Integrating Social Sciences and Humanities in Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges: Will it work?
Reports from various parts of Europe confirm urgency of the topics put forward by the conference “Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities” held last week 23-24 September 2013 in Vilnius under the Lithuanian EU Presidency. On twitter alone, the conference hashtag #horizonsSSH was used more than 600 times. The conference was widely covered in traditional and new media (see Guardian, Der Standard, Liberation, lzinios, Net4Society, Research Europe, Science Guide, LSEImpactBlog, University World News, Research Europe, Euroscientist, Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, Information.dk and Hypothèses). In preparation for the conference, a number of stakeholder organizations such as the League of European Research Universities LERU and Science Europe published dedicated reports on contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) to solving societal challenges.
The conference highlighted once more that world-class European SSH are indispensable in generating knowledge about the dynamic changes that transform our societies. They form the basis of the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges Pillar and their integration with other sciences will broaden our understanding of innovation, driven not only by technological advances, but also by societal expectations, values and demands. The Vilnius Declaration nicely elaborates crucial principles that form the basis for the integration of the SSH in Horizon 2020: defining research problems in novel ways; carefully considering the working conditions of all research partners and setting up efficient collaboration across different disciplines and research fields; fostering interdisciplinary training and research; and connecting social values and research evaluation.
However, such principles also reveal some concerns. One is, that the rhetoric of “integrating” the SSH into the “Societal Challenges”, predefined by European Commission (EC), European Council and the European Parliament, is not (yet?) matched by the institutional means to realize this goal. The Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, as well as General Director Robert-Jan Smits both emphasized their good will; but the EC Directorate General (DG) Research and Innovation alone consists of many levels of decision-making (and there are also several other DGs involved). It turned out also that, in many respects, the course of Horizon 2020 is already set for the upcoming two years, without any real change to the procedures or the group of persons involved.
Considering those facts, it became very clear during the conference that “integrating SSH”, despite being a noble goal, is also a risky undertaking. It is rhetorically attractive to policy makers, while its success depends on two crucial aspects. One is the permissiveness of the responsible units within the European Commission that are tasked to carry out the program. This often breaks down to personalities. We may expect very different results from different EC bureaucratic units (i.e., concerning different challenges), pending on the willingness to really integrate representatives of the SSH communities. The other is the persistence of getting involved by people who represent those SSH communities. Continued representation requires structures and people with authority to speak for the communities. Currently, there is neither a robust structure established at European level, nor are there people in view who would preside over such a structure.
After the conference, the question “what follows?” is more crucial than anything else. The Vilnius Declaration is clearly a sign to policy makers that the SSH communities are ready to take up the challenge. But the lack of structural and ideational premises makes it difficult to plan and design contributions. The conference report – currently under preparation and expected to be published in December 2013 – will point out upcoming tasks and the willingness to take up and implement those tasks. From a researcher’s perspective, of course, what is happening right now is thrilling: Can a large, but diversely organized and widely under-informed field such as SSH come at grips with research policy in relatively short time? Will community based efforts to represent SSH lead to emergence of new structures (or revival of existing ones) in order to take action? Does integration remain superficial policy rhetoric (the “ritualisation trap”), or can real change be achieved? The next weeks, months and years will tell. However the message still echoing from the conference is clear: “Take the lead.”
Conference Website
Twitter hashtag: #horizonsSSH
Coming Events: “Achieving Impact: Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities in Horizon 2020” Feb 26-27, 2014, Athens, Greece
Dr. Thomas König and Dr. Katja Mayer are assistants to the Conference Steering Committee.
There is indeed a long way to go, but the ball is in our camp. We have to face the difficulties of embedding, but also to ensure that in the future SSH paradigms are given full value for themselves. In other words, we are working for integration into H2020, but at the same time negotiating a place in the following framework programme.
The real challenge for the SSH lies in widening participation so that not only the successful disciplines – the socio-economic fields, and to a lesser extent history – succeed. This implies showing the ‘hard’ sciences the potential offered by integrating the SSH, but in also prepapring the networking so that the often nationally based disciplines of the humanities can internationalise. The way forward is also by ensuring that panels represent all SSH disciplines, and also reflect the shop floor rather than only nationally appointed academies, which are often nominated from a very small pool.
Outreach and widened involvement is essential as innovation often comes from unexpected quarters. The way forward also implies looking at the potential from middle road research. Putting all your eggs in an excellency basket can simply demoralise other good research that does not fit the current canons of excellence.
We at EvalHum have proposed the Massive Open Online Chalenge events as a way of widening invovement and demonstrating potential. We are open to all collaborations possible as all actors must move together rather than relying only on individual initiatives
Vilnius 2013 opened the door to true involvement, even if the path is difficult, it is for us to seize the opportunities offered.
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