Human-centric digital age

1. Human-centric digital age • Technologies, networks and digital and social media are changing the way people think, behave, apprehend neighbouring objects and their environment in general, interact and socialize as persons, citizens, workers and consumers. • We need to: • Better understand the nature and consequences of these changes. • Explore the two-way interactions between ICT and society. • Lay foundations for future thinking in ICT and for future regulatory and policy-making activities in the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) areas. • Create mechanisms for systematic exchange and interactions between different actors to integrate this knowledge into ICT development and deployment.

2. Human-centric digital age • This objective is NEW. It aims to support: • Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) exploration of societal issues in the digital age, in order to foster innovation through a critical accompaniment of ICT. • the LEIT approach to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), by networking SSH contributions across the LEIT Work Programme. • There will be both R&D&I and CSA-type activities. • Please note that SSH is ALSO called for and supported in other topics of the LEIT programme, as well as in FET and societal challenges. A note pointing to the areas where SSH contributions are expected will be available in December.

3. Human-centric digital age • R&D activities should explore and experiment the development – or even metamorphosis – of fundamental notions such as identity, privacy, relationship, culture, reputation, motivation, responsibility, attention, safety, and fairness in the hyper-connected age. For example: • How do humans cope with information overload and attention scarcity? How to develop ICT environments enabling to deal with this? • How does the blurring between online world and off-line world affect the life? How can smart environments support individuals and society? • What should be the norms and behaviours for a hyper-connected digital world? How could their adoption in the digital culture be fostered? • These are expected to: • provide new knowledge, well-founded transferable results, including innovative concepts and functional models, which can be exploited in the future research, policy and regulatory agendas.

4. Human-centric digital age • The coordination and support activities should: • coordinate and support RRI through ICT and within ICT R&D&I areas on different parts of the H2020 Work Programme by efficient exchange of results between SSH research, on-going R&D&I projects, and relevant areas of policy-making and regulatory activities. • In this context, they are expected to • facilitate community building between ICT developers, researchers in SSH and other disciplines, and stakeholders for responsible research and innovation. • provide concrete incentives and motivations for cross-disciplinary collaborations. • Promote and support takeup of best practices for responsible research and innovation in ICT research and developmentprojects.

5. Human-centric digital age We do not seek: • Technology-focused development projects which consider individuals as mere end-users and aim mainly at improving product usability. • Social sciences studies without concrete linkages to the emergent 'digital literacy‘ or to ICT R&I&D processes. • Coordination actions for discussion platforms without concrete targets for outcomes and impacts in linking SSH knowledge to ICT development.

6. Human-centric digital agenda - Key actors • The SSH community studying the digital transition. • Trans-, inter- and multi-disciplinary teams focusing on the digital transition with a view to foster the societal intelligence in coping with, taking up and/or shaping ICT developments. • ICT R&D&I actors ready to integrate considering the societal response and potential of their work in the R&D process . • Background material: • Onlife initiative, http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/onlife-initiative