THCS – Joint Transnational Call 2027: transforming the health and care workforce for sustainable and resilient systems

Context

European health and care systems face persistent workforce shortages, made worse by population ageing, the rise of chronic diseases and deteriorating working conditions. Difficulties in recruitment and retention, burnout and geographical inequalities in access to care, especially in medical deserts, threaten the quality, continuity and equity of care. Many tools and good practices have been developed but their implementation and scale-up remain limited.

Objectives

The call aims to support implementation-oriented research and innovation projects. These projects should accelerate the uptake, adaptation, testing, evaluation and scaling of evidence-informed solutions for health and care workforce transformation. They should go beyond isolated measures and propose integrated, system-level interventions that strengthen the capacity to attract, train, deploy and retain a skilled workforce. Projects should draw on implementation science and on the social sciences and humanities. They should involve frontline workers as co-designers of the solutions and set out a strategy for transfer to other contexts. Digital tools and artificial intelligence may be part of the solutions but must not be the primary output.

Topics

Projects may address, among others:

• workforce planning and forecasting, and legal, regulatory and accreditation frameworks;
• employment and working conditions, workload, the health and wellbeing of health and care workers, and the prevention of violence against them;
• initial education and continuing professional development, new roles, advanced practice and revised scopes of practice within multi-professional teams;
• diversified career pathways, leadership and organisational capabilities, particularly in primary care;
• reducing geographical (rural, remote or under-resourced areas), gender and social inequalities;
• the specific challenges faced by migrant, cross-border and seasonal workers, including recognition of qualifications and ethical recruitment.

Participating countries and consortium composition

In France, ANR will fund academic research teams and companies. Consortia must include at least 3 eligible partners from at least 3 different countries participating in the call, up to a maximum of 9 partners. Partners with their own funds may join under certain conditions. Each agency’s eligibility and funding rules will be specified in the call text.