Embedding the Social Sciences and Humanities in Horizon 2020

Recent Communications by the European Commission, European Parliament and European Council on Horizon 2020 have clearly articulated the European Union’s continued commitment to deepening the central and pervasive position of the social sciences and humanities to Europe’s future. This vision is to be applauded and one that ALLEA fully supports, such as it did, most recently, in October 2012, with its Comments on the EC Communication “A reinforced European Research Area partnership for excellence and growth” of July 2012.1 The opportunity it presents for European policy and research now needs to be grasped. A strategy to embed the social sciences an humanities across the design, shape, establishment and implementation of all three pillars and the seven societal challenges is required. We therefore recommend the following roadmap by which to embed the social sciences and humanities ensuring their value and contribution to Horizon 2020 are fully realised.