European Horizon project Care4Care
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The project is funded within the framework of the European Union – Horizon Europe programme, under grant agreement n. 101094603. DOI: 10.3030/101094603
Funding period: 01 January 2023 – 31 December 2025 (36 months)
Project Teams:
The Care4Care Consortium is coordinated by a team at University of Florence (Italy) and involves 10 partners:
Lunds Universitet (Sweden)
Universidad de Girona (Spain)
Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)
Europa - Universität Viadrina (Germany)
Uniwersytet Rzeszowski (Poland)
Tuscan Organisation of Universities and Research 4 Europe (Belgium)
Université de Bordeaux (France)
European Federation for Family Employment & Home Care (EFFE) (Belgium)
European Federation for Services to Individuals (Belgium)
Project Team at European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)
Project Leadership
Prof. Dr. Eva Kocher, EUV, Juristische Fakultät, Center for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies (C*LLaS)
Research Team
Dr. Ziga Podgornik Jakil, EUV, Juristische Fakultät, Center for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies (C*LLaS)
Project Objectives
With the ageing population and the increasing number of people needing personal assistance in the European Union (EU), the care sector is becoming key to the future of European society and economy. However, the care sector suffers from chronic labour shortages and care workers frequently report low wages, precarious working conditions, high physical workloads, and discrimination in the workplace. In addition, women, who make up the majority of care workers, and migrants, who are increasingly recruited to fill care labour shortages, are particularly affected by exploitation and discrimination. To effectively address these problems, the existing legal framework for regulating the care sector and the access of care workers to appropriate legal instruments they can use to improve their working conditions need to be improved on the EU level.
The Care4Care project aims to examine, in a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective, the working conditions of care workers and their perceptions of their working environment and dynamics in six EU Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden) in order to develop appropriate tools to improve job quality and combat discrimination in the sector. The units of analysis include only paid care workers who provide health and personal assistance in institutions or as home care workers, including nurses, health care assistants, care workers for the elderly or children, and care workers who assist people with disabilities.
Next to the research objectives, the societal outcomes are an important component of the project. It aims to create a model for the analysis and regulation of the care sector that can be replicated in different EU countries and generate new relevant intervention strategies for the European institutions, and to give a voice to care workers and their representatives in the design and implementation of policies that affect their lives. An important part of the project is therefore to work with different stakeholders such as trade unions, family and employers' organisations, equality and monitoring bodies, policy makers, and care workers themselves to develop policy solutions and empower care workers. The vision is that improving the working conditions and representation of care workers will lead to improved quality of care services provided.
The focus on Germany is carried out with a research team headed by Prof. Dr. Eva Kocher at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt. The main objective of the research team is to develop proposals for policy measures needed to improve working conditions and reduce inequalities in the care sector.