STOA Workshop: Humanities and social sciences at the heart of Europe’s future
Humanities and social sciences at the heart of Europe's future
STOA Workshop
Live Stream
About the Workshop
As negotiations for the next Horizon Europe Framework Programme proceed, the EU must broaden its research priorities beyond economic output and tech-driven competitiveness to include the social dimension of progress. A more inclusive and sustainable research strategy is necessary to address the complex challenges that Europe faces and to secure its social model and global competitiveness.
This STOA workshop will explore integrating social sciences and humanities into the design of key initiatives — such as the green transition, AI governance, healthcare and security - to align EU research with citizen needs and democratic values, and better inform public policies and drive economic growth.
The workshop will also examine the Social Progress Index (SPI) and the 'Sustainable and Inclusive Wellbeing Dashboard' as tools to assess citizens' well-being and inform research priorities.
Programme
Speakers
Dr. Christian Ehler is Chair of the European Parliament's Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). Dr. Ehler has been a Member of the European Parliament for Brandenburg since 2004 and belongs to the Group of the European People's Party (EPP/CDU).
He has been a Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) for over fifteen years. As rapporteur for Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) and Horizon Europe (2021-2027), as well as for the Parliament's legislative initiative report on the freedom of scientific research in Europe, he is considered one of the leading figures in the design and implementation of the European Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation.
He is the initiator of the ITRE working group on the implementation of the Framework Programmes, which ensures close parliamentary scrutiny of Europe's research and innovation funding. In the European Parliament Dr Ehler is also Member of the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union, and substitute Member of the Committee on Budgets.
Committees
Delegations
Lina Gálvez Muñoz is a Member of the European Parliament since July 2019. She is the Chair of the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee and member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy as well as Vice-chair of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). She also sits on the Committee on International Trade as substitute member.
She is the Vice-President of The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and Chair of FEPS Scientific Council since June 2023.
Lina Gálvez Muñoz PhD, European University Institute (Florence), is Economic History and Institutions Full Professor at the Economics Department at Pablo Olavide University (Seville). She has also been professor at the Universities of Reading and Carlos III (Madrid), and a visiting professor at the Centre for Time Use Research at Oxford University.
She has more than hundred scientific publications and she has been Vice-Rector of her university from 2007 to 2012, and served as Regional Minister of Knowledge, Research and University of the Government of Andalusia from 2018 to 2019. Social scientist and feminist, her work focuses on the commitment to social justice, gender equality, territorial balance across Europe and the pursuit of making European economy and democracies sustainable and resilient.
Committees
Delegations
Prof. Dr. Patrizia NANZ
President
European University Institute (EUI)
Prof. Patrizia Nanz is the President of the European University Institute (EUI) since March 2024. She combines a distinguished scientific record with proven leadership experience, having served as Director of the Research Institute for Sustainability (Potsdam) and Funding Director of the Franco-German Forum for the Future.
Her expertise focuses on issues such as democracy, public participation, innovative public administration, and societal transformations. Patrizia Nanz has served as Vice-President of Germany's Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management and Head of the Collaborative Governance Lab. She has advised regional and national governments, as well as the European Commission.
Prof. Nanz studied philosophy at the Munich School of Philosophy and obtained a doctorate in Political and Social Sciences at the EUI. She was a Professor of Political Theory at the Universities of Bremen and Potsdam, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Berlin) and Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Gabi Lombardo (PhD LSE), is Director of the European Alliance for SSH one of the largest advocacy and science policy organizations in Europe. EASSH advocates for an evidence-based approach to policy-making, and researchers' inclusion in funding design.
High-level experience in science policy research and implementation working in international organisations like London School of Economics, European Research Council and Science Europe. She's an evaluator for the EU, World Bank, and COST. Gabi received the Young Academy of Europe Prize in 2018.
Prof. Dr. Annelien Bredenoord (1979) is President of the Executive Board of Erasmus University Rotterdam and Professor of Ethics of (Biomedical) Technologies. She has rich experience in executive and non-executive roles and works on the intersection of higher education, health care, technology & innovation, ethics, politics & governance.
Bredenoord has been member of the High Level Expert Group on the Future of Horizon Europe, advising the European Committee on the next research & innovation programs. She has been a member of the Senate of Dutch Parliament and D66 floorleader from 2015 – 2023.
Dr. Henriette van Eijl is the Deputy to the Director "People" and Head of Unit of the unit 'Health and Societal Transitions' in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. The Unit ensures that R&I policies and programmes, especially through investment in Horizon Europe, support the EU policy objectives in health and societal transitions, notably in health, socio-economic and inclusion areas, migration, as well as Social Sciences and Humanities (integration).
She also serves on the Boards of the Human Frontier Sciences Program and EUROFOUND. Henriette has 25 years' experience in three EC Directorates-General, in national administration, industry and academia. She holds a PhD in virology (smallpox) from Oxford University. In her spare time, she is a patron of the Flagey music centre in Brussels and she enjoys hiking in Europe with her family and two Weimaraner dogs.
Péter Benczúr is a scientific officer at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, where he is one of the coordinators of the sustainable and inclusive wellbeing work. Initiated in a series of Strategic Foresight Reports, this Commission initiative aims to develop beyond GDP metrics for the EU to complement GDP.
He was one of the developers of the JRC conceptual framework of resilience and the resilience dashboards, which were used in the Commission's work on strategic foresight. He was involved in research looking at the resilience of the EU, modelling the banking union, taxation, international macroeconomics, and sovereign risk.
He studied mathematics at the Lorand Eotvos University in Budapest and obtained a Ph.D in Economics at MIT in 2001. Before joining the JRC in 2013, he was the head of research at the central bank of Hungary, and an adjunct faculty at Central European University, Budapest.
Staff