On 23 January 2020 a seminar on social innovations was held at the ERC office, organised jointly by the ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA) and the Research Executive Agency (REA). The main objective was to make room for experts to discuss the specific features and place of social sciences in today’s excellent research and to present currently implemented successful projects. The seminar was a reaction of the above agencies to a low number of applications for grant as well as low success rate of social sciences projects when compared to other fields of research. This unfavourable situation continues despite the fact that the European Commission supports social innovations in a wide range of grant schemes and programmes. Theoretical concept and definition of the term social innovation were presented by Dr. Christoph Kaletka (TU Dortmund) who emphasized a key role of universities in creation of social innovations and their transfer to the practice. Three successful social sciences projects were introduced by prof. Lucie Cluver (Oxford University), Dr. Sandra Schön (Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft) and Dr. Danie Meyer (University of Konstanz).
The final part of the seminar included discussion, focused mainly on the issue of measurability of immediate impact versus long-term impact of social innovations on society.
prof. PaedDr. Martin Pekár, PhD.
Head of Department of History at Faculty of Arts of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice
Vice-Rector for Higher Education, Academic Traditions and Ceremonies
