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Sound bites on the Challenges of the Humanities in the 21st Century. ICS, Uni...

Humanities World Report 2015

The first of its kind, this 'Report' gives an overview of the humanities worldwide. Published as an Open Access title, and based on an extensive literature review and enlightening interviews conducted with 90 humanities scholars across 40 countries, the book offers a first step in attempting to assess the state of the humanities globally.  Download here!

Letter 7 March 2014 from SSH community to EU Commissioner for Research and Innovation

Brussels, March, 7th

Dear Commissioner,

The European Association of Sociology (EAS), the European Confederation of

Political Science Associations (ECPSA), the European Educational Research

Association (EERA), the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and

the European Consortium for Humanities Institutes and Centres (ECHIC) have

welcomed your intention to improve the position of the Social Sciences and

Humanities (SSH), as you have stated on several occasions since the British

Academy meeting in November 2011.

Considering your clearly expressed political intent to support SSH, in line with the

European Parliament and the Member States, we wish to express our strong concern

about the implementation of H2020:

- The first available 2014-2015 work programs indicate that the share of SSH

research in SC6 has diminished dramatically. Extrapolated to the whole Horizon

2020 period, the core SSH program in SC6 will be funded up to the amount of

300 Million Euros. This is less than half of the FP7 budget for SSH (625 Million

Euros) and far removed from what has been claimed on many occasions prior to

this. It is now also evident that the main share of the SSH Challenge has been

allocated to other priorities: a third of the budget of SC6 has been given to DG

CNECT, which already gets more than 7 billion Euros under Priority 2 and from

other budgets elsewhere in various Societal Challenges, and a further third of

the budget is allocated to “innovation research”. Such budgetary decisions are in

complete contradiction to the proposals for the Specific Programme of H2020,

which allows for large research activity for SSH in SC6 in support of several key

policy areas developed in particular by DG EMPL, EAC, ECFIN, HOME, JUST,

DEVCO, BEPA, ENV and EEAS.

- According to the call for proposals, the « mainstreaming policy » of SSH in other

challenges, which was presented as an important complement to the specific

challenge, rarely pertains directly to research in SSH. Instead the calls have a

narrow utilitarian approach to SSH and fail to mobilise the breadth of relevant

SSH research for societal challenges. The selection of experts similarly fails to

draw the breath of relevant SSH expertise.

We hope that we are mistaken. We therefore ask for a meeting with you urgently in

order to get some clarification from you regarding the situation detailed above and

so that SSH core research in SC6 can be granted the key position that was agreed

upon by the European Parliament and the Council.

Yours sincerely,

Carmen Leccardi 

President of ESA 

Pablo Oñate

President of ECPSA

Lejf Moos 

President of EERA 

Noel B. Salazar 

President of EASA

Poul Holm

President of ECHIC

Answer to: carmen.leccardi@unimib.it , pablo.onate@uc3m.es , moos@dpu.dk ,

noel.salazar@soc.kuleuven.be ; holmp@tcd.ie

This letter was Cc’ed to:

- Members of Parliament

- Members of the Programme Committee for Challenge 6 (H2020)

- Media in member states: La Repubblica, El Pais, Libération, Der Spiegel, The

Times

Poul Holm: Oceans Past and Future. Talk at the Sydney Environment Institute, Australia, 1 Nov 2014

Full text of letter sent to the EU Commissioner for Research and Innovation

 6 November 2013 

“Towards Europe 2020: integrating the Social Sciences and Humanities” 

Letter from the 

European Alliance for the Social Sciences and Humanities 

Dear Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn, 

We were delighted to participate in the recent EU Presidency conference «Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities» in Vilnius and we enthusiastically support the Vilnius Declaration. We were much encouraged by your strong words of support for mainstreaming Social Science and Humanities (SSH) research in Horizon 2020, and we took note of your pledge to see words turned into action. 

We understand that things will take time and we want to offer our co-operation in mobilizing the interest and commitment of SSH researchers for the research agenda of Horizon 2020. 

We are, however, deeply concerned by the low profile given to the SSH in the first draft of the work programme for the first 25% of H2020 (2014-2015). We urge the European Commission not to gamble away the willingness of the SSH community to contribute to research into all Societal Challenges. 

So far, we see that the Calls for research enssaged under the Social Challenge approach will have, despite all good intentions, an overriding focus on technology-based solutions, based on outdated linear innovation models and implemented in the traditional silo-like approach. 

In order to overcome this deplorable impasse, and building on recommendations made by delegates to the Vilnius conference, we submit the following suggestion: 

The Commission should consider support for synthesis centres, that will allow stakeholders and researchers from across all relevant areas to reflect on how Societal Challenge research can best integrate all necessary and innovative approaches, including a broader inclusion of SSH insights into the European agenda. 

We propose the environmental and educational fields as early candidate areas. 

As you know, European Social Science and Humanities research is very competitive in the global market place of knowledge and ideas. Europe as a whole would benefit from tapping more decisively into these rich resources. Conversely, if Horizon 2020 should fail to properly integrate the broad areas of competence of SSH research, substantial opportunity costs for the European Union are likely to occur.

We are particularly concerned that Social Challenge 6 (SC6), which is intended to have a particular focus on generating new insights and evidence through SSH research, risks being skewed heavily towards ICT-related applications research and on structural investments unrelated to any specific resaerch needs. 

It is important that future SC6 Calls are formulated in such a way that projects can draw on the best of relevant SSH research. This means being explicit about the allocation of funds for research, as opposed to funding currently foreseen for other activities. 

In this context, it would be beneficial if approvals of the Work Programmes were limited to just 1-year-periods each : the Commission and the communities can then monitor the implementation of the programme and the successful embedding of SSH. 

By the same token, we feel we need to reiterate the importance and urgent need for Advisory Groups to be appointed in an inclusive and transparent manner. 

The undersigned members of the EASSH Core Group, leaders from some of the premier research institutes in the fields of SSH, are looking forward to exchanges aimed at making Horizon 2020 a success. 

Best Regards, 

EASSH Core Group members and representatives 

Ms Angela Schindler-Daniels, Programme Coordinator NET4SOCIETY, Project Management Agency, German Aerospace Center, Bonn 

Lejf Moos, Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, and President, European Educational Research Association 

Milena Zic-Fuchs, Professor at University of Zagreb, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Chair of the Science Review Group for the Humanities (ESF), ALLEA Working Group Social Sciences and Humanities 

Poul Holm, Professor at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Chair “European Consortium for Humanities Institutes and Centres” (ECHIC) 

Sean Ryder, Professor at NUI Galway, Ireland, and Chair, HERA Network Board (Humanities in the European Research Area) 

Thomas Risse, Professor of International Relations, Free University Berlin, and Chair Scientific Committee for the Social Sciences, Science Europe 

Wolfgang Mackiewicz, President, Conseil européen pour les langues / European Language Council (CEL/ELC) 

Contact: 

Dr Rüdiger Klein, Founding Chair, European Alliance for the Social Sciences & Humanities (EASSH), kleinrudiger@gmail.com.