Large European grant for Melinda Mills

As part of the FP7-SSH-2012 programme of the European Research Council (ERC), together with a large network of colleagues across Europe, Melinda Mills was awarded a Collaborative Project entitled: ‘FamiliesAndSocieties – Changing Families and Sustainable Societies: Policy contexts and diversity over the life course and across generations.’

The main objectives of this project is to investigate the diversity of family forms, relationships and life courses in Europe; to assess the compatibility of existing policies with these changes; and to contribute to evidence-based policy-making. Mills will lead one of the Working Packages entitled: ‘The changing role of children and societial implications: Assisted reproduction, late fertility and childlessness’ and will work together with Dr. Nicola Barban, Dr. Jornt Mandemakers, Felix Tropf and Maja Djundeva on this topic in addition to collaboration with researchers from Austria, Italy, Hungary and Romania. The main objective of the sub-project led by sociology in Groningen is to take stock of the demographic, regulatory and economic aspects of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) in Europe, particularly in relation to inequality.

The network was awarded  €7.5 million, of which approximately €333,000 was awarded to Sociology at the RUG.