1. Public Engagement
2. Inclusive Gender Equality
3. Science Education
For the conceptualisation and implementation of a robust research endeavour, interdisciplinarity plays a crucial role. Combining insights from different disciplines allows researchers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of complex problems and enhances critical thinking and problem solving skills. By integrating a variety of perspectives, they can address multifaceted issues more effectively and achieve broader societal impact.
Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) cover diverse disciplines, including sociology and psychology, communication, economic and political sciences, history, education, law, and ethics. Contributions from these areas of expertise are essential for generating knowledge, developing interdisciplinary solutions to societal and technological challenges, fostering skills and competences and informing evidence-based policymaking.
In addressing various societal challenges, thereby amplifying their impact, SSH play a critical role and occupy a special position of significance in research projects. This is underlined by Regulation (EU) 2021/695, establishing Horizon Europe, which specifically mentions the relevance and requirement of considering SSH within European research and innovation projects. In detail, Article 7 (2) on the Principles of the Programme lines out:
‘The Programme shall ensure a multidisciplinary approach and shall, where appropriate, provide for the integration of Social Sciences and Humanities – SSH across all clusters and activities developed under the Programme, including specific calls for proposals on SSH related topics.’
These flagged topics within the HORIZON Europe programme concretely require the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and inclusion of SSH expertise in the considered proposal and submitting consortium. SSH integration is therefore also a requirement embedded in the award criteria which are assessed in a proposal evaluation.
Our SSH experts cover a wide range of disciplines and contribute with their long-standing expertise of research project implementation to multidisciplinary scientific initiatives. In order to gain more in-depth insights into the areas of expertise we cover and the activities we carry out, have a look at “Services” and “Tasks”.
Accordingly, understanding the stakeholder ecosystem is fundamental for a research endeavour. Therefore, researchers employ diverse methods to identify, map, categorise, and engage stakeholders. By doing so, they gain insights, align their work with societal needs, and ensure relevance.
The implementation of human-centred empirical research activities lays the foundation for sound decision-making, informed policies, and meaningful societal impact. Applying a variety of participatory research methods, our team of researchers has extensive experience in fostering public engagement.
Focus groups and workshops provide a platform for collecting data from multiple individuals simultaneously. These sessions allow researchers to explore reactions, opinions, and group dynamics. Direct interaction with participants yields valuable perspectives and informs research questions.
Ethnography immerses researchers in cultural contexts, everyday life, and lived experiences. By embedding themselves in social structures, researchers gain deeper insights into how people perceive their worlds. Research participants are not only the source of the data, they are also actively involved in the design of the research and its guiding questions as well as its analysis. This collaborative approach ensures accurate representation of diverse views and experiences.
Co-creation and co-design emphasise user involvement in developing technical solutions. Rather than treating users as mere subjects, researchers collaborate with them during workshops. Concepts, modules, functionalities, and interfaces emerge from this joint effort, resulting in more user-centric outcomes.
[See “Expertise” for an overview of all research methods provided by our SSH experts.]
These activities bridge theory and practice, enriching our understanding of complex phenomena and contributing to evidence-based solutions.
Our conviction to consider various factors of diversity to create inclusive research environments and outcomes grounds on the awareness of intersectional inequality and our dedication to tackle this challenge. This aligns with the EU’s commitment and support to develop and enforce inclusive gender equality directives in research and innovation.
For us, this commitment involves promoting diversity within research teams and decision-making entities, ensuring balanced representation in stakeholder consultations, and integrating intersectional gender and diversity analyses into research content to identify and address potential biases. The collection and analysis of data disaggregated by sex, gender, and other relevant diversity factors, facilitates a nuanced understanding of dynamics within the researched ecosystem. This approach is aimed at illuminating and mitigating biases in research practices and outputs. To ensure the effectiveness of gender inclusivity measures in any project, an established detailed monitoring and refinement system is set in place.
Benefitting from an interdisciplinary team, our experts bring diverse qualifications to research projects, allowing them to transform scientific outcomes into high quality educational programmes and implementing these with a variety of stakeholders. This may involve Train-the-Trainer approaches, the development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), the set up and leading of workshops and webinars or other educational and skills development settings.
