What kind of development strategy should Europe opt for in the face of the financial crisis and the big challenges ahead: globalisation, demographic shifts, climate change and new technologies? What kind of strategy will guarantee Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe in the long term? These are essential questions for Europe’s future that need to be answered today. These are the questions an ambitious European research project is working on. Its name is its mission: Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe – WWWforEurope.

"Europe needs a change", says Karl Aiginger, director of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) and coordinator of WWWforEurope. The financial crisis that Europe is currently facing has exposed long neglected deficiencies in the present growth path, most visibly in unemployment and public debt. At the same time Europe has to cope with new challenges ranging from globalisation and demographic shifts to new technologies and ecological challenges.

"Change however", Aiginger emphasises, "must not point in the direction of reducing social inclusion, postponing environmental goals and opting for price/cost-competitiveness. Our vision is that Europe should become a role model for a development strategy that enables a socio-ecological transition to high levels of employment, social inclusion, gender equity and environmental sustainability. And WWWforEurope will work towards it."

The project is in line with the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The objective of WWWforEurope is to strengthen the analytical foundation of the Europe 2020 strategy. However, it goes far beyond that strategy, laying the analytical basis for a socio-ecological transition.

The research consortium brings together researchers from 33 scientific institutions in 12 European countries with interdisciplinary expertise from economics and ecology to history, demography, political science and gender research. The consortium is coordinated by the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO). Project coordinator is Karl Aiginger, director of WIFO. Margit Schratzenstaller and Stefan Ederer, both senior researchers at WIFO, act as deputy coordinators.