The New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe (NORFACE) Network is pleased to announce its new research programme Welfare State Futures, a programme of innovative research designed to ask, and answer, fundamental questions about the design, delivery and experience of welfare in the 21st Century.

NORFACE - is a partnership between fifteen research councils to increase cooperation in research and research policy in Europe and beyond. It extends and formalises existing working relationships between countries and provides a framework and vision for a durable multi-national strategic partnership in research funding and practice, especially within the social sciences. Since 2004, NORFACE has received core funding through the European Commission’s ERA-NET scheme.

This highly topical and policy-relevant theme offers an approach from a variety of perspectives and disciplines, enables and encourages multi-disciplinarity and offers a fruitful area for a pan-European approach with opportunities for comparison. A two-stage submission process will be implemented. The submission deadline for outline proposals is 16 April 2013.

The programme text, call for proposals and accompanying information can be found on the NORFACE website.

If you would like to find out more about the programme please email: esrcnorfacewelfarestatefutures@esrc.ac.uk.