1. SSH needs to feature more explicitly in Horizon Europe’s energy research and innovation funding opportunities, compared to Horizon 2020.

Key points:

• Energy-SSH is significantly underfunded: in 2016, only 4% of the EU’s Horizon 2020 energy research programme budget went to SSH partners, with 96% to STEM** partners primarily looking to develop new energy technologies.

• Whilst SSH disciplines are diverse, they all place societies and humans (and how they interact with the energy system) centrally. We argue that ‘solutions’ to energy challenges must explicitly consider how energy is actually integrated within society.
• There is therefore a need for both multidisciplinary (across SSH and STEM) and SSH specific calls, as in Horizon 2020. More, however, could be done to increase and broaden which topics are highlighted as needing inclusion (see principle 2).

** Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

Further reading:

• SHAPE ENERGY call for evidence?

• EC SSH & H2020 monitoring report?