Social Lab

The REFRESH project will bring a number of changes to the Moravian-Silesian region. Technological changes will also have social impacts in the region, which will be the focus of the Social Lab. Its task will be not only to monitor current events, but also to anticipate trend directions and ideally find solutions to eliminate undesirable phenomena that threaten social cohesion. Such phenomena may concern the transition from fossil to carbon-free fuels, the use of new materials or automation and robotics in industry.

Phenomena such as (energy) poverty, unemployment, crime, social mobility or the breakdown of family ties will be in the spotlight. A key focus will be on the most disadvantaged and particularly vulnerable social groups, who can be expected to be most negatively affected by the transformation of the region and whose problematic situation and also some attitudes may at the same time represent one of the biggest obstacles to the real transformation of the region in line with current European strategies.