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At the European University Association (EUA) we believe that long-term public funding such as that provided by the Framework Programme is crucial to stimulate innovation based on fundamental and applied research.
We also believe that true multidisciplinarity including the full integration of social sciences and humanities into the Programme’s quest for innovation is a must as Europe faces an abundance of challenges involving issues ranging from energy and climate change to poverty and ageing societies to migration and extremism.
The interim evaluation of Horizon 2020 shows that the inclusion of these disciplines is currently unbalanced and that further linkages among them and with and between the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields are greatly needed.
Only 22 per cent of the budget flagged for topics linked to social sciences and humanities goes to partners who work in these disciplines.
Meanwhile some fields such as economics and sociology are well represented while others like humanities and the arts are not. Moreover EUA data shows that project partners from these disciplines often perform auxiliary roles in research projects when they should be encouraged to take the lead.
Furthermore expertise in social sciences and humanities is crucial not only in addressing societal challenges but also in expanding our understanding of impact and innovation beyond oversimplified linear models. It is essential to take this into account.
"We must position the Framework Programme to foster a more nuanced understanding of the way innovation systems work and we must develop new ways to evaluate multidisciplinary research projects to capture their scientific and societal impact"
We must position the Framework Programme to foster a more nuanced understanding of the way innovation systems work and we must develop new ways to evaluate multidisciplinary research projects to capture their scientific and societal impact.
The main objective of the Framework Programme is to support research that produces innovation. Therefore using indicators that focus only on technology makes little sense as they are not adequate to assess the potential for innovation and benefit for society.
Society readiness levels rather are hard to assess given the unpredictability of how discoveries can be implemented. If we are serious about integrating a vast range of disciplines into our societal missions a more sophisticated set of indicators must be created aimed at capturing the complexity of the innovation system.
Additionally clearer outlines of the general components of multidisciplinarity in research projects are needed as are user-friendly descriptions of requirements. The next Programme should promote and support smaller more focused multidisciplinary consortia and foster “disciplinary mobility”. Also evaluation panels need to include reviewers with a variety of expertise.
Building a more competitive prosperous and inclusive Europe requires a strong Framework Programme capable of fully supporting and leveraging European research and innovation. As the debate develops on the Programme’s future multidisciplinarity is a keyword we cannot afford to overlook.
Original article.
More background information on EUA's recommendationsfor the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP9).
Prof. Martine Rahier is EUA Vice-President and Chair of EUA Research Policy Working Group. She is a biologist, former Rector of University of Neuchatel (2008-2016) and founding President of “swissuniversities” (2013-2015).
