Four4All: Evidence and Pathways for Inclusive, Sustainable and Competitive Working Time Reduction in Europe

Europe faces a critical challenge: how to design workplaces that improve wellbeing, strengthen competitiveness, widen labour market inclusion, and support climate goals. Four-day work week pilots have shown strong promise, but evidence remains fragmented and underdeveloped on long-term viability, occupational safety and health, equity, barriers to adoption, and environmental sustainability.

Four4All responds directly to this challenge. It is the first Horizon Europe initiative to deliver a rigorous, cross-national assessment of the feasibility, impacts, pathways, and barriers to scaling working time reduction (WTR) across diverse European contexts.

Our nine-partner, seven-country consortium brings unmatched resources: privileged access to the world’s largest consolidated WTR dataset (~390 SMEs, 12,000 workers), hundreds of under-analysed interviews from past pilots, and new case studies of long-term adopters, failed experiments, a multinational manufacturer, and a major union campaign. Two pioneering contributions set Four4All apart: the first systematic analysis of occupational safety and health under WTR, and a multilingual AI-agent driven survey capturing stakeholder perceptions, barriers, and enablers.

• By combining organisational evidence, macroeconomic modelling, case studies, and co-created solutions, Four4All will deliver:
  Robust evidence on performance, wellbeing, inclusion, and environmental outcomes;
• Macroeconomic scenarios assessing feasibility and trade-offs;
• Stakeholder Packs of evidence and toolkits tailored for policymakers, employers, unions, and civil society;
• The Four4All Knowledge Hub, a multilingual, AI-enabled platform ensuring long-term visibility and uptake.

Led by world-leading researchers and practitioners who have coordinated national pilots and advised governments and unions, Four4All will equip EU institutions, Member States, and social partners with actionable pathways for inclusive, competitive, and sustainable working time reforms.

Project coordinator

• The University of Salford, United Kingdom

Project Partners

• Autonomy Research Limited, United Kingdom
• Birkbeck College - University of London, United Kingdom
• Elte Tarsadalomtudomanyi Kutatokozpont, Hungary
• Universidade do Porto, Portugal
• The University of Reading, United Kingdom
• Rigas Stradina Universitate, Latvia
• University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
• Curium Solutions Canada Ltd., Canada