The humanities in play: a new report shows their presence in STEM-related projects in Europe. From the article:

Social sciences, arts and humanities (SSAH) have a relatively strong presence in the EU’s Horizon Europe framework programme (2021-2027), according to a monitoring report published in July 2025. The European Commission considers SSAH input as key to addressing grand societal challenges and generally increasing the societal and economic impact of research and innovation (R&I) projects. 

Focused on  SSAH integration for projects funded in the period 2021-2023, the 1st Monitoring report on SSH-flagged projects found that 40% of topics under Pillar II (global challenges and European industrial leadership) were “SSH-flagged”, meaning SSH input was considered essential. While the monitoring report uses the term “social sciences and humanities (SSH)”, rather than “SSAH”, it does cover the contributions of arts as well….

“The results of the monitoring report show progress, but also that more needs to be done,” says Henrik Halkier, Professor of Regional and Tourism Studies at Aalborg University and one of the SSAH experts advising the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science. “The SSAH integration currently stands at 40%. In my view, this figure is too low. If we want the EU to take a lead in human-centric R&I, the SSAH flag should be a requirement, not an exception.”…

“We can’t solve the world’s grand challenges with only technical fixes. We also need to understand the societal drivers that might be causing or influencing the challenges and create solutions that serve the needs of society,” urges Halkier….

The Commission’s monitoring report itself concludes that, while “SSAH integration is well under way,” it remains necessary “to continue improving the integration of SSAH and STEM disciplines in EU-funded R&I initiatives”. 

To this end, the report outlines key strategies for improving SSAH integration, such as establishing a common language to facilitate communication between disciplines, defining clear project goals that unite different disciplines and improving qualitative monitoring of SSAH contributions.