Progress Reimagined: Putting Societies at the Heart of European Research

The Insider Podcast - Season 2, Episode 1

"Progress Reimagined: Putting Societies at the Heart of European Research"

We’re back!

Season 2 of The Insider opens with a big question – maybe THE question – for European research right now: What happens when society becomes an afterthought in how we fund and govern science? And what would it take to put people back at the centre of the picture?

In this first episode, Ricardo Miguéis sits down with Dr. Gabi Lombardo, Director of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH) and someone who’s spent years trying to fix exactly that. Gabi has seen the system from every angle, from the London School of Economics and the ERC to Science Europe and EASSH, and she’s built one of the strongest cases for treating the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) as co-designers of European R&I, not just background noise.

The episode unfolds in two parts:

Part 1 – Where we come from

Gabi reflects on her path, the institutional blind spots she’s seen up close, and why SSH remains structurally misunderstood in Europe. She talks about the famous Frascati Manual problem, fragmented national systems, and why “integration” is not the same as genuine collaboration. Behind the acronyms lies a deeper issue: the way Europe still defines what counts as “research excellence” – often in ways that overlook the human dimensions of progress.

Part 2 – Where we go next

The conversation dives into FP10, and the new Society policy window, asking what it would really mean to let SSH help design missions, instead of commenting from the sidelines. From the obsession with “resilience” to the need to look beyond GDP when measuring progress, this part links directly with how Europe defines ambition and what kind of future it is actually building.

Throughout the episode, one idea keeps coming back: Europe doesn’t just need to fund SSH, it needs to learn from it. Because, if we want to talk seriously about trust, democracy, or legitimacy, we can’t treat social knowledge as an accessory. It’s a public good.

For INESC Brussels HUB, this episode sets the tone for Season 2 – a season about how Europe chooses to innovate, and what kind of progress it truly wants to build.

Listen to “Progress Reimagined: Putting Societies at the Heart of European Research”, now streaming on The Insider.