Arnstein Aassve Wins European Research Council Advanced Grant for Groundbreaking Study of the New Transition to Adulthood
Arnstein Aassve (Bocconi Department of Social and Political Sciences and Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics and Public Policy) has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for his pioneering project ForeverYoung: The New Transition to Adulthood. Arnstein Aassve is one of Europe's leading demographers and has previously held two other ERC grants.
For decades, researchers have defined adulthood through milestones such as leaving the parental home, completing education, finding stable employment, forming a partnership, and becoming a parent. Yet these traditional markers are increasingly delayed, transformed, or abandoned altogether.
"Young people today are growing up in a world fundamentally different from that experienced by previous generations," says Aassve. "Social media and artificial intelligence shape everyday life, housing costs have reached unprecedented levels, family wealth increasingly determines opportunities, and young people themselves represent a shrinking share of ageing societies. We need a new understanding of what adulthood means under these conditions."
The ForeverYoung project will investigate how today's young adults define adulthood for themselves and how these perceptions influence major life decisions. The research will examine the role of four transformative forces: digital technologies and AI, demographic ageing, intergenerational transfers and inheritance, and housing and cost-of-living pressures.
To address these questions, the project will combine large-scale international surveys, interviews conducted across Europe, Asia and North America, innovative experimental methods, and a new generation of AI-powered simulations. The project will develop what may become the first AI-augmented agent-based model capable of simulating how young people reason about key life choices such as leaving home, forming partnerships, and having children.
The research represents a major advance at the intersection of demography, computational social science, and artificial intelligence. By combining qualitative insights with large-scale modelling, ForeverYoung seeks to move beyond simply describing demographic trends and towards understanding the reasoning processes that drive them. The project will also contribute to the development of new AI-based research methods for the social sciences.
“The third ERC grant awarded to Arnstein Aassve is an extraordinary achievement that reflects not only the researcher’s merit but also Bocconi’s ability to attract, support, and nurture world-class scholars throughout their careers. With ForeverYoung, we have reached a total of 73 ERC grants, a testament to the strength of an academic community that continuously invests in the most innovative research and in ideas capable of anticipating changes in society,” says Francesco Billari, Rector of Bocconi University.
The European Research Council, established by the European Union in 2007, is Europe’s leading funding organization for excellent research. It funds researchers of any nationality and age to carry out projects across Europe. The ERC offers four main grant programs: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants, and Synergy Grants.
