ERC "Starting Grant" for Vegard Skirbekk
This is a highly competitive award, with 300 successful research plans approved in 2007 from 9,167 applications.
“The demography of skills and beliefs in Europe with a focus on cohort change” (COHORT) will look at how elements like productivity, attitudes, and beliefs will change in Europe in the next 50 years. This five-year study will investigate wo key topics: (1) human capital, skills, and work performance; and (2) age-related productivity, including how to improve senior workers’ skills and capacities—an important issue for many countries with current and future aging populations. The study is expected to yield significant insights that can be used to improve socioeconomic planning in a world where population aging is unprecedented and has major implications for so many facets of life.
Using advanced methodology developed at IIASA, the COHORT team will also study the impact of migration flows, fertility differentials, and intergenerational transmissions, where development patterns are transmitted across generations.
The ERC “Starting Grant” is competitively awarded to young investigators to help them make the transition from supervised working to being independent researchers,
accelerating the emergence of the next generation of research leaders and supporting the creation of new research teams.