Strathclyde Business School’s Department of Human Resource Management has been chosen from more than 1,200 submissions to lead a four-year, €4.6m, research project to map the changing nature of employment in Europe.
The ‘ChangingEmployment’ programme, funded through a European Commission-sponsored Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN) award, will aim to find solutions to some of the most pressing employment issues currently facing the EU.
Working with counterparts from eight other European universities, social and industry partners including the European Trade Union Institute, Consultingeuropa, EDF, Edrington, the International Labour Organization, Neuroedukacja, UNISON and Volvo, academics from Strathclyde Business School’s internationally-recognised Department of Human Resource Management will analyse existing patterns of employment change before producing a final report to the European Commission. Regular updates on the research project’s findings will be posted on social media throughout the four-year project.
European Commission figures now suggest, in spite of continued immigration of young workers from outside the EU, the number of working aged people in Europe will fall for the first time in 2014, potentially reducing Europe’s productive capacity. These shifting demographics are rapidly changing the face of employment throughout Europe and could have serious implications for future EU inclusion and integration. Cross-border migration also offers significant positive benefits both for the labour markets of individual member states and the EU as a whole.
Professor Paul Stewart, who led the submission along with colleagues Professor Dora Scholarios and Dr Kirsty Newsome, said, “Europe is facing major cultural, societal and economic challenges which go beyond its current financial instability. We are proud to have been given the opportunity to examine these developments which we expect will require extensive enquiry in the coming years.
“With issues ranging from how we retain manufacturing jobs with increasing competition from low-wage economies, to how we ensure job quality becomes a key consideration in job creation, it is essential that we develop a strategy which ensures the future sustainability and stability of employment in Europe.
“Over the next four years we will develop a cross-European interdisciplinary network of policy-focused social scientists skilled in understanding, analysing and responding to social and institutional employment changes.”
The Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN) award, which is designed to create opportunities for new academic researchers at both doctoral and post-doctoral level, will fund a team of 14 academics and researchers, including 11 doctoral students and three post-doctoral students.
Competition for this round of ITN funding was particularly strong with just 127 from more than 1,200 bids selected to receive funding. The Strathclyde Business School bid was also only one of a handful of social science submissions to obtain ITN funding.
The other universities involved are: University of Evry-Paris; University Oviedo; University of Leuven; ULB-Brussels; CEU-Budapest; London Metropolitan University; University of Goteborg; University of Wroclaw.