Insightful perspectives on SSH at the event “Designing a new Framework Programme: The role of the research community”
28 April 2026
Organised by the SSH WG, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Global and the Trinity Long Room Hub, the event ‘Designing a new Framework Programme: The role of the research community’ was opened with a speech by Gabi Lombardo, Director of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH). She presented the current state of play of the negotiations on the next Horizon Europe Framework Programme (2028-2034), and what is at stake for the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) community. SSH researchers should speak together and advocate that the ‘Society’ part under pillar II in FP10 is dedicated to research on society. EASSH proposed five thematic areas for SSH research (Democracy, Education, Europe in the 2040 world, Culture and Knowledge, Healthy and productive societies). Key advocacy points for FP10 include:
- Keeping FP10 independent
- European Research Council (ERC), Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) must also be independent and get sufficient funding
- Culture and Art research must also be part of the picture, as well as education research
- SSH are strategic enablers, with a transversal role
- Interdisciplinary and SSH integration across all policy windows
- SSH experts must take part more to evaluation committees, and be part of the design phase
A panel discussion, moderated by Patrick Geoghegan, Professor in History and Director of Trinity Long Room Hub (Trinity College Dublin), followed the speech. The panellists were Ilaria Poggiolini, Professor of International History and Chair of the Coimbra SSH Working Group (University of Pavia), Pekka Räsänen, Professor of Economic Sociology (University of Turku), Maureen Burgess, Research Programme Officer, Trinity Long Room Hub, and Dr Gráinne Walshe, Assistant Director at Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland. The panellists explored the problems of fragmentation in the SSH, SSH contribution to societal threats, AI and SSH, relevance of the human dimension beyond technological applications, and the participation of SSH in shaping the design of funding tools. It was also highlighted that SSH play an important role in the protection of the values of our society (even when younger generations do not refer to “values” but to other concepts), in fighting disinformation (concept of truth, reference to knowledge sources), and to encourage the development of critical thinking.
You can find further details on the Trinity College Website and listen to the audio of Gabi Lombardo’s speech.
