In European projects, Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) are no longer a secondary dimension. In many Horizon Europe topics, their integration already appears as an explicit expectation or even as a requirement. However, their importance goes far beyond formally complying with a call.
Incorporating SSH means understanding that Europe’s major challenges — health, the green transition, digital transformation, security, food, energy or social cohesion — cannot be addressed solely from a scientific or technical perspective. These are challenges that involve behaviours, institutions, inequalities, values, regulations, forms of participation and governance models.
For this reason, integrating Social Sciences into a European project is not about adding an isolated task, but about incorporating a perspective capable of improving the quality, relevance and impact of the project from its very design.
SSH: an increasingly relevant dimension in Horizon Europe
The European Commission has progressively strengthened the presence of Social Sciences and Humanities in the framework programmes for research and innovation. In Horizon Europe, this integration can be seen both in topics that explicitly mention SSH and in the way aspects such as impact, implementation, stakeholder participation, social acceptance, governance or exploitation of results are evaluated.
This has a direct consequence for those preparing proposals: SSH cannot be improvised at the end. They must be integrated into the project logic from the very beginning.
A proposal that successfully incorporates this dimension demonstrates that it understands the problem in all its complexity. It not only explains what will be researched or developed, but also who is affected, which actors need to participate, what barriers may arise, what changes are expected and how value will be created beyond the consortium.
From participation to social impact
One of the most visible contributions of SSH in European projects is the participation of key stakeholders. Processes such as the multi-actor approach, co-creation, co-design or public engagement make it possible to incorporate expert, institutional, citizen or sectoral knowledge at different stages of the project.
In this sense, the participation of these key actors is not merely a consultation activity. When properly designed, it helps define needs more accurately, validate hypotheses, adapt solutions, anticipate resistance and strengthen the legitimacy of the results.
Alongside this participatory approach, SSH also provide tools to analyse social impact, develop public policy recommendations, assess ethical implications, study governance models or work on communication of results with different audiences.
Taken together, these capacities allow projects not only to produce results, but also to create the conditions for those results to be understood, used and transferred.
A matter of proposal quality
In a competitive environment such as Horizon Europe, properly integrating SSH also has a clear effect on proposal quality. Evaluators expect projects to be coherent, well-structured and capable of demonstrating impact. If the social dimension appears disconnected, generic or poorly justified, it can weaken the credibility of the proposal as a whole.
On the contrary, when SSH are well integrated, they strengthen the project narrative. They help explain why the problem matters, how it will be addressed in real contexts, which stakeholders should be involved and what changes may be generated.
This is especially relevant in sections such as impact, implementation, exploitation, communication, ethics, governance or data management. These are areas where a solid SSH approach can make the difference between a correct proposal and a truly competitive one.
The value of an applied perspective
Integrating Social Sciences into European projects requires methodological rigour, but also a practical orientation. It is not enough to understand concepts such as participation, social impact, ethics or co-creation; it is necessary to know how to translate them into tasks, methodologies, deliverables, indicators and concrete responsibilities within a project.
This is one of the key aspects of working in Horizon Europe. SSH must be connected to the consortium design, work plan, objectives, expected impacts and the needs of the stakeholders involved. If they remain isolated, they lose strength. If they are properly integrated, they provide coherence and strategic value.
Kveloce’s experience in Social Sciences and Humanities
At Kveloce, Social Sciences and Humanities are part of a well-stablished line of work within European projects. Our experience focuses on integrating this dimension in an applied way, working alongside scientific, technical and institutional teams to strengthen the quality and impact of both proposals and projects.
The team contributes expertise in citizen participation, multi-actor approaches, co-design, co-creation, social impact analysis, public policy recommendations, communication, dissemination, exploitation, ethics, data management, sustainability and evaluation.
This experience allows SSH to be integrated not as an additional requirement, but as a tool to enhance the value of the project: improving alignment with the call, strengthening methodological coherence, anticipating barriers and increasing the usefulness of the results.
In Horizon Europe, Social Sciences are not a complement. They are an essential part of projects that aim to generate real impact, respond to complex needs and compete successfully in an increasingly demanding environment.
