SWINS
The SWINS project explores how investments in social services – such as education, healthcare, and social care – can improve people's wellbeing in the long run and promote the EU’s social upward convergence.
Social services are considered a central pillar for the wellbeing of a society. However, the EU lacks a scientifically validated framework to determine how social spending can be allocated in the most useful and sustainable way.
SWINS (Sustainable Well-being through Investment in Social Services) is a Horizon Europe funded project which aims to close this gap and to provide future guidance for policymakers. The project develops means to measure the long-term economic and social return on investments in social services across the life course, for example in education (early education, higher education, lifelong learning), healthcare (mental health, healthy aging), or active labour market policies. This is key to improving the coherence and feasibility of the EU’s social policy framework, especially in the face of fiscal limitations and global changes.
SWINS thereby works towards a new social investment paradigm that is not only focused on economic growth and efficiency, but also grounded in fundamental human rights, human development and ecological sustainability – fostering the EU’s resilience and sustainable wellbeing.
Main objectives are:
- Measuring impact: SWINS develops methods to measure how social investments will affect economic and social wellbeing on a macro level (i.e. the overall economic and social wellbeing of a society) and on a micro level (i.e. driving individual social and economic performance).
- Putting research into practice: The project explores ways to integrate research results into institutional, legal, and policy frameworks. It examines which strategies of measuring investments in social services fit within the EU’s economic governance and are politically feasible.
- Improve decision-making: Based on its research and findings, SWINS develops a toolbox to help policymakers make informed decisions about which social investments are most effective and sustainable in the long run.
The project consists of a multi-disciplinary international consortium which is coordinated by PIN Foundation and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. ZOE Institute for Future-fit Economies participates as a partner organisation alongside National University of Ireland Maynooth, Oslo Metropolitan University, Social Platform, Tarki Social Research Institute, University of Antwerp, University of Belgrade, and Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore UCSC.
