Integration of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in Horizon 2020: participants, budgets and disciplines

Fri, 30 Oct 2015 09:41:30 +0100

The European Commission issued a monitoring and evaluation report on the integration of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in Horizon 2020, by focusing on participants, budgets and disciplines. The report shows an uneven and unequal integration of SSH in projects and provides a series of recommendations.

The integration of Social Sciences and Humanities in the European framework programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020 is part of the priorities of the European Commission (EC). The SSH comprise various disciplines such as anthropology, economics, history, humanities and the arts (archaeology, ethics, literature, theology, etc), political science, law, sociology and psychology. Contributions from these fields are needed "to generate new knowledge, support evidence-based policymaking, develop key competences and produce interdisciplinary solutions to both societal and technological issues."

While in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) SSH had their own dedicated programme, Horizon 2020 'embeds' SSH researchers in areas and topics under the Societal Challenges and Industrial Leadership priorities. EC has recently issued a monitoring and evaluation report on the intergration of SSH in these two areas. Its aim is to evaluate the quality of the integration by focusing on participation, budget allowed and the variety of SSH disciplines in the 2014 calls for proposals.

A summary of the report conclusions can be found on theSWISSCORE website and the full report is available from the EC.