On 25th September, SHARE president sent the following letter to DG Research – Euratom:

Dear Director General DG Research & Innovation,

Dear HoU Euratom Research,

I am writing to you in my capacity of President of the European Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research in ionizing radiation (SHARE), in relation to the H2020 EURATOM Work Programme 2019-20 and the associated NFRP Calls. We are concerned about the likely impacts of new EURATOM projects due to the potential lack of integration of social sciences and humanities in the new proposals.

The core mission of SHARE is to stimulate the integration of social sciences and humanities (SSH) in research, practice and policy related to ionizing radiation.  The 2016 RICOMET declaration pointed to the need “to enhance and promote SSH research in the radiological protection field, and to maintain and share the specific knowledge and expertise developed so far”. Since then, SHARE has supported networks established in different FP7 and Horizon2020 projects to create an umbrella structure for the research initiatives in the wider multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary community. SHARE aims to contribute to focusing EC supported projects in the field of ionising radiation, taking into account societal needs. In our endeavor to contribute to a better implementation of research results and a better use of EC funding, we wish to raise several issues and we would be grateful if you could respond.

We are not aware of any European guidance designed to aid H2020 applicants to incorporate SSH into proposals, e.g. similar to guidance on ethics self-assessment. We know that this guidance is extremely relevant in the context of European wide approach of responsible research and innovation (RRI) to create high quality science that is visibly rooted in the public interest. It is for this reason that we offer our platform, so far including more than 24 members from different European organisations and researchers working in the field of SSH in ionizing radiation, to contribute to design or improve the guidance on integration of SSH in EURATOM proposals.

In addition, we are unclear about the guidance followed by EURATOM proposal evaluators to assess the inclusion of SSH in the coming round of proposals (deadline today). We believe that the SSH review should be undertaken by a properly constituted and competent review panel following a robust, fair and transparent review process. Again, we offer the SHARE Platform as a venue to recruit evaluators.

We thank you in advance for your attention.

Kind regards,

Prof. Dr. Susan Molyneux-Hodgson FRSA SHARE President Professor of Sociology https://www.ssh-share.eu