Article 68 of the Invalidity Insurance Act (InvIA) and Article 96 of the Invalidity Insurance Ordinance (InvIO) stipulate that the Confederation must carry out or commission an analysis of the implementation of the InvIA. Consequently, the FSIO launched a multiannual research programme on invalidity and disability, and on the implementation of the InvIA. It ran from 2006 to 2009, and a synthesis report was published in spring 2011. The subsequent programme, FoP2-IV, launched in 2010 and ended in 2015. It too was the subject of a synthesis report. The third invalidity insurance research programme, FoP3-IV, ran from 2016 and 2022 (synthesis report publication: March 2023). In early 2023, the FSIO launched the fourth programme, FoP4-IV. The main research priority is the evaluation of key elements of the further development of the IV reform (WEIV).
The primary objective of the first programme was to identify the endogenous and exogenous origins of the rapid growth in invalidity figures, draw up the bases (criteria and data) for evaluating the effectiveness of measures implemented as part of the IV revisions, and propose new instruments to support the goals of the law and to amend it where necessary so as to increase its effectiveness. As the long-term impact could not yet be evaluated in the first programme owing to the short space of time that had elapsed since the revisions, a key focus of the second IV research programme (FoP2-IV 2010–2015) was the evaluation of measures introduced as part of the 4th and 5th revisions of the InvIA. Other focal points of the FoP2-IV included 'system' topics, with questions on the way the IV scheme works, its interfaces and 'actors' and, for instance, examining the motivation and incentives on the behaviour of actors and actor groups.
The goal of the third programme (FoP3-IV) was to meet current demands for scientific knowledge about invalidity insurance while taking account of the corresponding political developments (e.g. the 6th InvIA revision that came into force on 1 January 2012 and the strategy for the further development of the IV). It featured a series of occupational and social integration-related evaluations (e.g. implementation of new measures and examples of good practice), as well as research projects that updated and/or built on the findings of earlier analyses, or generated new knowledge bases. A concept was devised during the final phase of FoP-IV3 for the future evaluation of the further development of the IV.
The project proposals set out in the WEIV evaluation concept form the core content of FoP4-IV. The research programme, which will run from January 2023 to December 2028, focuses on WEIV target groups (children and adolescents, as well as young people and adults with mental health problems). It also includes evaluations of cross-cutting changes and measures introduced as part of the WEIV, as well as coordination between the IV and other actors. The FoP4-IV, like its predecessors, will follow a rolling plan, which will make it possible to incorporate emerging and highly relevant issues in the research programme at relatively short notice.
