An innovative project that uses a sophisticated research tool to calculate the effects of taxes and benefits on households across Europe and which can be used to help explore alternative approaches to tackling poverty and inequality has been given a multi million Euro boost.

EUROMOD, created by an international team of experts, led by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), has been awarded 4.5m Euros by the European Commission. The grant will be used to update and upgrade the computer-based research tool, and to extend it to cover the whole enlarged European Union over the next three years. The money will also be used to raise awareness among researchers, international bodies and Governments of how EUROMOD can be used to measure the impact of tax and benefit policies on people’s living standards and ultimately tackle inequality and poverty.

A number of new researchers are being appointed to join the EUROMOD team in ISER and work is underway to improve further its usefulness as a unique resource for cross-national social science research and policy analysis.

Holly Sutherland, Research Professor at ISER, heads up the project: “This significant grant is a real boost for the EUROMOD project and recognises its potential value not only as a resource to inform policy-relevant research of many kinds but also as a tool for policy learning across countries. This is a great opportunity to build on the work done so far and to establish EUROMOD as part of the toolkit for cross-national comparative social science.”

The project, which builds on 12 years’ work and the accumulation of technical experience and innovation and widespread international expertise, currently covers 19 European Union countries but is due to expand to 27 countries over the three-year project. It will involve a team of at least 60 researchers, based across Europe, with the design, technical coordination and leadership coming from Professor Sutherland’s growing team in ISER at the University of Essex.

EUROMOD can be used to help assess the impact of policies both at the level of the individual, and at a country and cross-Europe level. Professor Sutherland and her team intend that an increasing number of key policy makers and researchers with an interest in this area will begin to make use of it.