7. Qualitative indicators and disciplinary reflections are needed for the European Commission to more meaningfully monitor the successful integration of SSH in energy projects.

Key points:

• Certain parts of the SSH integration monitoring processes do not fit with current structures, e.g. Demography as an official discipline being monitored by the EC.
• Disciplines, whilst useful structures, are not black and white. We must better recognise individuals with interdisciplinary expertise, who cannot be comfortably assigned to the EC’s list of SSH disciplines.
• Monitoring needs to include qualitative measures of success, and not simply be a number-counting exercise of e.g. project numbers, partners, and budget spends. For example, how has different types of expertise been brought together to work on tasks, rather than separated out into silo-ed work packages? What has been facilitated by the explicit inclusion of SSH-inspired interdisciplinary aims, processes, and outputs? How working with SSH enabled energy projects to affect policy?

Further reading:

• Think piece book?
• RDC collection?