[See “Expertise” for an overview of all research methods provided by our SSH experts.]
In addition, science education is also practised within our research endeavours. This may involve the engagement of younger researchers to promote their scientific profiles and allow them to benefit from senior experts of the researched fields. The interdisciplinarity we encourage in any project also opens learning opportunities for advanced researchers across areas.
Lastly, in the context of science education, the importance of Open Science comes into play at this stage as well. It emphasises the relevance of granting open and early access to research participation and results and is outlined under “Open Science”.
Informed consent is the process by which participants are informed about the research and made aware of their right to decide whether to participate, as well as of subsequent rights. It is at the centre of any empirical research involving human participants.
The standards of anonymity and confidentiality are set into place to protect the identity of research participants and determine the responsibility of researchers to safeguard any sensitive information shared with them.
The potential for harm consideration in research projects pertains to the chances of participants encountering adverse consequences or negative effects due to their participation in a study. This may refer to social, legal or economic consequences as well as to psychological, emotional or physical harm.
Any research that involves humans or makes use of personal data needs to develop ethics guidelines addressing the main questions and requirements related to research and development projects. In addition to the outlined key objectives, such guidelines include aspects of gender equality and diversity, social inclusion, research with vulnerable populations such as migrants or children (see Inclusive Gender Equality) as well as data management and protection standards (see Open Science). Moreover, ethics guidelines need to be centred around the basic ethical principles of respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice. The continuous monitoring of privacy, ethical and societal impacts guarantee the compliance with such guidelines.
Long-standing experience in the field of social science research, applying a variety of methods to conduct empirical studies and working with a diverse set of participants equips our researchers with in-depth expertise to conduct ethically sound research. Relying on the principle to set high standards for the considerate involvement of participants in human-centred research builds trust and strengthens the engagement process. Thereby, research and innovation outcomes are significantly improved and the ethical acceptability of scientific and technological developments enhanced.
In any research and innovation project, this involves the development of a Data Management Plan (DMP), which functions as a cornerstone of a project’s commitment to responsible data management and aligns with open science principles. The DMP outlines how project data is collected, stored, shared, and preserved, ensuring adherence to ethical standards, particularly regarding privacy and data protection, and guaranteeing the integrity of data management practices. This goes along with employing appropriate Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) measures to ensure the reliability and validity of its outputs, upholding the highest standards for the contributions made to the Open Source community and beyond. The approach is rooted in the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) principles.
Having taken over open science, data management, privacy and protection tasks in 25+ research and innovation projects, our experts’ cutting-edge open science expertise allows us to reflect new advancements, challenges, and ethical considerations in your research efforts, while showcasing our dedication to adaptability and responsiveness to the evolving project landscape.
This approach also extends to the engagement of authorities and decision-makers on various levels of governance. By organising citizens’ assemblies, collaborating with municipalities and ministries and engaging with a diverse set of authorities, our researchers aim for constructive policy insights and meaningful exchanges beyond political or administrative levels. Ultimately, this consolidates in the empowerment of responsible and accountable governance in the context of research and innovation.
Methodologically, the implementation of policy analysis and formulation of policy recommendations and policy briefs align with the principle of governance. Policy analysis is a systematic process of identifying and comparing relevant policies with the aim to investigate potential gaps and evaluate current policies in relation to their intended purposes. Especially in the context of rapidly evolving societal challenges, the evaluation and critical investigation of established policies is of relevance to maintain a high level of responsiveness.
Policy recommendations are elaborated to inform new policy, based on scientific evidence and identified gaps. These recommendations aim to improve policy effectiveness, efficiency, and alignment with intended goals. They may involve modifying existing policies, creating new ones, or adjusting implementation strategies.
Policy briefs are concise summaries of information conceptualised to help readers understand and make decisions about government policies. Policy briefs offer evidence-based advice to a general, non-specialised audience. Research findings are simplified and connected to policy actions to allow informed decision-making and improve overall political literacy.