Strategic Activities

‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’: Collaboration between the social sciences and the life sciences

Dates and Location: 12-13 March 2012, London (UK)
Convenor(s): Nikolas Rose, King’s College London (UK)
Sponsor(s): ESF SCSS
More information:go to webpage

The workshop will address collaboration between social sciences and life sciences – in particular neuroscience, genetics and other branches of biology – which aims to help explain human social or behavioural phenomena.  It will result in a report describing the current situation of collaboration between the social sciences and the life sciences and presenting a selection of case studies of collaboration. The report will draw conclusions from the case-studies presented at the workshop, taking into account the subsequent discussions, to describe the characteristics of successful or unsuccessful social science/life science collaboration. It will illustrate new and emerging scientific and institutional practices and point towards the needs, horizons and priorities for interdisciplinary collaboration between the social and the life sciences.

The Science of Innovation

Dates and Location: 28 February 2012, Brussels (BE)
Sponsor(s): ESF SCSS - co-organised with STOA
More information: go to webpage

Innovation, and the knowledge, creativity and motivation that drive it, are key to human progress and offer a powerful source of new wealth. However, innovation is also a dynamic, complex, multi-level and interdisciplinary phenomenon which is not easy to understand, and challenging to influence. The study of innovation is an important, growing field of research in the social and economic sciences.

This conference will present state-of-the-art, thought-provoking insights from the cutting edge of 'the science of innovation' on crucial issues for today's policy makers.

SCSS Exploratory Workshop follow-up Strategy

11 Exploratory Workshops are being funded in the SCSS domains during the calendar year 2012, following a selection by the Standing Committee in October 2011.

In addition, SCSS has decided to support two additional workshops from its own budget:

• Follow-Ups Across Discourse Domains: A Cross-Cultural Exploration Of Their Forms And Functions In Political Discourse
• Matching In The EU: Market Failures And Solutions
  

The Human Brain: from Cells to Society

Dates and Location: 14-15 December 2011, Berlin (DE)
Sponsor(s): All ESF Standing Committees
More information: go to webpage

This strategic initiative  aims to enable Europe’s scientific community, in interaction with policy makers, to develop medium to long-term views and an analysis of future research developments with the aim of defining research agendas at national and European level.

The outcome of the meeting will be a science policy publication that will serve as a scientific validation for the interest in the specific topics/areas identified. To this end, a science writer will participate in the meeting who will synthesize the six discussions. This will be the basis for the resulting publication, further fine-tuned by the Steering Committee. The next step will be a more in-depth look – either on the part of ESF or other stakeholders - on those selected topics which should result in focussed science policy recommendations.

New approaches for researching the determinants of migration processes

Dates and Location: 29-30 September 2011, Corpus Christi College, Oxford (UK)
Convenor(s): Hein de Haas International Migration Institute (IMI), University of Oxford (UK)
Sponsor(s): ESF SCSS and the Oxford Martin School of the University of Oxford
More information: go to website

This workshop aims to explore the contours of a future empirical and theoretical agenda for multi-method and multi-level research on the determinants of migration processes. While there is a plethora of research on the social, cultural and economic impacts of migration on sending and receiving societies, in comparison there has been less research on the drivers (causes) of migration processes themselves. Although there is consensus that macro-contextual economic and political factors in sending and receiving countries and factors such as networks and policies all play ‘some’ role, there is no agreement on the nature of impacts, their relative weight and mutual interaction, and how these factors are affected by migration processes in their own right. In addition, much empirical research is weakly guided by larger theoretical questions and, hence, also contributes insufficiently to theoretical advancement.
The outcomes will play a role in the development of a European level research agenda in the area of international migration.  IMI intends to organise a follow-up, empirical results-driven workshop on the determinants of international migration in early 2012.

Indicators for Child Well-Being

Dates and Location: 26-27 July 2011, University of York (UK)
Convenor(s): Asher Ben-Arieh Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, Hebrew University in Jerusalem (IL)
Sponsor(s): ESF SCSS and ESF Standing Committees for the Humanities (SCH) and Medical Sciences (EMRC)
More information:

The workshop main goal is to facilitate improved social reporting on child well-being in Europe. The workshop will convene a group of established experts, together with government officials responsible for data gathering and policy makers in the field of child well-being in order to provide a unique opportunity to integrate different perspectives and disciplines involved in social reporting on children’s well-being internationally, and to acquaint the needs and abilities of data collectors, researchers and policy makers.
During the workshop, a review of the current state of the art of child well-being indicators and their use in social reports nationally and internationally will be presented. Then, future goals and policy making needs will be highlighted and current gaps in knowledge for policy considered. The aim is to draw up a proposal for a strategic plan to advance the field.
The workshop is a follow-up to a 2009 workshop ‘Changing Childhood in a Changing Europe’, and will take place adjacent to the Annual Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI). The main outcomes and conclusions off the workshop will be presented at the ISCI conference bringing an immediate dissemination to a larger number of researchers and stakeholders in the field. 

Evidence-Based Prevention of Bullying and Youth Violence: European Innovations and Experiences

Dates and Location: 5-6 July 2011, The Møller Center, Churchill College, Cambridge
Convenor(s): Tina Malti University of Toronto (CA) and Manuel Eisner University of Cambridge (UK)
Sponsor(s): ESF SCSS and The Jacobs Foundation
More information: go to website

Violence and bullying among children and adolescents is a widespread problem. Research has shown that it has strong effects on children’s and adolescents’ mental health, social development, and educational achievement. A responsible and healthy young generation is a major asset for competing in a globalised environment and for securing democratic values.  As European societies become more diversified both demographically and politically, the question of how young people can overcome maladaptive developmental trajectories and become socially responsible citizens becomes thus notably more important.  Despite the efforts in the current field of bullying prevention research, there are still considerable conceptual, methodological and practical challenges.
The conference gathered together researchers, policy makers and practitioners to provide new insights into innovative approaches to evidence-based bullying and violence prevention across Europe. It aims at contributing to the further progress in our knowledge of how the socially competent development of children and adolescents can be promoted, and how problematic developments can be prevented.