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The EU project

Strengthening the role of research in the European arena

Gathering competencies from European businesses and universities and promoting the awareness of the value humanities and social sciences; this is what DEA will offer to the participants in the EU project for socio-economic sciences and humanities – a project creating partnership between universities and business society.

 

Our primary goal is to create consortiums of researchers and SMEs and integrate them into interdisciplinary research working groups with the aim being to have the broadest skill-base for business research when applying to calls for proposal under EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

Because partnership makes a difference 

Research is becoming more and more important in the European agenda: FP7 budget represents a 40% increase from FP6. Furthermore, FP7 marks a new stage in the inclusion of the humanities and social sciences in the programmes, in that for the first time in the history of these programmes an entire theme – Theme 8 of the Specific Programme Cooperation - is explicitly addressed to the “Socio-Economic Sciences and the Humanities”, hence it has become even more essential to gather together and maximize the full benefit of knowledge in this area.

 

Studies from DEA and The Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy and the Danish EU Research Office clearly show a need for solid structures and networks. Partnership and consortiums are mentioned in these studies as positive factors which could help researchers and SMEs to become more involved in the FP7. 

 

DEA’s EU project wants to build a bridge over the innovation gap and integrate two of the key elements from knowledge society, namely research and innovation. One of the main threats to the European research is the limited capability to commercially exploit research and knowledge. A partnership project with universities and business society will fill that gap.

Interdisciplinary research

To a still larger extent the European Commission stresses the importance of interdisciplinary research projects. Especially, the dimension of the humanities and social science has attracted attention and can be important in the evaluation of a project. For instance, the following areas within the humanities and social sciences are often important sub points in the evaluation in the themes of energy, environment, IT, provisions and healthcare:

  • The socio-economic and cultural dimension of a research result

  • Dissemination of research results to the press and the public

  • How to translate research results into policy

  • The regulatory and ethical aspects of research

  • The engagement of civil society

  • Corporate Social Responsibility

A good project within the themes of energy, environment, IT, provisions and healthcare can ultimately be dropped, if the above is not taken into consideration.

The project

The aim of the project is to:

  • gather researchers, SMEs and business organisations in interdisciplinary research working groups in preparation for consortiums and in preparation for applying to future calls for proposal;
  • increase the participation of researchers and SMEs in the projects related to the socio-economic science and humanities area of FP7, including participation in those projects of researchers with no EU experience;
  • increase the public and political awareness of the value of research within the humanities and social sciences;
  • clarify the interests and needs of the partners involved in the project in relation to FP7; and
  • improve political lobbying within the interest of the project partners.

The project will cover the following activities:

  • start up activities relevant to the project partners, facilitate the job of working groups and hence ease the creation of research consortiums with focus on socio-economic science and humanities
  • gathering information on Danish and international researchers and SMEs having an interest in specific research themes and contacting them with a view to their participation in the project;
  • arranging international conferences with focus on the specific calls in FP7 concerning the socio-economic science and humanities;
  • monitoring and informing researchers, SMEs and policy-makers about the development of FP7.

Project partners

The following institutions and faculties are partners in the EU project:

  • Aalborg University (Humanity and Social Science)
  • Aarhus School of Business
  • Britta Thomsen (MEP)
  • Copenhagen Business School
  • Danmarks Designskole
  • IT University of Copenhagen
  • Network of Corporate Academies
  • Roskilde University (CBIT: Department of Communication, Business and information Technologies; ISG: Department of Society and Globalisation; PAES: Department of Psychology and Educational Studies; CUID: Department of Culture and Identity)
  • University of Aarhus (Humanity)
  • University of Copenhagen (Humanity, Law and Social Science) 
  • University of Southern Denmark (Humanity and Social Science)
  • The Royal School of Library and Information Science Denmark