Rethinking sustainable competitiveness beyond traditional perspectives: role and contribution of the Social Economy

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 all of the following expected outcomes:

• Social enterprises, traditional firms and investors will benefit from a better understanding of the sustainable competitiveness factors of the social economy^[1] in Europe through knowledge development and know-how on innovative products and services, improving quality and productivity, and increasing adaptability, social inclusion and sustainable, environmentally friendly (for example biodiversity-enhancing) practices.
• Citizens and traditional private sector will benefit from the increased contribution of the social economy to the EU’s sustainable competitiveness and shared prosperity goals. The research will inform policy makers and private sector on best practice, policy and regulatory reforms aimed at enhancing the social economy's contribution to the EU's competitiveness and prosperity goals.
• The social economy's principles for sustainable competitiveness are promoted, through the development of practical and innovative solutions.

Scope:

The European Union is committed to fostering a social market economy that promotes sustainable growth, social justice, and economic competitiveness. In this context, the social economy has emerged as a potential driver of innovation, job creation, and social inclusion. On the other hand, there is still a persistent knowledge gap in the literature when it comes to appreciate the multifaceted contribution social economy actors make in shaping and advancing economic competitiveness within and across the EU society and its impact on inclusive wellbeing and the environment (for example, the prevention of environmental degradation or loss of biodiversity^[2]).

Sustainable competitiveness and shared prosperity are key a political priority of the new European Commission^[3]. In this context, the notion of sustainable competitiveness is less about relative labour cost and more about skills, innovation, entrepreneurship and adaptation. It focuses on the ability for an individual, a firm, a sector, or a country to increase shared prosperity in relation to the current and future environment and society.

The link between social economy and sustainable competitiveness relies on innovation, which needs to be made broader, going beyond “mere” technological innovation and embrace social or even better societal innovation.

Proposals should focus on exploring the potential virtuous relationships between social economy, sustainable competitiveness and shared prosperity.

Research (including from SSH disciplines) should focus on a deeper understanding of the factors contributing to the sustainable competitiveness of social economy entities on one side and, on the other, its possible impact on EU sustainable competitiveness. This requires addressing knowledge gaps, such as the lack of a comprehensive framework to measure the social economy's contribution to sustainable competitiveness in the European Union.

Research may undertake a review of existing literature, analysis and develop case studies to identify the key enabling factors that make social economy entities competitive in a sustainable way, while considering the social, economic, and environmental dimensions.

To better capture the role of the social economy as one of the drivers of sustainable competitiveness, the research may develop a framework to measure its contribution including with existing and new indicators and metrics.

Research may identify best practices, develop toolkit and policy recommendations on how social economy in Europe can boost public and private competitiveness linked to EU shared prosperity goals (such as well-being and nature preservation).

The regulatory context and its impact on the social economy's ability to contribute to sustainable competitiveness should be considered.

Activities may involve interdisciplinary research, stakeholder engagement, and policy analysis. Researchers may need to draw on expertise from different fields (economics, sociology, environmental science, public administration) to develop a comprehensive understanding of the social economy's role in promoting sustainable competitiveness, in line with the EU Green Deal and in the Kunming Montreal Agreement..

The scope of this call topic is not limited to any specific sector, value chain or enabling factors, however, proposals may put emphasis on a specific one. Collaboration with stakeholders from the social economy, private sector, and public sector to develop a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between social economy and sustainable competitiveness is encouraged.

[1] The social economy covers entities sharing the following main common principles and features: the primacy of people as well as social and/or environmental purpose over profit, the reinvestment of most of the profits and surpluses to carry out activities in the interest of members/users (“collective interest”) or society at large (“general interest”) and democratic and/or participatory governance. Traditionally, the term social economy refers to four main types of entities providing goods and services to their members or society at large: cooperatives, mutual benefit societies, associations (including charities), and foundations. They are private entities, independent of public authorities and with specific legal forms. Social enterprises are now generally understood as part of the social economy. The social economy (associations, cooperatives, mutual societies, foundations, and social enterprises) provides monetary and non-monetary services, impacting on European sustainable competitiveness. Social economy actors also have a different approach to their working environment due to the societal objectives of their employers and the democratic governance of their ecosystems.

[2] Nature is an essential part of competitiveness. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has demonstrated that around 55% of the global GDP is generated by sectors moderately to highly dependent on nature. Around 72% of euro area companies are critically dependent on ecosystem services.

[3] https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/e6cd4328-673c-4e7a-8683-f63ffb2cf648_en?filename=Political%20Guidelines%202024-2029_EN.pdf