What future for the SSH in the European Research Area ?

EARMA Conference, Vienna, 2013

Two major forces shape the future of the SSH : 1 ° Horizons 2020 2 ° The move towards an « European Research Area »

European Research Area ‘Open Coordination’ National /Regional programmes European research policy EU Framework Programme European organisations

Horizons 2020: an opportunity?

ALLEA

analysis (february 2013) : doubts about the embedding effectivity To what extent the SS

AND

Expert Advisory Groups ?

H scholars will be present in the

CRF

analysis : a risk of instrumentalising the SSH « […] the SSH risks being reduced to social-engineering and behaviour-manipulation – for instance, how to make people receptive to health campaigns or get policymakers to agree on climate deals.

» (

Visions for Horizons 2020

, february 2012)

EvalHum

analysis : three questions 1 ° Is the scene set for European research to take advantage of the SSH research wealth ?

2 ° Embedding the SSH : are the SSH scholars ready ?

3 ° What can be done to prepare a truly SSH inclusive Horizon 2027/ FP9 programme? (to be debated)

Horizons 2020 themes

ageing population agriculture climate change democracy Economy education energy environment food security globalisation governance health inequalities innovation migration sustainability transport water well-being

Key words in the latest issues of history journals (Clio, Classical Antiquity studies, Contemporary European History e. a.)

Autonomy Children Class Conspiracy Crisis Democracy Europe Fascism Media Nationalism Protestant Sex War

Are the SSH scholars ready ?

- low participation of the SSH in the FP7 : only 1,9 % of the total budget went to projects in socio-economic sciences, none of these directed by a specialist in the humanities - What degree of internationalisation ? Recent national publications point very disappointing performances of SSH scholars in number of ERC grants (see Sweden report on SSH grantees).

ERA: reinforced coordination... but loss of funding possibilities for the SSH The case of France : - not participating in HERA (Italy neither) - strong alignment of national priorities on European themes - less funding due to the crisis

ERA effects

ERA: an open research market and the evaluation conundrum - very different practices and standards in the different national systems, in spite of a general adhesion to the peer evaluation principle - more homogeneous standards in the hard sciences - SSH: linguistic diversity, research topic heterogeneity : what comparability ?

A research market open only to what is internationalisable ?

ERA and open access What finances available in the SSH programs to pay for open access?

The pressure to publish in English Different publication behavior: open access for books asks for electronic publishing, not just pdfs What funding for digitalisation of pre-existant bibliography?

Beyond principle declarations, shaping a future for the SSH in the European research programmes calls for : 1 ° a thorough analysis of the starting positions, 2 ° adapted answers to the mismatch of the themes 3 ° a pro-active political action and administrative support to make up for the lack of experience in the collaborative, international and interdisciplinary research in the SSH 4 ° a strategy to increase the visibility of the SSH possibilities, competencies and results 5 ° an active lobbying for the SSH inclusion in decision pannels Where there is a will, there is still the need to find the way !