SSH CENTRE is set up around 5 objectives:
1: Strengthen the development and use of socially innovative solutions in order to accelerate just transitions to carbon neutrality.
Rationale: There is increasing recognition that addressing climate change will involve transforming societies. However, policy attention has for decades focussed on technical targets, meaning social solutions have been under-utilised. A shift towards in-depth incorporation of SSH solutions (including questions related to governance, justice and social organisation) requires active coordination.
2: Strengthen interdisciplinary research in HEU Cluster 5, stimulating effective collaborations between transition-focussed SSH and STEM.
Rationale: Much has been done to bring SSH communities together, however a persistent area of fragmentation is between transition-focused SSH and STEM. Collaborations rarely cross epistemic boundaries (e.g. favouring SSH approaches closest to STEM), and often still place one discipline in a dominant position (e.g. SSH in the service of STEM). It is vital to recognise how this can intersect with other forms of fragmentation (e.g. geographies) to mean certain groups are very significantly under-represented, e.g. SSH from CEE regions.
3: Strengthen policy advice mechanisms from SSH and transdisciplinary research by generating best practice examples from local to global level.
Rationale: Routes for STEM advice into policy, e.g. via EU bodies such as the SET-Plan and HEU Partnerships, are much more established than those for SSH and transdisciplinary advice. Across these programmes, policymakers need targeted and actionable advice built on sound evidence. To strengthen SSH advice mechanisms we need examples of best practice brokering between research and policy, including building institutional capacities across all policy actors.
4: Strengthen the understanding and use of inclusive engagement and co-production techniques by and for transition-focussed stakeholders.
Rationale: Despite increasing policy attention on ‘engagement’, it is understood in multiple ways, and is often implemented as one-way communication, rather than meaningfully influencing outcomes. SSH scholars working at the forefront of novel engagement methods, recognise that citizens are not the only relevant stakeholder group, with professional engagement also vital. Multiple characteristics (e.g. across geography, gender, career stage) must be considered for inclusive engagement.
5: Strengthen transition-focussed SSH communities across Europe via a Centre of Research Excellence committed to advancing open (social) science.
Rationale: Efforts have been made in previous Framework Programmes to mainstream SSH across topics, however this has rarely resulted in SSH leading interdisciplinary SSH-STEM collaborations. More work is needed to connect and empower SSH experts from right across Europe, supporting them in taking on these roles in future HEU projects. There is also opportunity for SSH communities to come together to further test and develop Open (Social) Science practices.
