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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
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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 H scholars will be present in the Expert Advisory Groups ? 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)
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 !