The European Commission is organising a Research Conference: Understanding the Impact of the RRF to discuss research and preliminary evidence on the impact of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the EU’s EUR 650 billion temporary post-COVID instrument that supports reforms and investments across different policy areas in all Member States. The conference invites the academic and research community to join practitioners from public administration and international organisations. The conference will be held at the Charlemagne building of the European Commission in Brussels on 29 January 2026.
The European Commission welcomes submissions of theoretical and empirical research papers and analysis of the impact of the RRF and Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) and related topics. The authors of selected papers will be invited to present their research at the conference.
A non-exhaustive list of possible topics includes:
- The impact of the RRF from a macroeconomic perspective.
- Impacts of the RRF on sectors and policy areas, including the green and digital transitions.
- The impact of RRF-related reforms or investments and the effect of the combination of reforms and investments in the same policy area.
- The impact of the RRF on national governance structures.
- Lessons learnt from performance-based budgeting, including design, assessment and revision of plans and targets.
- Novel methodologies (both qualitative and quantitative) to assess the impact of performance-based funding instruments.
Student and PhD candidate researchers are encouraged to participate. Depending on submissions, one presenter slot or a separate workshop will be reserved for submissions from early-career researchers.
The deadline for submission is 15 September 2025 [23:59 CEST]. The selected contributors will be notified by 31 October 2025.
Please submit your abstract of max. 400 words and paper or long abstract.
The conference and this call for papers are organised in the context of the Commission’s work on assessing the impact of the RRF, which will culminate with the ex-post evaluation of the instrument in 2028.
The selected authors may be entitled to a reimbursement of their travel expenses and to accommodation and daily allowances (conditions apply). Further details about the reimbursement rules will be provided to the participants once selected.
A dataset containing all RRF measures and milestones and targets per country as described in the annex to the Council Implementing Decision approving the assessment of the recovery and resilience plan is available here for research purposes.
The Scientific Commitee:
- Prof. Dr. Sonja Bekker, Utrecht University
- Prof. Dr. Jonathan Zeitlin, University of Amsterdam
- Dr. Francesca Crucitti, DG ECFIN, European Commission
- Dr. Gabor Katay, DG ECFIN, European Commission
- Dr. Jan Nill, DG ECFIN, European Commission
- Marie-Luise Rüd, DG ECFIN, European Commission
- Dr. Muriel Jakubowicz, SG.REFORM, European Commission
For any questions, please contact: ecfin-rrf-conference
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (ecfin-rrf-conference[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)