International

The Future of Work Consortium is an interdisciplinary and international research alliance dedicated to shaping a resilient, inclusive and human-centred labour market. Our consortium brings together leading scholars from diverse disciplines, including sociology, psychology, computing and information science, economics, governance, human research management and the humanities, combined with an extensive network of public-sector and industry partners across Europe and the globe. This collective expertise positions us to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time – how to ensure that technological and societal transitions strengthen, rather than undermine, wellbeing, meaningfulness, and equity at work. We investigate this from multiple levels (such as granularity: micro/individual, meso/organizational, and macro/societal) but also in breadth, covering different sectors, countries, and groups of workers.

Vision

The rapid diffusion of AI and digital technologies is transforming how work is structured, executed, and experienced across sectors. These developments create significant opportunities but also substantial risks. These occur at different levels, for example:

  • Individual: how can one prevent declining autonomy and maintain meaningfulness of work?
  • Organizational: as work and teams become more fluid, how can structural coordination, accountability, and meaningful leadership be maintained?
  • Societal:  how to cope with the increased precarity and uncertainty? And how can widening inequalities be reduced?

Our vision is to generate scientific and practical knowledge, methodologies, and actionable tools that support a future in which workers thrive, organizations remain adaptable and competitive, and technological innovation aligns with EU values of social fairness and human dignity.

Consortium Strengths 

Our consortium is uniquely equipped to deliver high-impact results because of:

  • Interdisciplinary integration: We combine the latest insights and methodologies from a.o. the computing and information sciences, data science, human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, labour economics, human research management, sociology, and psychology. This interdisciplinarity enables breakthrough insights and solutions that cannot emerge from single-discipline approaches.
  • Multilevel analysis across sectors and countries: We study work at individual, team, organizational, sectoral, national, European, and global levels. Our founding members conduct research in multiple EU member states, including Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain.
  • Methodological breadth: Our toolbox includes large-scale surveys, qualitative and ethnographic research, quantitative (cross-national) experiments, process mining, event-log analysis, AI-driven pattern recognition, and action research embedded in real workplaces.
  • Deep engagement with practice: Public organizations, private companies, labour organizations and European stakeholders serve as research partners, allowing real-life experimentation and guaranteeing strong pathways to societal and economic impact.

International Activities

Publication: Understanding Distributed Cooperative Work through Data Traces
Event: Workshop on Personal and Human-Centric Process Mining
CHIWORK 2025 panel