Living together: Missions for Shaping the Future – A Joint Statement on Transdisciplinary ‘Missions’ for FP9



Posted: 8 December, 2017

How should research and innovation funding in Europe look like in the next framework programme? What changes are needed, which topics need to be tackled? What would be the contributions of the humanities and social sciences?

HERA and ALLEA (All European Academies) together with ELI (European Law Institute), ESA (European Sociological Association), EuroScience, Global Young Academy, Net4Society (International network of National Contact Points (NCPs) for the Societal Challenge 6 in Horizon 2020), NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe), Young Academy of Europe suggest an agenda for European Research and Innovation as seen from the humanities and social sciences: Europe in the 2020s and the challenges ahead, how to frame  ‘missions’, which are the conditions research and innovation need and what is needed to effect social and cultural transformation. In answer to the High Level Group’s suggestion of a “mission-oriented, impact-focused approach to address global challenges”, HERA proposes to further discuss “missions” from a humanities and social sciences viewpoint.

We suggest the following

  • missions are to be transformative
  • innovation is more than technology
  • ambitious aims do not need narrowly pre-defined end-products
  • more bottom-up approaches with room for smaller-scale projects is needed
  • integration of all countries and regions, within and outside of Europe is crucial

To target social and cultural transformations, we put forward four examples of potential missions calling for inter- and transdisciplinary research and innovation which are of relevance for the citizen and research and innovation alike

  • Living Together: Building Sustainable, Open and Democratic Societies for the Future
  • Catching up with Innovation: Preparing for Social Consequences and Embracing Opportunities
  • Growing up and Ageing in Europe: A Good Life and a Dignified Death
  • Truth, Trust and Expertise: Establishing and Securing Trust as a Basis for Sustainable and Legitimate Governance.

 

For further information, please contact Christa Engel at hera-up@dlr.de

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More: Humanities, Policy, Social Sciences

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