As the European Union (EU) prepares the groundwork for the next Horizon Europe Framework Programme, many experts have been calling for the human and social dimension of progress to be better integrated into the EU’s research and innovation agenda. The STOA workshop ‘Humanities and social sciences at the heart of Europe’s future’, organised on 3 February at the European Parliament, will explore how best to incorporate social sciences and humanities (SSH) into the design of key EU initiatives.
Experts are advocating for greater interdisciplinary research approaches to solve global challenges. They are urging the EU to better integrate SSH into its next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10), and to broaden research priorities beyond economic output and tech-driven competitiveness for a more holistic and human-centric definition of progress.
Dr Péter Benczúr, a scientific officer at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and speaker at the upcoming STOA event: “While economics and economic prosperity are clearly important, thinking only in terms of production and technology is not sufficient. We need to think of society at large. We need to consider who are the beneficiaries of these productions. The ultimate objective should always be to provide a good life and wellbeing to all people – within planetary boundaries. To achieve this, we need a broader perspective. All people – from all backgrounds and all generations – need to be factored in. That falls beyond economics and technology.” – Read the full interview with Péter Benczúr
Contribution of SSH research
The European Union has been promoting a greater integration of social sciences and humanities in its research and innovation (R&I). According to the EU monitoring report “Integration of Social Sciences and Humanities in Horizon Europe”, published in July 2025, SSH have a relatively strong presence in the EU’s Horizon Europe framework programme (2021-2027), and the European Commission considers SSH input as key to addressing grand societal challenges and increasing the societal and economic impact of R&I projects.
The report shows that 40% of Pillar II (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness) topics are SSH-flagged, meaning SSH input was considered essential. These topics were allocated €7.2 billion in funding, amounting to 41% of the total Pillar II budget, which compares with 33% in the Horizon 2020 programme. Although these numbers indicate an improvement, the monitoring report itself concludes that, while “SSH integration is well under way,” it remains necessary “to continue improving the integration of SSH and STEM disciplines in EU-funded R&I initiatives”.
SSH should therefore receive more “space, capacity and funding”, emphasises Dr Gabi Lombardo, Director of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH) and moderator of the upcoming STOA event. She further adds that the results of the Horizon Europe monitoring report significantly overestimate the real degree of SSH integration. “The EASSH has done a counter analysis of the report which shows that even in interdisciplinary projects, the contribution from SSH research remains confined to small parts of projects. Researchers, even when working in multidisciplinary projects, tend to publish in single-discipline journals in their own field. After analysing articles derived from Horizon Europe funded projects, we saw there had been very little progress when it comes to SSH integration.”
Gabi Lombardo believes that SSH have “always been seen as an add on” instead of receiving the recognition they deserve for the important data and knowledge they deliver.
Dr Gabi Lombardo, Director of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH): “Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) experts do critical research and deliver important data that feeds policy. SSH data is crucial for family policies or childcare policies, for example. SSH unveil weaknesses of our societies and allow us to address them. We need SSH data and knowledge for societies to evolve and progress, especially as we aim to make a stronger and more competitive Europe.” – Read the full interview with Gabi Lombardo
Improving this situation will require fundamental changes, agree both experts. “We need data, analysis and research to strengthen our European model. For that, we need financial, political and logistical support in research both at Member States’ and European levels.” says Lombardo.
Sustainable and inclusive wellbeing
Such changes in the European R&I strategy should reflect a broader holistic framing of prosperity based on human values and wellbeing, rather than economy and production. To support this, the European Commission has established the Sustainable and Inclusive Wellbeing (SIWB) framework to progressively complement the use of GDP with wellbeing indicators in EU policymaking. The framework is developing metrics that measure progress beyond GDP and that highlight the contributions of environmental, health, or social policies to people’s wellbeing beyond the traditional economic perspective.
“Sustainable and inclusive wellbeing means trying to deliver wellbeing to all people of the current and future generations as well as the planet,” explains Péter Benczúr, one of the main developers of the SIWB initiative, which was officially launched in 2023 with the goal to compare the level of wellbeing among Member States and between the EU and other countries in the world. “Our objective is to compare countries’ ability to deliver wellbeing in a fair and sustainable way,” clarifies Benczúr.
Such a novel framework could help measure current and future wellbeing in the EU and better inform policy decisions for a people-centered and prosperous EU.
“At the SIWB framework, we came up with a list of 50 indicators of wellbeing, but there is a quest for a single number, such as the one expressed by GDP,” says Benczúr. “We believe that this common list of indicators could be a good starting point for considering the impact of policies.” Such a list could be applied for the design and monitoring of policies, as well as for the design of the next Multiannual Financial Framework. “The list could serve as a good consensus for checking if the programme is delivering on its promise – which ultimately is to deliver human wellbeing.”
STOA workshop on SSH
On 3 February 2026 at 15:00 CET, the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) organises a workshop on social sciences and humanities in European R&I to further explore the integration of SSH into the design of key EU initiatives, including the green and digital transition, and devise an EU research strategy that aligns with citizen needs and better informs policy.
The workshop will also examine the EU ‘Sustainable and Inclusive Wellbeing Dashboard‘ as a tool to assess citizens’ well-being and inform research priorities.
Related content:
• A scientist’s opinion: interview with Dr Péter Benczúr on measuring wellbeing rather than economic prosperity
• A scientist’s opinion: interview with Dr Gabi Lombardo on the importance of social sciences and humanities