Common to all European countries are rising life expectancies and a compositional shift from younger to older people. While these demographic changes are accompanied by general improvements in health, only a minority of older workers reaches the statutory retirement age while working.

On the premise that more and better research could help understand why some people at higher working age are still working while others are not, the General Assembly of the Joint Programming Initiative "More Years, Better Lives" (JPI MYBL) asked a group of forty-six scientific experts from eleven countries to identify new research needs that lend themselves to joint research funding activities. This report provides a synthesis of the main results.

Informed by insights from demography, economics, occupational health, social epidemiology, sociology, gerontology, and psychology, the JPI UEP working group applied a rigorous and comprehensive conceptual framework to analyse the determinants for early withdrawal from the labour market by domain and across the participating countries.

The audiences of this report are, hence, researchers, research funders, as well as decision-makers in research policy, social policy and labour market policy addressing employment participation at higher working age.

Full versions of National Reports and Domain Chapters are available on the project's website at: www.jp-demographic.eu