Thematic Research Funding in the European Union: What is Expected from Social Scientific Knowledge-making?

Abstract

This article investigates how the European Union contributes to the academic fields of social sciences through its major research funding instrument, the Framework Programme for Research. It does so asking two principal questions: How does the EU research Framework Programme (FP) work? And what are this funding programme’s ambitions concerning the social sciences? These programmes provide the largest targeted funding for these fields, bring together researchers throughout Europe and producing a sense of “belonging” for a larger scholarly community. Yet the underlying economic policy aims, and the marginal position of “SSH” labelled programme, within larger structures treat the social sciences as a residual category. Thus there remains a certain ambiguity as to what can be expected from these programmes for the social sciences.

Keywords

• ssh—social sciences and humanities
• european framework programmes
• european research funding
• sociology of social sciences