Alliance launched to promote social sciences and humanities

The European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH) was launched yesterday at a conference in Bratislava.

Humanities and social sciences researchers convening in Bratislava lamented a perceived failure of policymakers to harness valuable insights offered by their disciplines. The launch of EASSH is intended to change that, and to address what SSH researchers see as chronic underfunding of their disciplines by the EU.

Horizon 2020 has no separate SSH programme, and is instead meant to integrate SSH research seamlessly into its priorities. But the conference, which was hosted by the Slovak presidency of the EU, heard that 28 per cent of Horizon 2020 projects flagged as having a significant SSH component have failed to integrate those disciplines into their work.