Placing Sustainable and Inclusive Wellbeing at the Heart of the Economy: From Research to Transformative Policy

Europe stands at a crossroads: economic competitiveness and security dominate today’s policy debates, while environmental sustainability and social wellbeing risk being sidelined. Yet these dimensions are essential for addressing climate change, ensuring long-term stability, and creating resilient, thriving societies. Against this backdrop, the Horizon Europe projects ToBe and SPES join forces in a final high-level conference to present their research findings and discuss concrete pathways for reorienting Europe’s economy towards sustainable and inclusive wellbeing.

The conference will:

• Showcase innovative frameworks, indicators, and models that bridge productivity, environmental sustainability, and social fairness.
• Provide a platform for policy dialogue with EU institutions, academics, and civil society on how to integrate wellbeing and sustainability into European policymaking.
• Highlight the need for beyond-GDP metrics and evidence-based policies to guide the EU’s 2024–2029 strategic priorities and the global sustainability agenda.

Programme highlights:

• Day 1 (Residence Palace): Keynote address, high-level panels, and parallel sessions on climate resilience, inclusion and participation, and tracking progress through wellbeing indicators.
• Day 2 (European Institution TBD): Policy breakfast on the future of EU wellbeing policies in a beyond growth perspective, followed by final project recommendations and responses from European decision-makers.

The event will culminate in policy recommendations aimed at ensuring that research outcomes translate into transformative policy and practice at both EU and global levels.

You may check the full programme here and read the concept note of the event here. To register, please fill out this EU survey by 7 January 2026. Please note that registrations will close once the maximum amount of participants is reached.