Since the project started in February 2022, Net4SocietyHE made good and steady progress toward meeting its five project objectives:
In order to support the first objective "Enhancing NCP services", Net4SocietyHE provides different services tailored for Cluster 2 NCPs and plans and organises Cluster 2 NCP network meetings in different settings and formats.
Net4SocietyHE progresses toward the second objective "Enabling target communities to write successful proposals" by organising brokerage events which are dedicated to open calls in Cluster 2. These online networking events for Cluster 2 Work Programme calls allow Cluster 2 stakeholders to arrange meetings in an effort to find partners, consolidate their consortia, and submit proposals. All brokerage events follow the Cluster 2 Info Days (organised by the European Commission). In addition to the brokerages, Net4SocietyHE also offers support to applicant project coordinators via online, by invitation-only pre-proposal check events as well as via an additional full-proposal check for proposers not selected to participate in a pre-proposal check and those who took part in the pre-proposal check events.
Net4SocietyHE also contributs toward the third objective "Supporting the integration of the Social Sciences and Humanities across Horizon Europe". Specifically, the project helpes to raise awareness of the importance and necessity of including social scientific, humanities, and arts disciplines, expertise, methods, and approaches in topics flagged “SSH” in the calls of other Horizon Europe thematic clusters. This is being done through numerous speaking engagements to which Net4SocietyHE is invited. These speaking engagements include presentations on how to practice SSH Integration as part of other Clusters’ Info Days, during info sessions tied to brokerage events of other thematic clusters’, events put on by national funders for international audiences, and during events organised by NCPs for their national research communities. The project also worked to endorse the integration of the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts by regularly monitoring, collecting, and publishing open calls in other programming areas of Horizon Europe, such as the Horizon partnerships. Endorsement also occurres via publication of issues of the project’s flagship “Opportunities for Researcher from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in Horizon Europe”.
Besides the traditional stakeholder groups associated with research and innovation in Cluster 2 (i.e. academic researchers, policymakers, etc.), the scope of who is invited to apply for funding in this Cluster has been broadened with the start of the Horizon Europe Programme. In the case of Cluster 2, new stakeholder groups refer to actors from the cultural and creative industries (CCIs), artists, and actors from the community of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). To address the forth objective "Identifying new stakeholders and enabling participation from countries with lower-than-average success rates in Horizon Europe", the project engaged in a dedicated mapping exercise. Designed as a survey, the project worked together with a large number of Cluster 2 NCPs (at the national level) to develop a database list of organisations from these two groups, which was sent out to this list in order to ask survey recipients about the nature of the barriers and challenges they encounter which hinder or have hindered their participation in Horizon Europe so far. To learn more about these barriers, the project then conducted interviews with selected survey takers, who agreed to a more in-depth discussion of the reasons behind their hesitation in participating.
Net4SocietyHE actively works toward achieving the fifths objective "Achieving greater impact—promoting the relevance of research and innovation in Cluster 2" on the basis of its communication activities. Specifically, the project regularly highlighted and shared information on research, project event [announcements], and project outputs generated by projects funded in Cluster 2.
