New project brings together science and policy to promote sustainable well-being

MERGE (Measuring what matters: Improving usability and accessibility of policy frameworks and indicators for multidimensional well-being through collaboration) is a three-year project funded by the EU to study and develop policy frameworks and indicators for promoting multidimensional well-being.

Launched under Horizon Europe, MERGE seeks to establish a unified set of indicators for measuring multidimensional well-being. For example, a high GDP says nothing about the sustainability of economic growth or the distribution of income across society. In addition, the current economic indicators and forecasts largely fail to account for planetary boundaries and human well-being.

MERGE aims to provide EU policymakers with rigorous research evidence also during the next parliamentary term to lay a solid foundation for a new sustainable economic paradigm.

“While alternative policy solutions and beyond GDP indicators already exist, the current lack of political consensus and integrated knowledge is preventing their widespread adoption,” says Tuuli Hirvilammi, a senior research fellow at Tampere University.

“The primary goal of MERGE is to support concrete action towards sustainable development goals. All the project participants share the view that a GDP-centric approach to measuring progress is outdated.”

MERGE supports informed decision-making

MERGE will tackle the fragmentation of knowledge by increasing dialogue between policymakers and researchers and improving coordination between different civil society actors. The project combines the latest research with policy practice and provides a forum for dialogue, co-creation and knowledge exchange.

“The project aims to facilitate concrete steps towards the implementation of new policy frameworks and indicators across Europe,” says Professor Liisa Häikiö, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University.

The EU project is led and coordinated by Senior Research Fellow Tuuli Hirvilammi, Professor Liisa Häikiö, Researcher and Project Manager Kaisa Hynynen and Administrative Project Manager Maria Salonen of Tampere University.

Building a network to transfer knowledge into practice

To integrate research into practice, MERGE is building a multiactor network comprising researchers, indicator specialists, policymakers and civil society actors.

“Our goal is to foster mutual understanding and find shared solutions for promoting sustainable well-being. We are looking to build a broad consensus on easy-to-use and acceptable indicators and policies,” Häikiö and Hirvilammi say.

The participants will benefit from collaborative and training events, analyses, indicators, datasets and policy briefings. MERGE brings together a variety of research initiatives as well as key national and EU stakeholders. By engaging with, for example, NGOs, researchers and statistical bureaus, the project aims to translate existing research into actionable strategies.

MERGE will receive more than €3.5 million of funding from the EU over three years.

Inquiries:

Tuuli Hirvilammi, tuuli.hirvilammi [at] tuni.fi