From the 13th to the 14th of February, the consortium members of the rEUsilience research project came together at the University of Oxford to discuss the progress of the rEUsilience-project, primarily focussing on the evolution of the Policy Lab to develop policy recommendations, ongoing research, and discussion of plans to communicate to key stakeholders at the final conference in June 2025.
Great attention was specifically given to the road-testing pillar of the project which aims to identify, develop, and test potential policy reforms to support families. First, we carefully discussed the feedback coming out of the two Policy Lab stakeholder panels which were conducted on the 28th and 29th of January with one stakeholder panel including family representatives from the national level and the other one including European policy experts. More information about the Policy Labs can be found here. These rEUsilience Policy Lab stakeholder panels – as an innovative tool for collaborative policymaking – focused on evaluating the policy proposals which had been refined by the researchers since the previous lab.
A further key-element of this Oxford-meeting was to discuss the progress on the practicality of the policy proposals and identifying the conditions under which these proposals could be rolled out. Discussing the feasibility of these policy solutions, availing of the research undertaken in the stocktaking pillar during the three years of research, the focus is directed on establishing what policy reforms will best enhance different types of families to be resilient in an inclusive society.
A research-update was also given regarding ongoing research on coping strategies of families in changing labour markets. Namely, if one faces trade-offs between, on the one hand, participation in training for upgrading skills when exposed to the risk of a job loss, and, on the other hand, care obligations such as childcare on the other.
Lastly, progress was made on improving the evidence on adult care and work through efforts to develop a blueprint of an EU-SILC ad hoc module as well as regarding next steps for impact and dissemination work towards the final conference taking place in June 2025.
Being able to come together at the University of Oxford with the consortium members to discuss the latest developments, highlights the collaborative nature of the rEUsilience project and the importance of knowledge sharing as well as cross-country partnerships in bringing up impactful solutions. We are looking forward to concluding the rEUsilience research project and preparing for the final conference which will present the main findings of the rEUsilience research project and its recommendations to policy makers at the national and EU-level.