Prague, 08/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - Most EU research projects presented at the Research Connection conference in Prague are so-called 'hard' science, but economics and social sciences may see renewed interest as a result of the economic crisis.
Domenico Rossetti di Valdalbero, head of socio-economic and human sciences (SSH) at DG Research at the European Commission, told this newsletter that the new SSH work programme for 2010 would be published in July 2009 and would include new subjects looking at the causes and impact of the economic and financial crisis. Of the 400 applications for funding received by his unit in 2009, only 40 porjects were selected, a success rate of only 10% due to an excessively wide range of different research teams and the very broad nature of the issues under study, he explained. SSH projects only attract €600 million of the €54 billion total under FP7. Jean-Michel Baer, director of the Science, Econoimcs and Society Unit at DG Research, said in Prague that recent events and the current world crisis, from the war in Georgia to the financial crisis and economic recession, call for greater SSH research in order to understand how crises occur, how they will impact and how they may develop. The raw data collected by EU researchers in humanities and economics are a vital tool for EU decision-makiers. On illegal immigration, for example, DG Justice, Freedom and Security wants to know roughly how many illegal immigrants are living in the EU, but only EU researchers in the field (in cities and social services offices, for example) who can provide objective data, explained Domenico Rossetti di Valdalbero. (Y.P. trans fl)