​Eurofound’s 2015 Annual Work Programme

The year 2015 marks the third year of implementation of Eurofound’s four-year work programme 2013–2016, ‘From crisis to recovery: Better informed policies for a competitive and fair Europe’.

The activities proposed in the annual programme for 2015 are designed to contribute to achieving Eurofound’s strategic objective of providing high-quality, timely and policy-relevant knowledge as input to better informed policies, in four priority areas:

1. 1. Increasing labour market participation and combating unemployment by creating jobs, improving labour market functioning and promoting integration
2. 2. Improving working conditions and making work sustainable throughout the life course
3. 3. Developing industrial relations to ensure equitable and productive solutions in a changing policy context
4. 4. Improving standards of living and promoting social cohesion in the face of economic disparities and social inequalities

Many activities launched in 2014 were designed to be continued or complemented by follow-up projects during 2015. In addition, a number of new projects will commence. The 2015 work programme also takes into account the sequence and work processes of Eurofound’s flagship activities, its three pan-European surveys and the observatories, which require the allocation of resources in each annual programme.

Eurofound will continue to pay specific attention to the global, sectoral and national dimension in its activities. Agreements with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and direct agreements with some other countries are in place to conduct the working conditions survey outside Europe, facilitating a comparison of these countries with the Europe-wide survey results.

All Eurofound’s comparative findings are of great interest at national level. Where possible, contextual information at Member State level is provided, and multi-lingual summary pages help to increase the uptake of data and analysis for target groups at Member State level.

Also, long-standing cooperation agreements with a number of EU Agencies are the basis for the exchange of data sources and for joint initiatives in the area of research, events and operation systems in 2015. These agencies are: the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE); the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA); the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop); the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), and the European Training Foundation (ETF).

Eurofound looks forward to collaborating with the Latvian and Luxembourg EU Presidencies, highlighting the results of the third European Company Survey, launching the first findings of the sixth European Working Conditions Survey and a series of other social and work related research.

Also during the year, Eurofound will, for the first time, chair the Network of EU Agencies and drive on the priorities that unite all EU agencies in contributing to the lives of European citizens.

And finally, 2015 will see Eurofound celebrate its 40 years anniversary. A series of initiatives will take place, which will reflect on four decades of the Agency’s active contribution to a social Europe.

Click here to download Eurofound’s Annual Work Programme 2015