Assessing and strengthening the complementarity between new technologies and human skills

Call updates

Jun 14, 2024 3:46:38 PM

FLASH EVALUATION results

HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01

Published: 07/12/2022

Opened: 04/10/2023

Deadline: 07/02/2024

The total budget for the call was EUR 96.000.000.

The results of the evaluation for each topic are as follows:

HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-11

Budget for the topic: EUR 10.000.000

Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 58

Number of inadmissible proposals: 0

Number of ineligible proposals: 2

Number of above-threshold proposals: 29

Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: EUR 88050120,5

Number of proposals retained for funding: 6

Number of proposals in the reserve list: 1

Funding threshold: 14

(Proposals with the same score were ranked according to the priority order procedure set out in the call conditions (see in the General Annexes to the Work Programme or specific arrangements in the specific call/topic conditions).

Ranking distribution:

Number of proposals with scores lower or equal to 15 and higher or equal to 14: 7

Number of proposals with scores lower than 14 and higher or equal to 13: 8

Number of proposals with scores lower than 13 and higher or equal to 10: 14

Summary of observer report:

The independent observer was appointed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) to observe the evaluation process of the single stage calls:

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01.

The same independent observer reviewed the evaluation of the three calls. This enabled the observer to follow the entire process, to identify strengths and areas for possible improvements specific to the single stage evaluation, and to compare procedures and practices of a fully online evaluation with online consensus meetings and online discussions.

REA staff ensured that for the topics associated to these 3 calls, all actors involved were fully informed about the background guidance and legal documents, procedures and standards of quality. The organization and management were very challenging because of the large number of topics and proposals. Interdisciplinarity embedded in the call texts added layers to the overall complexity.

The overall evaluation process was executed in full compliance with the procedures, code of conduct, and guiding principles of fairness, transparency and equal treatment of proposals. The rules and guiding principles for the procedures concerning each evaluation step were known in advance to the applicants, the evaluators and all the persons involved in the evaluations. The briefing materials made available to the external experts were of the highest quality as they provided all the relevant information in a clear and comprehensive way. Experts were asked to declare any potential conflict of interest and to ensure confidentiality of all information. The evaluation process was robust. No preferential treatment of any proposal was observed by the observer or reported by any expert. The discussions were fair and consistent with open and detailed online deliberations covering all the criteria and sub criteria to ensure clarity of issues (both in remote discussion meetings and/or in written communications within the evaluation system) arising and providing impartial feedback to applicants. REA continues putting significant effort into assigning proposals to evaluation groups that cover all the key disciplines relevant to the topic and provides structured training to moderators on how to help experts bridge barriers between disciplines through informed discussions that leave sufficient space for each discipline.

We recently informed the applicants about the evaluation results for their proposals.

For questions, please contact the Research Enquiry Service.

Feb 8, 2024 6:53:40 PM

PROPOSAL NUMBERS

The call HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01 has closed on 07.02.2024.

272 proposals have been submitted.

The breakdown per topic is:

HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-11: 58 proposals

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in June 2024.

Oct 4, 2023 12:00:01 AM

The submission session is now available for: HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-11(HORIZON-RIA)

Assessing and strengthening the complementarity between new technologies and human skills

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-11

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Call: A sustainable future for Europe (HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01)
Type of action: HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Type of MGA: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]
Deadline model: single-stage
Planned opening date: 04 October 2023
Deadline date: 07 February 2024 17:00:00 Brussels time

ExpectedOutcome:
Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

Deepened our understanding on the potential and impact of new technologies such as artificial intelligence technologies and robotics to substitute or complement human skills and in performing job tasks.
Development and deployment of technologies that complement and enhance human skills, and development of the corresponding skills in the workforce.
Scope:
Recent research highlights that new technologies may increase or reduce overall employment opportunities: they tend to increase them in the presence of strong productivity gains or if they create new tasks that are best carried out using human skills (possible example: a nurse using medical machines to perform checks previously carried out by a doctor), but can reduce them if the substitution of labour by machines dominates (possible example: self-service supermarket counters). However, there is still a limited understanding of which types of technologies and technology applications are particularly promising from the perspective of enhancing rather than displacing human skills and of creating employment opportunities as well as decent working conditions.

Some authors argue that recent technological change has been biased towards automation and has focused insufficiently on creating new tasks where labour can be productively employed, with associated declining labour shares in national income, rising inequality and lower productivity growth. This highlights the need to better understand the complementarity between new technologies and skills that can serve as basis for policy recommendations that complement and enhance human skills, such as targeting investment subsidies. Policy may for instance want to prioritise public investment support in areas where innovation is more complementary to existing skills (possible examples: education and healthcare as opposed to pattern recognition “across the board”), including of people without high formal qualifications (or for other disadvantaged groups, e.g. those affected by disabilities), or it may want to support the development of skills complementary to emerging technologies with targeted education and training programmes. Both types of policy interventions could improve the impacts of new technologies on employment prospects, decent working conditions and social inclusion, but their design requires opening the “black box” of technology-skill demand complementarity.

Examples of research activities carried out under this topic include the development of criteria to assess the complementarity of specific new technologies with human skills and vice versa. This could include an analysis of specific applications of new technologies (such as artificial intelligence technologies and robotics), possibly with a sectoral or occupational focus. It could also include the development of policy recommendations to support technologies and skills/training courses that are conducive to a digital transition that creates more good jobs. Clustering and cooperation with other selected projects under this call and other relevant projects are strongly encouraged.