NORFACE "DIAL" programme: three projects with Swiss participation

Researchers from Switzerland achieve high success rates in NORFACE DIAL (Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course) programme.

NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe) is a network of 19 national organisations in Europe that fund academic research in the social sciences. The SNSF has taken part in a NORFACE research programme for the first time. In doing so, it is pursuing the goal of helping to internationalise the social sciences. It is thus all the more gratifying that the researchers from Switzerland have achieved such high success rates: along with their peers from the UK and Norway, they were among the most successful in this call for proposals.

NORFACE developed the research programme "Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course" (DIAL). Its goal is to ask, and answer, fundamental questions about the dynamics of inequality across different life stages, different dimensions of inequality and different dimensions of identity – and to identify opportunities to reduce them. The thirteen transnational projects will approach this relevant theme from a variety of perspectives and scientific disciplines.

Three projects with Swiss participation are supported by NORFACE. Among the successful Swiss researchers are Nicky Le Feuvre and Daniel Oesch (both from the University of Lausanne) and Pietro Biroli (University of Zurich). They have been working on the projects with researchers from all over Europe – from the Czech Republic to Sweden – and are focusing on the following topics and issues:

Dynamics of Accumulated Inequalities for Seniors in Employment (DAISIE)The aim is to investigate the gendered impacts of policies aimed at extending working life (EWL) in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, using a mixed methods research design, based on insights from life-course and gender studies. (Le Feuvre)

Critical Life Events and the Dynamics of Inequality: Risk, Vulnerability, and Cumulative Disadvantage (CRITEVENTS)
This project studies the impact of two critical life events – job loss and union dissolution – on the life trajectories of adults and their children. (Oesch)

Gene-Environment Interplay in the Generation of Health and Education Inequalities (GEIGHEI)The project will examine how Genes and the Environment interact to generate inequalities in education and health over the life course. (Biroli)

Over the next 36 months, the EUR 18 million available for this international call will allow the 13 teams to investigate topics ranging from inequality and its consequences in education, child development, health, populism and LBTQ citizens through to employment and working life.