A new guideline gives practical advice on how to design and implement mission-oriented research programmes by integrating SSH from the start.
In November 2018, the Austrian Presidency organised a conference in Vienna discussing the impact of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) for a European research agenda. As a main result, the organisers of the conference under the lead of Thomas König, researcher at the Insitut für Höhere Studien in Vienna, have now published the document ‘Social Sciences and Humanities Research Matters. Guidelines on how to successfully design, and implement, mission-oriented research programmes’.
The document is aimed at all stakeholders dealing with research funding programmes and includes practical advice for the full exploitation of interdisciplinary cooperation to tackle societal challenges. Such societal challenges are often addressed in ‘mission-oriented’ research programmes setting out a specific goal. The guidelines urge stakeholders to move from an integration of SSH to full cooperation right from the design of a research funding programme all the way through to implementation. The authors give examples of actions that programme officers, reviewers and panellists or independent evaluators can use to take SSH research into account. The recommendations given in the guideline may apply to the design of new instruments within Horizon Europe, such as the missions.
Looking back at what has been done so far, the European Commission is due to launch the 4th edition of their report on SSH integration in Horizon 2020 on 28 February 2019. The report will be published online on the respective webpage, and will cover the inclusion of SSH research in the European Research Council (ERC), Marie Sklowdoska-Curie Actions (MSCA), Research Infrastructures and Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programmes in addition to projects from Horizon 2020 pillars 2 and 3. The report will include best practice examples for topics and projects.