Conferentie over rol sociale- en geesteswetenschappen in Europese innovatiestrategieën (en)

On 23-24 September the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council is holding an international conference on the “Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities“ in Vilnius. This event will gather over 400 representatives of the European research community alongside with policy-makers and stakeholders at the Mykolas Romeris University. The participants will discuss the ways to address the most pressing global challenges and to define the roles of social sciences and humanities in the future European research and innovation strategies.

The conference will be opened by the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė i. Speakers also include the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn i, the President of the European Research Council Helga Nowotny and the Lithuanian Minister of Education and Science Dainius Pavalkis.

Lithuanian Minister of Education and Science Dainius Pavalkis says: “There is no doubt that social sciences and humanities have a lot of potential for finding innovative answers - not only to future social issues but also to technological challenges. We are bringing together the EU research community to promote discussions on how to encourage cooperation across scientific fields in order to build an open and growing Europe”.

One of the major objectives of the conference is to foster the relations of social sciences and humanities with other fields of science and research policy. Another goal is to exchange views on how to integrate the social sciences and humanities into “Societal challenges”, which is the third pillar of the next EU Research programme, ‘Horizon 2020‘. By focusing on topics as varied as health and demographic changes, secure energy, smart transport, climate change and inclusive and innovative societies, the participants will work towards finding new forms of collaborations, and at identifying existing obstacles and solutions to overcome them.

The conference is unique, it offers an unprecedented forum for ideas to promote further exchanges across fields and disciplines.

This high-class gathering will end up with the Vilnius Declaration - “Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities”, and a detailed conference report. Both documents are expected to provide clues on how to make the best possible use and integration of social sciences and humanities disciplines in Europe’s strategies.

The event is organized by the European Commission, the European Research Council, the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science, the Research Council of Lithuania and the Mykolas Romeris University.

Conference website, including programme and list of participants:

http://horizons.mruni.eu/

Live-stream will also be available from the conference website.

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