Welcome to the SSH-Futures Project Website

SSH-FUTURES studies the development of social sciences and humanities (SSH) in Europe and their mutual interactions with social demands. The outcomes of the project will provide information for improving research policies targeted at the SSH in Europe.

The first part of the project looks at the ways in which the social sciences and the humanities can and do have an impact on the societies, their political institutions and the economies. This is based on the hypothesis that the impact pathways of SSH knowledge differ clearly from those of the natural and technical sciences.

The second part of the project examines the institutions in which social science and humanities knowledge is produced, the methods applied to produce knowledge, the dissemination of this knowledge and the expectations from both the side of the ‘producers’ and from that of the (potential) ‘users’ at the national, European and international levels. SSH-FUTURES comprises a retrospective and a prospective part and in-depth explorations of specific programmes and policies both from the demand and supply sides.

Research topics include, among others, questions such as

• is there a tendency towards a convergence of paradigms in the social sciences and humanities or towards a specialisation even within the disciplines?
• what is the distinction between basic and applied research in the SSH and are those meaningful concepts for the SSH in practice?
• what are the crucial factors for the role and importance of SSH in different European countries?

The SSH-FUTURES project is being carried out by a consortium comprising international umbrella organisations of professional social sciences associations (national and sectoral ones), research institutes and universities in the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Member States and the Associated Countries. The project is funded by the European Commission, DG Research, under the 6th Framework Programme.