Indicator Framework Work Package for HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-TRANSFO-05

Europe faces a deepening basic skills crisis with direct consequences for long-run economic growth — and an equally urgent social justice dimension: skills deficits are systematically concentrated among disadvantaged children.

This work package develops an indicator framework for child-centred education system quality, capturing hard factors (funding, infrastructure, curriculum) and soft factors (pedagogy, inclusion, democracy), differentiated across children's varying needs. The analysis spans the full educational lifespan — from early childhood, where evidence shows the highest returns, through schooling to lifelong learning.

We propose to combine this work package with a follow-on (posted as a separate opportunity) to identifying viable fiscal policy measures to improve education system quality.

Germany's federal structure serves as the primary case study, complemented by structured cross-European analyses. Estonia and the Scandinavian countries serve as leading reference points for both educational outcomes and the successful integration of AI into schooling. Across this work package and its follow-on partner we identify mechanisms and opportunities for European countries to learn more systematically from one another.