UB researchers write a LERU advice paper on the role of social sciences and humanities in Horizon 2020

 

Particularly, the note on transport signed by UB researchers affirms that there is clearly a great need for the implementation of insights from psychology and the social sciences to analyse population's dietary habits, opinions and mobility routines. It reflects upon questions such as how political or psychological factors intervene in some decisions, for instance the application of congestion charges or the contribution of public transportation to the economic development of territories. In this sense, the exploitation of complementarities is defended against the competition between transport modes. The case of Barcelona illustrates the advantages of exploiting the complementarities between air and maritime transportation. The port of Barcelona is currently one of the ports with the largest amount of cruise passengers in the world. It partly owes its success to the increasing number of direct air links that the airport of Barcelona offers to US cities.

 

 

The future of the social sciences and humanities in Europe: Collected LERU papers on the SSH research agenda  includes seven notes, one on each Horizon 2020 societal challenges to which economic resources must be allocated: health, demographic change and wellbeing; secure societies; inclusive and innovative societies; climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials; food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and bio-economy; secure, clean and efficient energy; and smart, green and integrated transport.

 

These notes complement the article published on 2012 about the role that social sciences and humanities play in Horizon 2020. UB collaboration in the document was represented by: Elisenda Paluzie, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business; Xavier Mangado, Secretary of the Faculty of Geography and History; Josep M. Romero, Head of Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy, and the Office of the Vice-Rector for Research of the UB.

The document published by LERU also includes an annex to the Agenda for ethics research in Horizon 2020. It stresses ethics as a crucial factor in research’s success and high quality. It is important to remark that UB takes an active part in LERU's Research Integrity Expert Group. Dr Itziar de Lecuona, from the Department of Public Health and researcher at the Bioethics and Law Observatory of the UB, is one of its members.

Moreover, the Agenda for ethics research in Horizon 2020  takes the project Research Network for Establishing Programmes for Joint Teaching of Bioethics, led by the UB professor María Casado and funded by the programme ALFA, as an example of integrating ethics from the start. Its objective is to develop a common programme to incorporate ethics in the curriculum of all the disciplines of the universities participating in the programme.

Finally, LERU's document includes the text A LERU flagship initiative. Its aim is to increase the effectiveness of research and innovation to better understand the place of Europe in the world as well as the legal, economic, political, social, linguistic and cultural fabric of Europe.

 

LERU is an association of twenty-one leading research intensive universities that share the values of highly-quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research. The purpose of the League is to advocate these values, to influence policy in Europe and to develop best practice through mutual exchange of experience. LERU regularly publishes a variety of papers and reports which make high-level policy statements, provide in-depth analyses and make concrete recommendations for policymakers, universities, researchers and other stakeholders.

 

LERU universities are: University of Amsterdam, University of Barcelona, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, University ofFreiburg, Université de Genève, Universität Heidelberg, University of Helsinki, Universiteit Leiden, KU Leuven, ImperialCollege London, University College London, Lund University, University of Milan, Ludwig-Maximilians-UniversitätMünchen, University of Oxford, Pierre & Marie Curie University, Université Paris-Sud, University of Strasbourg, Utrecht University, and University of Zurich.