Objective
The transition to adulthood (T2A) has long been defined through milestones such as leaving home, forming a union, parenthood, completing education, and stable employment. These markers are increasingly delayed or renounced, and no longer capture how youth themselves understand adulthood. Today’s youth cohorts face unprecedented realities: social lives shaped by social media and AI; youth as a demographic minority; growing dependence on intergenerational transfers; and escalating housing and cost-of-living pressures.
ForeverYoung redefines adulthood as a negotiated status shaped by perceptions, peer norms, and structural constraints. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Emerging Adulthood, and life-course perspectives, it has four objectives: (1) develop new measures of youth conceptions of adulthood, (2) analyse how digital influence, demographic marginality, intergenerational transfers, and housing costs shape these views, (3) link perceptions to prospective behaviours, and (4) build the first AI-augmented agent-based model (AI-ABM) simulating youth transitions as deliberative processes under real-world constraints.
Methods span four work packages: WP1 maps contemporary T2A patterns using international surveys; WP2 conducts human-led and AI-enhanced interviews; WP3 uses conjoint/vignette surveys to identify trade-offs; and WP4 develops the AI-ABM, where generative agents deliberate like young adults and explore counterfactual policy scenarios.
ForeverYoung moves beyond static milestone models to dynamic, psychologically plausible simulations of youth transitions. It pioneers the scaling of qualitative insights through AI interviewers and generative agents, embedding structural constraints for cross-national comparison and counterfactual analysis. The project advances theory in demography and computational social science, delivers insights for ageing societies, inequality, and intergenerational fairness, and informs EU and international youth strategies.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
20136 Milano
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.