SHAPE-ID: Shaping interdisciplinary practices in Europe

We are excited to share the latest results from SHAPE-ID! Based on our series of six learning case workshops organised with expert stakeholders across Europe, we present recommendations for integrating the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) in inter- and transdisciplinary research (IDR/TDR) with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

1. Socio-cultural missions and challenges: AHSS disciplines and societal stakeholders bring important novel perspectives to how problems are framed and approached. In addition to continued support for scientific and technological development, funders and policymakers need to commit to research and innovation missions driven by socio-cultural challenges and questions that foreground the human dimensions of challenges and put human flourishing at their centre.
2. Funding calls: AHSS researchers and societal stakeholders need to be consulted from an early stage in designing these programmes. Call language should be more open and inclusive, inviting a range of perspectives in addressing the topic and explicitly welcoming a broad range of contributions from AHSS and other stakeholders.
3. Seed funding to enable relationship building: inter- and transdisciplinary research take time and trust and the AHSS disciplines in particular require support to build capacity. Seed funding to build networks, consortia and relationships, including with  industry and societal stakeholders, can be valuable for facilitating relationship-building and laying the foundation for larger-scale collaboration.
4. Building a culture of IDR/TDR in higher education: culture change takes time and higher education systems should be incentivised by policymakers and funders to develop ID and TD educational programmes and reward ID/TD research and education activities in staff evaluation and promotion.
5. Research networks and infrastructures: to facilitate knowledge-sharing and community building across stakeholder groups, the European Commission should provide sustainable funding for IDR/TDR infrastructure, building on the forthcoming SHAPE-ID toolkit to create a more dynamic and interactive resource.

You can access all published project results through
the Policy Briefs and Reports pages on our website.

• AHSS leadership: what can be achieved by ensuring the AHSS play a greater role in shaping how societal challenges are approached? In our workshops, participants discussed practical examples, such as ageing well, the crises of democracy and technology development.
• Funding call design: how can funders encourage greater AHSS participation with STEM disciplines in inter- and transdisciplinary funding calls? Our workshops revealed the need for inclusive language in funding calls and seed funding to enable relationship-building and create a pipeline for collaborative research projects.
• Capacity building in higher education: how can inter- and transdisciplinarity be supported in higher education institutions? Our recommendations focus on educational practice, through the example of education for urban sustainability, and building lasting collaborations with external partners, through the example of the digital humanities and cultural heritage institutions.
• Preconditions for AHSS integration: read about our synthesis report summarising project recommendations on the structural, personal, interpersonal and cross-cutting factors informing successful AHSS integration.
• Upcoming Opportunities: we share news about some upcoming conferences and calls for papers that may be of interest to this community.
• Publications: view the full list of recent SHAPE-ID publications to learn more!
• Webinars: our popular webinar series has now finished but we’ve made all the recordings available so you can catch up on any events you missed.