Strengthening European energy/mobility/climate policy: Governance recommendations from innovative interdisciplinary collaborations

  • Up to €7,500 funding is available for interdisciplinary collaborations that develop policy recommendations broadly related to the EU Green Deal’s plans/commitments on climate, energy or mobility.
  • Interdisciplinary collaborations will be undertaken by teams made up of at least two Social Science and Humanities (SSH) and two Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) researchers.
  • Individuals from any stage of their career are welcome to participate. The lead applicant must have a contract of employment that extends to at least September 2024.
  • Each interdisciplinary team will be a new collaboration between SSH and STEM researchers, defined as the team members having not previously published together (researchers from the same field (e.g. the 2+ SSH researchers) may have published together before, but the SSH-STEM collaboration must be new.
  • Each collaborative team will contribute a short book chapter that outlines a recommendation for European energy, climate or mobility policy/governance.
  • The recommendations will be shared with policy officers who manage relevant EU Green Deal policy portfolios (via the EC’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation) and will be published in an Open Access Book.

CLIMATE

Urban transformations, nature-based solutions, adaptation, justice, participatory approaches, climate governance, circular economy, planetary and social boundaries, ethics, beyond-net-zero, carbon budgets

ENERGY

Lived experiences, energy models, power dynamics, role of visions/forecasts, co-creation opportunities, assumptions, industrial processes, social acceptance, energy supply and energy demand, crises, trust, energy poverty, innovation, institutional support 

MOBILITY

Digitalisation and automation, forms of organising mobility, transport equity, citizen engagement, role of innovation, questions of trust, behaviour change, perceptions of mobility, mobility professions, carbon emissions of transport 

Given the proximity of the deadline (3 June 2023), we are now asking all teams considering submitting to the call to please complete the expression of interest form as soon as possible. You will then be sent a link to the full online application form, as well as a breakdown (in pdf form) of the information required on the online application. This is to enable us to arrange sufficient capacity amongst proposal reviewers.

The EU has outlined ambitions to be the first climate-neutral continent, with multiple strategies, initiatives, and directives being developed to support this. The EU Green Deal provides a roadmap for achieving the EU’s climate-neutrality ambition, outlining priority areas of action, including climate, energy and mobility. Both innovation and achieving a just transition underpin the roadmap. 

Truly innovative interdisciplinary research that integrates SSH and STEM disciplines equally (and/or in ways that fundamentally challenge the status quo) could play a fundamental role in Europe achieving its strategic Green Deal ambitions. We are therefore eager to create opportunities for novel interdisciplinary collaborations, especially those that have significant potential for guiding policy/governance interventions, but would likely not emerge without some small resourcing.

The SSH CENTRE is funding 30 interdisciplinary collaborative teams, with each team working together to develop a single policy recommendation related to the EU’s policy portfolios on either climate, energy or mobility. To support these interdisciplinary partnerships, each collaborative team will have two joint-corresponding authors, one from SSH and one from STEM. Up to €7,500 will be available to each collaborative team to develop a headline policy recommendation. Each team will need to write a book chapter of around 3,000 words (including the reference list), which substantiates their policy recommendation.  Recommendations may act as the starting point for further research/engagement, and/or be a prompt for priority dialogues which need to occur.

The funded collaborative work that underlies this recommendation and the chapter’s discussion is intentionally flexible.

Examples of activities that could be undertaken include (but are very much not limited to): literature reviews, documentary analyses, horizon scanning, participatory evaluations, modelling, visiting fellowships, seminar series, stakeholder workshops, etc. 

The 30 policy recommendations will be submitted to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, as part of the SSH CENTRE’s remit to provide interdisciplinary policy advice to the European Commission, and will be published across three thematic open access books (one on each of Climate, Energy and Mobility). Alongside the chapters written by the collaborative teams, the three books will include a number of Forewords and Afterwords, likely written by high-profile individuals within the EU policy making community. 

A virtual symposium will take place on Tuesday 10th October 2023, where representatives from the 30 collaborative teams will have the opportunity to present initial thoughts and receive support in writing-up their chapter. 

Eligibility: 

  1. Each collaborative team will be composed of at least four researchers, with at least 2 researchers coming from SSH disciplines and 2 from STEM disciplines, all of whom are based at an institution within the EU or a Horizon-associated country (including the UK). 
  2. Each of the collaborative teams will be a new collaboration, understood as the SSH and STEM researchers within the team not having published together before. Nevertheless, individuals from within the same field (i.e. either within the 2+ SSH researchers or within the 2+ STEM researchers) may have published together before.

For further details please see the requirements and expectations (available to download here: SSH CENTRE Collaborative Team Requirements and Expectations) and the FAQs for applicants (available to view here: SSH CENTRE Collaborative Teams Google Doc Link).

Indicative timeline:

  • End Jun 23 – Successful collaborative teams are notified
  • 10 Oct 23 – Online symposium for all collaborative teams 
  • 31 Jan 24 – First draft of policy recommendation chapter submitted to editors 
  • 23 Feb 24 – Collaborative teams receive comments on their chapter
  • 22 Mar 24 – Revised policy recommendation chapters submitted to editors 
  • 19 Apr 24 – Collaborative teams receive review comments on their re-submission
  • 10 May 24 – Collaborative teams submit their final manuscript 
  • Sep 24 – The open-access books are published