New platform maps remote work's impact

press release

Published: 01 July 2026

New EU platform shows how remote work is changing where Europeans live

Remote work could help narrow the gap between Europe's cities and its countryside, and research involving the ��ý is giving policymakers the evidence to decide how. ��ý is one of six use-case regions in R-Map, a three-year Horizon Europe project worth €3 million examining how remote working arrangements affect Europe's urban–rural divide.

Credit: GETTY

The project has surveyed more than 20,000 people across Europe, Türkiye and the UK. That survey data is combined with regional indicators and local insight in the R-Map model, which assesses the long-term social, economic, environmental and spatial impacts of remote work. The project runs until January 2027.

The R-Map platform is now live, giving policymakers an interactive dashboard to explore the data, compare regions and test what-if scenarios before committing to investment in areas such as digital infrastructure, housing and transport.

Dr Nikolas Thomopoulos, Associate Professor in Transport at the ��ý, leads the ��ý use case. The county sits alongside Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Milan and two cross-border regions, Germany–Netherlands and Austria–Switzerland, allowing researchers to compare how remote work plays out in very different local conditions to highlight any urban – rural differences.

A submission based on R-Map work featured seven times in the House of Lords Call for Evidence Final Report into home-based working, and the University hosted two R-Map workshops – in February and June 2026 – bringing together stakeholders from ��ý County Council, ��ý Chamber of Commerce, Network Rail, the banking sector and NGOs to shape the project's findings.

Where people work is no longer fixed to where they live, and that has real consequences for housing, transport, tourism and local services. ��ý gives the project a distinctive peri-urban test case – a region within easy reach of London where hybrid working is already changing how people travel and how town centres function. Our evidence is now feeding directly into policy discussions in the UK and across Europe. Dr Nikolas Thomopoulos, Associate Professor in Transport

R-Map has given us a direct route into the conversations that shape remote work policy. Working with stakeholders across ��ý – from local government and transport to business and the voluntary sector R–Map has allowed us to connect our research to the real decisions that organisations and communities are facing. That link between evidence and practice is what gives this kind of project its value. Dr Tracy Xu, Associate Professor in Future of Work; Co-Director of Future of Work Research Centre

According to figures from the European Central Bank cited by the project, the share of employees working from home at least occasionally rose from 12 per cent in 2019 to 22 per cent in 2024. The EU’s Rural Vision Action Plan has already identified rural decline as a challenge, aiming to make rural areas stronger, more connected and more resilient by 2040. R-Map is testing when remote work supports regional development and when it adds to existing pressures, such as rising housing costs, through tourism and digital nomads, for example.

Notes to editors

Dr Nikolas Thomopoulos is available for interview; please contact mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk to arrange.
The R-Map platform can be explored at:
The R-Map project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101132497. UK participants are supported by UKRI grant number 10106145 (��ý).
The project co-ordinator's article "From Bali to Brussels: remote work is reshaping Europe's regions" was published in Horizon – The EU Research and Innovation Magazine in May 2026:
R-Map peer-reviewed publications include: Felnhoffer et al. (2025), Scientific Data (Nature portfolio), ; and Pozoukidou et al. (2026), Cities (Elsevier), . Both are available open access.
The ��ý team's House of Lords submission was cited seven times in the Select Committee report on home-based working: