Download and print this Newsletter HERE

Please read the following for the two calls on signing the Open Letter. Also see the Open Letter website.

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Dear colleagues,

With this message we would like to invite you to sign an Open Letter addressed to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation (http://www.eash.eu/openletter2011/), alerting her to the vital insights that Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities (SSH) contribute to address Europe’s and the world’s Grand Societal Challenges.

First results of our initiative to strengthen the SSH-component in “Horizon 2020” were presented to Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn on 10 November 2011. On this occasion she interacted with the scientific community during in a ½ day symposium on the role of SSH in “Horizon 2020” in London. She expressed her appreciation for the mobilisation of the community towards strengthening the SSH domain in the new Framework Programme.

Following this successful exchange, we shall interact next (after 20 November ) with lawmakers in the European Parliament and national political authorities. It would therefore be useful to collect further support from a large cross-section of the SSH- and SSH-related research communities number until 20 November.

In view of legislative decisions to be taken on the next 100-Billion-worth EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020 (2014-2020), the letter stresses the necessity for a varied and strong research programme in the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities (SSH): it argues that neglecting such potential contributions as SSH research has to make risks undermining the EU strategy to develop innovative, inclusive and sustainable societies. Yet, there still is a distinct danger of insufficient funding in Horizon 2020 for research areas such as cultural change, demography, education, the economy and globalisation, identity politics and social cohesion, and many others. For background information on these matters see: http://www.eash.eu/openletter2011/

The Open Letter initiative has grown out of deliberations among a number of European umbrella organisations in the area of SSH, and seeks to bring to the attention of the European Commission and national governments the concerns of the largest research community in Europe. If you agree, that a substantial and independent SSH-centered research programme should be included in all future European Framework Programmes, we invite you to sign the Open Letter online at http://www.eash.eu/openletter2011/. Kindly circulate this invitation to sign among your institutions, and across your networks, projects and subject associations.

Thank you in advance for signing and for supporting this initiative. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

On behalf of the Inter-agency Task Group on SSH in Europe
NET4SOCIETY (Network of SSH NCPs)
ALLEA (All European Academies)
ESF (European Science Foundation) - SCH/SCSS
ECHIC (European Consortium of Humanities Institutes and Centres)
with endorsements from the SSH ERA-Nets and others

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Dear colleagues,

We are writing to thank you for signing the Open Letter to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation.

In a ½ day meeting we had with Maire Geoghegan-Quinn on 10 November she acknowledged the mobilisation of the SSH community across Europe and beyond and gave some reassurances about the reintegration of SSH-research into the next Framework Programme “Horizon 2020” (Link to the Commissioner’s speech).

We must bear in mind, however, that in the past the SSH-related Framework Programme component has been, time and again, in danger of being eliminated at the end of negotiations between national governments, the European Parliament and the Commission, and also the size of the budget accessible for SSH-researchers is far from being secured.This is why we shall keep the signature function open so that you can further circulate it to colleagues in the relevant fields through the appropriate channels and invite them to also sign up. For your easier reference, we have copied an updated version of the message in which you can invite them to sign.

We shall do a first analysis of the signatures received by 20 November, publicise the results that far through a press release, and inform MEP’s as well as national governments and parliamentarians of the result. We shall keep you, of course, informed.

With our best wishes

On behalf of the inter-agency group for SSH in Europe
NET4SOCIETY (Network of SSH NCPs)
ALLEA (All European Academies)
ESF (European Science Foundation) - SCH/SCSS
ECHIC (European Consortium of Humanities Institutes and Centres)
with endorsements from the SSH ERA-Nets and others

An all too sudden death. Nordic Gender Institute (NIKK) will be dismantled before the end of 2011

We are sad and worried to announce that NIKK, the Nordic Gender Institute, is going to be dismantled before December 31st 2011. Since 1995, NIKK has been an important professional organization in the field of Nordic, European and international gender studies. Through its active collaboration with gender scholars, equality policy-makers, and information- and documentation centres, NIKK has functioned as a role model and an important partner in bridging academia and equality policy in the area of gender politics and gender equality. As an institutional partner, NIKK has been very reliable and active in ATGENDER and its predecessors. NIKK has had an important role in research cooperation and dissemination, not only for the development of gender scholarship in the Nordic countries, but also in Europe. We want to thank NIKK for the good collaboration over the years, and for its important work with supporting and strengthening research, information and documentation in the field of gender and equality. We thank the Nordic Council of Ministers for making it financially possible.

We also want to express our concerns. The Nordic Council of Ministers has decided that some of NIKK’s functions will be continued in another Nordic collaborative body. Yet, the decisions as to where, when, how, and by which resources this will happen are still to be taken. We are worried that important experience, knowledge and continuity in gender and equality issues will be lost through the discharge of the personnel and the infrastructures developed at NIKK. We are also worried that this decision involves a downgrading of the centrality for research- and university related activities in the field, and that the resources allocated to research and universities might decrease or disappear.

To our regrets, ATGENDER cannot take any action to intervene into the decision-making process since this information reached us when the decision already had been taken, but it is a decision we meet with deep worries and sadness, which we have explained in a letter from the ATGENDER board to the Nordic Council of Ministers. In times of increased political and financial insecurity all over Europe, the decision to dismantle the Nordic Gender Institute also signals a warning to all European gender and equality units, and highlights the continued and increased importance of organized collaboration across Europe.

The ATGENDER board, through Mia Liinason, assistant professor, Centre for Gender Studies, Lund University, Sweden, member of the ATGENDER board.