Strengthening and structuring the social sciences at EU level
EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin highlighted the need to strengthen and structure the social sciences at European level, when speaking at the kick-off meeting for 89 new EU funded projects in this domain. Mr Busquin highlighted how the EU framework programmes were originally established to boost competitiveness in Europe, and that it was only in the Fourth Framework Programme that a socio-economic aspect was introduced. Under the Fifth Framework Programme 1,800 research teams from 38 countries formed a number of networks to carry out research aimed at helping decision makers to find solutions to economic, social, political and cultural problems. 'Research should not be filed away and never discussed. My own political experience has told me that this is often the case,' said Mr Busquin, emphasising the value of such research for decision makers. James Wickham, coordinator of the cluster activity 'social cohesion, the organisation of work and ICT [information and communications technology]' from the Employment Research Centre also outlined the role which research in the social sciences plays in aiding decision makers, and highlighted a challenge faced by the sector at European level. 'Social research gathers interesting, challenging and uncomfortable facts [...] and it can help people to explore the idea that the grass is always greener on the other side,' said Dr Wickham, using the example of British perceptions that vocational education is done much better in Germany. Research often shows that the situation is not exactly as presented, for example due to different definitions of the same concepts. Dr Wickham also claimed that social scientists can ask 'odd' questions 'which those less eccentric than ourselves would not ask. He gave the example of a study which indicated that innovation does not only take place in private enterprises. Speaking of his own studies of European research, Dr Wickham highlighted the huge benefits that the framework programmes have brought to Europe. 'We clearly have a new scale of cooperation, which is very rich and multi-faceted and didn't exist five years ago,' he said. However, the domination of the English language in the social sciences remains a concern, according to Dr Wickham. 'The real problem is that we have moved to essentially an anglophone research community and we are in danger of losing European research traditions. [...] US forms of evaluation domination are becoming more acute and we need to address the problem,' he said. On the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), Mr Busquin pointed to the seventh thematic research priority, 'citizens and governance' and its corresponding budget of 225 million euro: 'Even if in absolute terms its not a huge amount, it is a clear indication of our priorities,' said the Commissioner. He also outlined the importance of incorporating social research into the other thematic priority areas and not regarding it as an isolated area. While Dr Wickham welcomed the presence of the social sciences in FP6, he described the new instruments as 'problematic' because of the large scale research which they promote: 'The problem in social science is not a lack of scale, but a lack of communication. We have resources which we don't make use of, for example Eurostat.' 'We need to watch the 'tram line' problem,' concluded Dr Wickham. 'It's easy to get the tram off the lines, but not so easy to get it onto other lines. Abandoning what we have and trying to copy others could leave us stuck in the middle, not going anywhere. This is a real danger,' he said. Responding to the criticism of the new instruments, Jean-François Marchipont, director for knowledge based economy and society in the Commission's Research DG, argued that the new instruments offer huge opportunities for the social sciences. He also reiterated the importance of clustering, as provided for by the new instruments.