What is driving the European Commission’s vision for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)? Borrowing from Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, one might respond that 'it’s the economy, stupid', as 'competitiveness' has dominated the agenda of the second von der Leyen Commission.
And yet, Ursula von der Leyen’s political guidelines for her second mandate spell out very clearly the need to strengthen societal cohesion. Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu put it succinctly at the recent Education and Skills Summit, where she emphasised that a competitive Europe can only succeed with citizens who have the competences to engage in a complex world, including citizenship skills.
Universities are key foundations for strengthening Europe’s democracies and generating the research and education to ensure citizens can embrace a competitive future. So what can those disciplines that have a particular stake in Europe’s cultural and social fabric, the SSAH, expect of the next MFF?
On 16/07/2025, the European Commission presented its proposal for the 2028-2034 budget, including €175 billion for the next Horizon Europe Framework Programme (FP10), nearly doubling the funding compared to the €95.5bn provided for the programme under the 2021-2027 budget, and a budget of €41bn for Erasmus+, compared to €26.2bn for 2021-2027.
Erasmus+ as a key pillar of support for SSAH
To begin with, we can expect Erasmus+ to continue to be a key pillar of support for SSAH disciplines. With its budget proposed to grow by 50% in nominal terms, this increase will not remotely cover demand for mobility, which is especially important for our students learning modern European languages. It will be critical to make an effective case for the Council and the European Parliament not just to approve this increase, but to go beyond it.
In addition, SSAH disciplines have been a strong foundation for European universities alliances, all of which are committed to addressing societal challenges. Their commitment to addressing the global Sustainable Development Goals is underwritten by SSAH disciplines. European universities alliances will be important to support students and academics in these domains.
A discipline-agnostic support for students and institutions
Erasmus+ has been discipline-agnostic in its support for students and institutions. Yet recently, the Commission’s Union of Skills strategy has been driven by the need to boost the uptake of STEM skills amongst Europe’s population. It is good that the Commission wants to ensure that the pilot for STEM Scholarships is also open to interdisciplinary approaches.
Still, in the next MFF, the Commission will have to maintain a careful balancing act to ensure that its focus on STEM will not undermine the support it currently provides to SSAH subjects. Erasmus+ must continue to cater for the subjects that can make best use of its instruments.
Interrogations around "specific thematic priorities" for research
In research, the Commission has proposed a nominal 80% increase for the next Horizon Europe programme (FP10). While we can expect a significant increase for ERC and MSCA if these proposals go through, we have no formal budget commitment from the Commission for these two programmes. This is particularly problematic since both have formed a bedrock of support for SSAH research. The overall share of SSAH disciplines in MSCA was around 23% in Horizon 2020, and 24% in the first three years of Horizon Europe (2021-24). Even more remarkably, in the ERC, the proportion of the number of funded awards in SSAH increased over the period of Horizon 2020, from 18% (2014) to 27% (2020).
Not only do we need to see clarity and ambition in the budgets for ERC and MSCA, but their bottom-up mission must also be preserved. Currently, the FP10 proposal envisages that, “if specific needs arise”, the MSCA may target areas in “specific thematic priorities”. But who will define those needs, and according to which criteria?
A risk for SSAH to be pushed aside in ERC activities?
The ERC is better protected, because the Scientific Council continues to be solely responsible for the ERC’s overall strategy and the work programmes. But the proposals task it with establishing the ERC’s strategy “in light of scientific opportunities and European scientific needs”. But if, in the future, the Commission considers its priorities to be in STEM, would this de facto constrain the Scientific Council? These are existential questions for SSAH researchers and require their full attention.
This leads to the fundamental question about challenge-led research, currently in Pillar II. Here, the overall performance of SSH disciplines has changed little in the past 10 years: in Horizon 2020, 7% of the budget for collaborative research went to ‘SSH partners’, and in the first three years of Horizon Europe, that figure appears to be closer to 10%. It is important to note, though, that not all of these SSH ‘partners’ are researchers; they can also be people responsible for deliverables such as societal outreach.
What the Commission is proposing to support collaborative SSAH research in FP10
To begin with, it is welcome that SSAH integration is set to be a cross-cutting objective for the interdisciplinary nature of the entire programme. Moreover, with a proposed budget of €7bn, the ‘Societies’ component of the Competitiveness and Societies pillar proposes to strengthen democratic values, promote social inclusion and enhance societal acceptance of technological change. But this budget will also cover the research component under EU Missions and the New European Bauhaus Facility.
In funding terms, the ‘Societies’ budget would be a significant increase for SSAH research compared to what is currently being earmarked for FP9. But what the disparate components of this heading suggest is the lack of an underlying vision for how SSAH research can better engage with EU priorities, including its drive for competitiveness.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the R&I Moonshots, proposed as highly visible initiatives across different instruments (including the European Competitiveness Fund, ECF), bringing together research, innovation, as well as private and public actors. Moonshots with a strong SSAH component are completely missing from the FP10 proposal. Recently, The Guild has sought to address this gap by demonstrating the critical importance of ambitious SSAH moonshots. How else could we ensure competitiveness is rooted in Europe’s society, culture and policy?
"An important time for the Commission to spell out its vision for how SSAH contribute to the future of Europe"
As the Council and the European Parliament focus on establishing their own positions on the Commission’s proposals, now is an important time for the Commission to spell out its vision for how social sciences, arts and humanities contribute to the future of Europe. EVP Mînzatu has made an excellent start concerning Erasmus+, even if we still need a bolder articulation of the importance of personal development, languages and intercultural awareness.
But these perspectives also need to find a more visible articulation by the Commission more widely. And Commissioner Zaharieva will have a key role to spell out an aligned vision of how SSAH research must embolden Europe’s competitiveness through R&I. Both members of the Commission have a unique opportunity to energise Europe’s SSAH community for the future of Europe - let’s hope they use it.
This article was originally published in News Tank.
Jan Palmowski
Secretary-General of The Guild – A contemporary historian, he started his career at the University of Oxford before moving to King’s College London where he taught European politics and EU integration. He was Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Warwick from 2013 to 2017. In this blog space, Prof. Palmowski engages with some of the wider questions around research, education, innovation and the EU. The views expressed here are his and not those of The Guild.