New Position Paper! SSH integration: Past, Present and Future – A data analysis
EASSH's analysis and recommendations based on the European Commission's first monitoring report (published in July) on SSH integration under Horizon Europe.
The monitoring report covered the period 2021–2023 and mainly pillar II and one of the findings was that around 40% of pillar II topics were SSH-flagged.
The position paper addresses the report findings, presents an EASSH analysis, as well as methodological considerations and concerns in evaluating SSH integration. It also addresses the implementation of policies, SSH integration in FP10, and finally lists some recommendations for both future monitoring reports and immediate actions based on the first report.
EASSH President, Joe O'Hara, states:
Societal challenges should be implemented across all the policy windows in the next framework programme FP10. The quality and relevance of European research are significantly enhanced through multidisciplinarity, and the sustained, well-evidenced integration of SSH in FP10—underpinned by a rigorous evaluative framework spanning the entire project life cycle—will be critical to securing impactful policy and social outcomes.
EASSH Treasurer, Jon Deer:
The greater use of ‘flagged topics’ in Horizon Europe is to be applauded, however, simply flagging a topic is not in itself an indicator of integration. We have analysed articles derived from HEU funded projects, looking at the journals they were published in and their connection to academic research fields.
We find this connection between project and research field to be a more reliable indicator of the research contributions of a project. Overall, the proportion of SSH research across HEU remains low—7.5% of publications. I see a strong need for a monitoring methodology that can better capture the contribution of different disciplinary approaches.
EASSH Director, Gabi Lombardo:
SSH integration matters because it can help us understand and address the complex societal challenges we face, both deep-rooted and emerging. Monitoring SSH integration is not an end in itself, but if done properly, it can help us know whether efforts towards effective multidisciplinarity in the European framework programmes have been successful, which in turn enhances social impact.
The position paper stresses the need for sustained implementation and monitoring of SSH integration to continue in FP10, with a robust assessment methodology in place ahead of the first calls.
Read more | Download the paper (.pdf)