The financial crisis, pandemic, war, environmental and climate threats of recent years show that the global risk scenario can evolve rapidly and that the threats to our societies are complex. Strengthening citizens’ conditions for good health is central to coping with future crises. At the same time, in the welfare sector, health care faces major challenges.

Lessons learnt from the pandemic showed that crisis management went hand in hand with knowledge development. Research therefore plays an important role in improving the conditions for welfare resilience. How can the Nordic Region develop welfare and welfare services based on important needs both today and in the future?

About the project

To stimulate a Nordic discussion on the resilience of welfare, the Nordic Council of Ministers has initiated this project, which is being carried out by NIKK. The goal of the project is to contribute knowledge to better understand and analyse challenges and opportunities for making decisions that strengthen crises preparedness and welfare resilience in the Nordic Region with a focus on health care from a gender perspective.

The project spans several areas of knowledge. The knowledge produced is of relevance to several sectors within the Nordic co-operation and therefore contributes to strengthening collaboration between both policy areas and actors active within them, as well as between researchers and other experts. The project will result in a publication of texts, received through this open call for proposals, and a seminar.

About the Open Call

These are complex issues that need to be addressed from several different perspectives. The project will therefore bring together experts from different parts of the Nordic Region. In a joint publication, they will highlight aspects of welfare health care in the Nordic Region, from a gender perspective, for good future preparedness.

In order to identify relevant perspectives, knowledge and research environments in the Nordic Region, an open call for proposals to participate with an exploratory text, an essay, is being conducted. The call is aimed at researchers with a doctoral degree and doctoral students who are active in the Nordic Region. The task of writing an essay is paid and the accepted researchers will be invited to a workshop in the start up phase of the writing process, to exchange knowledge, strengthen the Nordic network and enable synergies between the different texts.