Deadline: 30-Oct-25
The Social Innovation+ Initiative has announced an open call for applications for its initiative titled “Innovative Approaches to Improve Labour Market Outcomes for Persons with Disabilities”.
The goal is to improve the labour market outcomes of persons with disabilities by providing guidance and good practices for employers, employers’ associations, and public authorities, as well as by raising awareness about persons with disabilities and by combating stereotypes.
It aims to improve the situation of persons with disabilities in the EU over the ten-year period, making sure that they can fully enjoy their rights, have equal opportunities and access to society and the economy, decide where, how and with whom they live, and that they can move freely in the EU, regardless of their support needs. Closing the employment gap between persons with and without disabilities is one of the objectives of the Strategy, which invited Member States to set national targets for employment and adult learning for persons with disabilities.
Under the ESF+, the SI+ Initiative covers innovations that are social in terms of both their ends and their means. Thus, it acknowledges that social innovation:
- is a collective social process, involving the distinctive participation of civil society actors and building new relationships between public, private, and third sector entities and
- generates social output and impact in the form of improved services, products, models, social relationships, standards, or policies that create greater social impact than current practice and are therefore more effective in achieving the objectives of the ESF+ and the European Pillar of Social Rights.
Objectives
- Building a shared understanding of unmet or insufficiently met social and labour market and labour market related needs by strengthening collaboration and capacity building between key stakeholders.
- Identification and framing of the challenges for example, engaging key stakeholders in conducting a comprehensive mapping of barriers in the employment pathway for persons with disabilities across different industries, regions, and work settings.
- Identification and adaptation of proven social innovation models that have enhanced employment outcomes for persons with disabilities which should serve as a reference point to put in place specific measures and solutions, to identify effective models, implementing knowledge exchange programmes to facilitate best practice sharing, and selecting promising models for adaptation.
- Selecting the appropriate method for scaling a proven social innovation for example, determining the most suitable scaling approach based on the context, barriers, and needs of persons with disabilities.
- Implementing continuous learning and impact-driven scaling for example, integrating regular reflection and evaluation throughout the project to enable timely revisions and improvements, rather than limiting assessment to the end.
- Working towards mainstreaming/consistent adoption for example, fostering collaboration among key stakeholders to ensure the sustainable and widespread implementation of proven employment solutions for persons with disabilities into national and local policies, employer practices, and public employment services.
- Participation in mutual learning events organised by the European Competence Centre for Social Innovation (established under the ESF+ SI+ Initiative) it is crucial for mutual learning between beneficiaries and therefore mandatory.
Focus Areas
- Strengthening capacities of employment and integration services: A key focus is on enhancing PES knowledge and operational capabilities to address the barriers persons with disabilities face in the workforce. This includes developing inclusive recruitment policies, improving accessibility of employment services, and fostering collaboration with employers and social partners. More specifically, the toolkit presents areas of action:
- PES internal measures: training, recruitment policy, performance targets.
- Services: provision of information, guidance and job placement services, job portals.
- Active Labour Market Programmes (AMLPs): supported employment, personalised support, self-employment and entrepreneurship.
- Promoting hiring perspectives through affirmative action and combating stereotypes: Ensuring equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities is essential for fostering an inclusive and diverse labour market. These measures fall into several key categories:
- Support services for businesses: providing advisory services, toolkits, and professional guidance to help employers adopt inclusive hiring practices and implement workplace accommodations effectively.
- Subsidies and financial incentives: offering wage subsidies, tax exemptions, and reductions in social security contributions to employers who recruit and retain employees with disabilities.
- Ensuring reasonable accommodation at work: Building an inclusive labour market requires targeted strategies to eliminate barriers preventing persons with disabilities from accessing and retaining employment. These methods include:
- Providing Assistive Technology: supplying employees with tools such as screen readers, voice recognition software, and ergonomic equipment to enhance workplace accessibility.
- Personal Assistance: offering job coaching, interpreters, or workplace support to help employees navigate job tasks more effectively.
- Retaining persons with disabilities in employment: preventing disabilities associated with chronic diseases: Retaining persons with disabilities in the workforce requires proactive strategies to prevent the progression of disabilities linked to chronic diseases. Key measures include:
- Workplace health management: regular check-ups, health promotion programmes, and occupational health support to prevent work-related illnesses.
- Flexible work arrangements: phased return-to-work plans, adjusted workloads, and remote working options to accommodate fluctuating health conditions.
- Securing vocational rehabilitation schemes in case of sickness or accidents: A significant proportion of the working-age population suffers from chronic health problems, and many leave the labour market before their statutory retirement age. Vocational rehabilitation process includes these key steps and elements:
- Inclusive, supportive education and training, which meets labour market needs.
- Proactive early intervention.
- A well-planned, person-centred, strengths-based, holistic and systematic approach which focuses on empowering individuals to participate in work.
- Exploring quality jobs in sheltered employment and pathways to the open labour market: These models include sheltered workshops and work integration enterprises, which provide employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. The study recommends several strategies, including:
- Improving educational attainment and skills of persons with disabilities to increase their employability.
- Creating effective pathways for transitioning from sheltered employment to the open labour market.
Funding Information
- Total Budget: EUR 10,000,000
- The estimated size of a grant is between EUR 500,000 and EUR 1,000,000 per project (but this does not preclude the submission/selection of applications requesting other amounts), constituting no more than 80% of the total project budget. A co-financing of at least 20% must thus come from other sources than the EU budget.
- Duration: 18-24 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible, the applicant acting as the coordinator, co-applicants, and associated partners must:
- Be legal entities (public or private bodies);
- Be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States.
- Non-EU countries: listed European Economic Area (EEA) countries and countries associated with the ESF+(Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, and Serbia) or countries with which an association agreement is being negotiated and for which the agreement enters into force by the deadline of this call.
- Applicant, co-applicants and associated partners can be (non-exhaustive list):
- Ministries of labour and/or social affairs,
- Public employment services (PES), employment agencies, job centres,
- National, regional and local authorities, public authorities, municipalities,
- Vocational education and training entities,
- Local community centres, hubs,
- Non-governmental and non- profit entities (e.g., civil society organisations, associations, foundations, social enterprises, etc.), in particular those representing persons with disabilities.
For more information, visit Social Innovation+ Initiative.