Cognitive skills such as literacy and numeracy, and socio-emotional skills such as self-regulation and empathy are increasingly recognized as critical determinants of individual economic success and well-being. Skill development, therefore, is one of the most powerful levers for addressing inequality and individual economic mobility.

The SkillsCampus brings together research on cognitive and socio-emotional skills and translates it into concrete offerings for the Ruhr area, a structurally disadvantaged region facing particular challenges. We place special focus on underrepresented and vulnerable populations, including first-generation university students and ethnic minorities.

To this end, we use randomized field experiments, natural experiments, and structural models with register, survey, and experimental data from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.