NORFACE 2023 - Enhancing well-being for the future

The NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe) network announce a call for transnational social science projects on the theme "Enhancing Well-Being for the Future", with the support of CHANSE (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe).

This theme can be approached from a variety of perspectives and disciplines within the social sciences. It allows and encourages multidisciplinarity and offers opportunities for pan-European research involving researchers from different parts of Europe, as well as comparisons in different contexts and over time.

The "Enhancing well-being for the future" programme has three main objectives:

• Support leading theoretical and methodological research on welfare at international level. This research can be multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and comparative, and should be conducted synergistically on a pan-European basis.
   
• To develop and disseminate knowledge about well-being that can have a substantial impact on people's lives. This knowledge is theoretically based, supported by research, and addresses issues of social, political, economic and practical importance.
   
• Motivate and promote welfare research capacity on a transnational basis in the countries participating in the call, in Europe and beyond.

The concept of well-being

Although there is no consensus on a single definition of well-being, there is general agreement that subjective well-being comprises at least three elements:

1. the presence of positive emotions and moods (e.g. contentment, happiness);
    
2. the absence of negative emotions (e.g. depressed mood, anxiety);
    
3. satisfaction with life, fulfilment and positive functioning.

There are many predictors, correlates and causes of subjective well-being. Much of the social science research on well-being has been data driven. Today, there is a need to develop an integrative, multi-level understanding of well-being and its interrelationship with other variables, taking into account the dynamic nature of well-being and its multidimensionality.

This call aims to encourage research projects that provide systematic knowledge about the mechanisms underlying well-being and the dynamic processes involved in changing well-being over time. Such an understanding of well-being is needed to inform evidence-based interventions or policies to improve well-being in the future and to make these improvements sustainable for all groups of the population, including the most fragile or vulnerable (e.g. children, migrants, minority groups and the economically and socially disadvantaged).

Four themes are highlighted:

1. Crises, challenges and well-being
    
2. Environmental challenges and well-being
    
3. Well-being and mental health
    
4. Welfare, economy and politics

In addition, projects are invited to reflect on their contribution to issues that cut across the question of well-being, including its measurement, its relationship to social inequalities, and the interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to which it lends itself.

19 research funding agencies in Europe are participating in the call: Austria (FWF), Belgium (FRS-FNRS), Bulgaria (BNSF), Croatia (HRZZ), Estonia (ETAg), France (ANR), Germany (DFG), Latvia (LZP), Lithuania (LMT), Spain (AEI and LA CAIXA), Luxembourg (FNR), Poland (NCN), Czech Republic (CAS), Romania (UEFISCDI), Slovenia (ARRS), Sweden (VR and FORTE), Switzerland (SNSF), United Kingdom (UKRI-ESRC).