Initiated by the European Science Foundation, its main aims are: 1) to analyse public attitudes and values within Europe and to investigate how they interact with Europe´s changing institutions; 2) to improve and consolidate the methodology of cross-cultural research; 3) to disseminate survey methods and data analysis thecniques of cross-cultural studies. It is also a fundamental aim of ESS to disseminate ands make data acessible.

WORKCARE SYNERGIES is a support action with the aim of disseminating research findings of previous EU Framework Programme projects in the field of work-care. Our dissemination scheme is based on the concept of local key mediator teams, which are based in each of the seven countries where dissemination will take place.and the mediator teams consist of local researchers, knowledge transfer and communication specialists. Local teams will implement local dissemination activities.

The main aim is to empirically develop the model of Social Quality in the field of welfare, work and care, by bringing together policies, structural and cultural indicators at a macro level with actions, orientations and values of individuals and households at a micro level, articulating objective and subjective measures of the quality of life.

The investigation proposed falls within the framework of research work at a European level entitled The changing relationship between work, welfare and gender equality in Europe: Developing a capabilities approach to transition using

the study of man's role in the pursuit of equality goals          emerges as a central matter in this project. Moreover, this research aims to realise the process of parenthood formation according to social and cultural diversity of young parents, as a way to understand, to identify and if possible to explain the existence of different and/or new attitudes towards fatherhood.

Why do the majority of young people, in contemporary society, experiment with drugs and never become addicted? Why do others experiment with those substances, and become frequent consumers of certain drugs? Why do yet others move from experimentation to drug-addiction, leading sometimes to ways of life based on delinquency? One of the central purposes of this research is to answer these core questions.

Exploration of the factors that in the portuguese society contribute to the unequal division of paid labour between men and women. To understanding of male and female strategies concerning the division of paid and unpaid work as domestic work, childcare and elder care.

This project is linked to a wider range european investigation, which involves eleven E.U. countries around some specific goals: to study the effects of social policies in the division of paid and unpaid work betwen men and women and to infer, from the attained research results social policy measures towards the promotion of a fairer sexual division of labour.

The aim of this project is to study family forms in contemporary Portugal, by analysing family structures, marital and parental dynamics, and obligations. The research will investigate the relation between family organisation and social, economics and spatial determinants.