UNICA Research Policy Meeting Edinburgh

The Social Sciences and Humanities in European Research Funding:

Opportunities, Challenges, Demands

Dr. Nicole BirkleEU Liaison Officer, Johannes Gutenberg University MainzSpokesperson ROSE – Research on Socities in Europe

07.11.2019

ROSE – a Working Group of German EU Liaison Officers linked throughout Europe

Katharina Berghöfer, Hamburg

Stefanie Preuss, Konstanz

Lisanne Sauerwald, München

Christian Veldman,Gießen

Nicole Birkle, Mainz

Geny Piotty, Frankfurt Oder

Ursula Schlichter, Mannheim

Andrea Gottlieb, Bremen

Kristina Wege, Frankfurt Main

spokesperson

ROSE

Our Major Objectives• Contributing to a future European research agenda addressing the intrinsic value of research

in the humanities, the social and the cultural sciences properly.

• Raising awareness at the European Commission level that research on societies needs an

adequate budget and is essential to the achievement of the Sustainable Developments Goals.

• Strengthening the role of research on societies also on the national, regional, and

institutional level.

• Promoting a general and sustainable cultural shift towards cooperation on equal terms

between all disciplines.

• Redefining the impact and equal appreciation of social innovation vs. technological

innovation.

• Highlighting the importance of collaborative research on societal challenges stemming from

migration, aging, economic inequality etc.

Why ROSE ?

Experiences in Past and Present EU Funding-Programmes

• Under-representation of the SSH in EU-programmes, and especially in Horizon 2020 + low

budget and high oversubscription in SC6.

• Strong technology and innovation-driven call/ topic design in all programme parts including SC6.

• Researchers especially in the Humanities state: “EU funding is not for us” or “we are no auxiliary

sciences or nice to have add-ons.”

• Integration – embedding – flagged topics not really a success in Horizon 2020.

• Lack of already existing strong interdisciplinary networks between natural sciences, applied

science, and SSH in many fields.

• While the social and economic sciences found their place in consortia as providers of ethics

votes, business plans, and technology assessment, the humanities and cultural sciences could

(and can) hardly participate in the field of excellent collaborative research.

• Draft Programme for Horizon Europe failed to promise any significant improvement.

Overarching Policy Priorities: Democratic, Social, Educated Europe

ROSE strongly believes that Europe must:

• Better recognize the mutual interdependence of education, research, and innovation;

• Understand that education is the real engine for the economy, stable employment markets,

and high living standards;

• Be aware that new political concepts for the European Education Area must rely on intense

upstream educational research;

• Better address the political and societal challenges for democracy and cohesion in Europe

and the European societies;

• Investigate both macro and micro conditions and processes at the base of inequality in

Europe.

To achieve these goals Europe needs:

• An ambitious realignment and re-definition of the European Research Area as proposed

for example by the German Rectors’ conference

Re-defining a common code of conduct within the European Research Area.

More openness to the world -> cooperation with partners from all over the world.

Strengthening the cohesion of the research area and striving for distributed excellence.

Strengthening the role of the universities as key players within the ERA, appropriate to

their relevance in questions of education, research, innovation, and culture.

Focusing on “Brain Circulation” instead of “Mobility.”

• A new strategic planning for a pan-European cooperation in education and training.

• A return to also prioritizing basic research as a driver of future applied research.

Overarching Policy Priorities: Democratic, Social, Educated Europe

How to Better Embed SSH Research in EU R & I Framework Programmes

ROSE suggests to:

• stop enforcing the integration of the SSH in all parts of the programme, and stop focusing on

disciplines, but concentrate on the challenges;

• Implement well-budgeted originally SSH-driven funding lines, developed jointly with these

communities, and well co-designed funding in other parts to avoid SSH researchers feeling like

an “add on”;

• guarantee more SSH leadership in interdisciplinary projects;

• set up funding lines to bring new interdisciplinary consortia together;

• make the participation of all relevant disciplines including SSH a key concern in call/topic

design, project design, and evaluation to achieve the SDGs;

• implement tools fostering the cooperation of already ongoing projects;

• implement the Proof of Concept in all programme parts;

• allow for project lifetimes appropriate to the expected impact (European added value).

questions we discuss at the moment …

• The role of SSH research in future partnerships in Horizon Europe (not addressed in recent

consultations);

• The role of SSH in the missions;

• Involvement of SSH in the design of calls and topics;

• Ways to bring more SSH researchers as experts to Brussels. Expert database as a data grave?

• Synergies between the different EU programmes;

• Complementarity of national and European funding;

• Excellence versus Widening?

Solidarity and cohesion in Europe

Regulated cooperation? How much freedom does science need? How much regulation can it

tolerate?

ROSE

CULTIVATING EUROPE:DEMOCRATIC EUROPE •

SOCIAL EUROPE • EDUCATED EUROPE

New Horizons: Research on Societies

in Future European Research FundingBrussels, 27.09.18

• Recommendation paper, January 2018

• Critical Statement of the ROSEworking group on the proposalfor the specific programmeimplementing Horizon Europe –the Framework Programme forResearch and Innovation, June2018 https://research.uni-mainz.de/rose-activities/

What we did so far?

Why Cooperate?

Our Goals

• Setting up a multilevel network of European universities with a strong SSH focus for

mutual exchange, interaction, and joint activities;

• Expanding the ROSE network at multiplier level throughout Europe;

• Supporting the SSH communities to set up closer connections to the European Parliament

and Commission and to stakeholders from politics and industry/economics to start

lobbying for their fields and the most obvious relevance of their research to address the

SDGs;

• Inspiring researchers to actively support our goals;

• ROSE as the mouthpiece of the SSH community in Brussels.

The Europe Research Network, Paris

Our Network

Thank you for the invitation and your attention !

rose-eu@uni-mainz.de

ROSE – a Working Group of German EU Liaison Officers linked throughout Europe