EFRAG CALLS FOR AN ACADEMIC STUDY AND ACADEMIC LITERATURE REVIEW ON LONG-TERM VIEW ON THE LIKELY DEVELOPMENTS IN FINANCIAL REPORTING
EFRAG plans to start preliminary research activity on the long-term view on the likely developments in financial reporting.
The proposed research would include a holistic assessment of IFRS Standards (strengths, weaknesses, long-term considerations, topics still to be addressed and European needs and requirements).
In the context of this research activity, EFRAG is interested in commissioning a review of existing studies related to the assessment of which financial reporting issues at a global and European level need to be further developed.
Examples of literature that is of particular interest to EFRAG include, but are not limited to an assessment of:
1. Strengths and weaknesses of IFRS Standards, in order to form a long-term view on the likely development of financial reporting;
2. How the international dimension of standard setting is evolving;
3. Ongoing development of National GAAP in European countries in particular on emerging issues recently on the agenda of the National Standard Setters;
4. How ongoing and expected trends in digitalisation are likely to influence standard setting, including how the needs of users are evolving;
5. How financial reporting could contribute to related EU public policy and legislative priorities (Capital Market Union, Green Deal, Digitalisation, etc.);
6. How financial reporting would need to evolve to accommodate the need to achieve an effective and high-quality broader corporate reporting, thereby facilitating the understanding of both financial and non-financial components of the management performance and perspectives.
7. The relevance of IFRS Standards for the economic and regulatory environment of various European jurisdictions
The literature review should summarise the key findings of these studies and also briefly describe the different methods applied. The literature review can consist of academic literature and practice-oriented literature (e.g. state of play in financial reporting publications by other organisations).
To the extent that it would be useful for the purpose of the literature review, the literature review could accordingly be supplemented by literature other than academic papers on publicly-available information from external reporting (i.e. financial statements and annual reports).
For topics 2, 3, 4 and 6 listed above, in addition to the academic review, the academic research team will be requested to develop a study, mapping the ongoing activities and forthcoming
agenda priorities of the relevant stakeholders (e.g., National Standard Setters of European countries), including through interviews with them. Similarly, for other topics the academic
research team may suggest developing a study in order to obtain sufficient input.
How to apply
Applications are open to individuals or groups who are affiliated with an internationally recognised university and have previously published research on accounting in high quality
peer reviewed journals. If you are interested to apply, please submit summary CVs and a brief proposal together to call.for.tender@efrag.org before 15 October 2021.
The proposal should include:
• university affiliation and previous research;
• an outline of the literature review plan;
• an outline of the additional studies for topics 2, 3 and 6;
• a brief review of some relevant research/literature;
• a summary of the key issues which you believe are likely to arise from the review; and
• the amount of the funding required along with a breakdown of the estimated costs.
Applicants will be informed of EFRAG’s decision by 1 November 2021. EFRAG may finally decide to divide the review into separate parts and allocate them to different teams. In this
case, the total funding will be allocated based on EFRAG’s assessment.
While not a prerequisite, an academic team with a multi-jurisdictional composition will be prioritised.
Terms of agreement
The work will have to be done in the last months of 2021 and the first trimester of 2022, with detailed outline of the study and status report (focused on the key studies) by the end of
December 2021 and the finalisation of the report by the end of April 2022.
Authors may be required to make a short presentation of findings to the EFRAG Board and EFRAG TEG at one of their meetings. EFRAG may also require the authors to present their
findings at other meetings after publication by EFRAG of the literature review. EFRAG will incur the traveling expenses to attend the meetings after publication (until publication all
expenses including travel expenses are to be included in the proposal). Funding of up to 25K euro (including VAT if applicable)1 euros is available to commission the literature review. The
review and summary report will be made publicly available on EFRAG website. The authors will be allowed under specific conditions to use the findings for their own research and to
publish them. The Information Form and Draft Contract form part of the call for tenders.
