In the Horizon2020 programme the European Commission has recently acknowledged the significant potential of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research and disciplines in contributing to and addressing the challenges facing society. Societies are communities of individuals. Inside these communities, actors, entities and market systems are becoming more interconnected and are therefore complex. As a result it is becoming more and more difficult to overcome societal challenges: this requires an innovative transdisciplinary co-creation approach.
The 14 academic partners in ACCOMPLISSH represent all the sub disciplines in SSH. The impact profile of SSH research could be far stronger and more visible than it currently is. Impact generation based upon SSH research should be recognised and impact planning, generation and capture mechanisms should be further developed. The existing methods and instruments used to plan for, generate and assess impact from research in STEM disciplines are not always suitable for SSH research.