Project description
The consequences of AI and relevant policies in Europe
Countries can adopt AI at the same speed and still end up in very different places. In one, AI takes over tasks, and jobs disappear. In another, it removes dull tasks and lets people do more with their skills. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the AUSPICE project asks why countries diverge – and what follows from that choice. Most studies measure how much AI is being used; AUSPICE looks at whether countries and sectors lean towards automating work or augmenting it. It will build a new measure to track this distinction across countries, sectors and over time. It will then ask which political and institutional conditions support each trajectory, who gains and who loses from it, and how much public support it commands.
Objective
AUSPICE investigates why some countries are more inclined to implement artificial intelligence (AI) to complement workers, while others tend to automate tasks. It also examines how these choices influence jobs, inequality, and public support for AI. Moving beyond simple AI adoption rates, it measures “AI usage strategies” and their impacts, focusing on a key European priority: aligning technological progress with social inclusion through education and lifelong learning. The project has three objectives: (1) develop a longitudinal country‑ and sector‑level index that differentiates automation from augmentation; (2) identify the political and institutional factors driving these strategies; and (3) evaluate their distributional and political consequences. The methodology combines latent‑variable modelling to develop the index using harmonised EU sources (e.g. Eurostat, Eurofound), panel econometrics to explain differences across countries and sectors, as well as the relationships between strategies and group-level outcomes (e.g. gender, education, and occupation), and a pre‑registered online experiment to see how augmentative versus automating frames influence support for AI and related policies. Expected outcomes include a validated public index of AI usage strategies, evidence on policy solutions—such as skills formation systems, coordination bodies, and social partnerships—that promote augmentation, and guidance for policies that boost productivity while limiting inequality. The research outputs will include three working papers, a policy brief, and accessible communications via UNIBO platforms and the EUFutures Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. All preprints will be uploaded to OSF, the new index and reproducible codes will be shared under open licences on Zenodo, and all workflows will be publicly available on GitHub. Training will feature lectures on latent variable models and Bayesian methods, and knowledge exchange with an interdisciplinary AI scholarship.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences economics and business economics econometrics
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering mechatronics automation
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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
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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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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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) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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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.
40126 Bologna
Italy
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