integration, acknowledging the personal trajectories of migrants, including refugees. Research should also explore the relationship between migratory movements and social identity formation, ensuring that integration policies are adaptable to evolving societal dynamics and sustainable over time. Proposals should incorporate quantitative data and sound methodologies to identify effective practices, target groups, and enabling conditions to assess integration policies and in particular labour market integration outcomes. Wherever relevant proposals are encouraged to include migrants and/or refugees as participants in their research assessing first-hand their experiences, needs, attitudes and opinions.

Proposals may envisage JRC participation, drawing on its cross-cutting expertise in migration governance, social inclusion, and integration including from a health aspect. The JRC could, for example, contribute to comparative policy analysis, harmonised data collection across Member States, and evidence-based support to EU-level decision-making, utilising its experience in modelling policy mechanisms, analysing data and developing indicators, analysing inequalities, and providing forecasting and foresight on migration trends.

Where relevant, proposals may consider citizen engagement and dialogue beyond migrants, including refugees, with a view to collecting broader input.

[1] https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/pact-migration-and-asylum_en

[2] Integration should be understood as a two-way process.