Specific SSH research and general research policy instruments. The Case of the national research programmes and “Need Driven SSH Research” in Lithuania

Proceedings of the conference “Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities for a European Research Agenda Valuation of SSH in missionoriented research” Vienna 2018Scientific research is confronted with a number of oppositionbased choices: interdisciplinary or disciplinary, fundamental (basic) or applied, academic research or innovation, blue-sky or mission (policy, agenda) driven research aiming more at either advancement of knowledge or practical societal impact. The choices are made even more complicated by the traditional duality of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research deeply ingrained into their methodologies and abilities to serve the most urgent needs of society. However, the essence of any research, cutely summed up by the initiators of the conference Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities for a European Research Agenda – Valuation of SSH in mission-oriented research, is as follows: “Scientific research is about transformation – how to enable it, or how to avoid it.” (König et al. 2018: 4). The transformative power of research and its mission to influence society and to be influenced byits needs has been widely discussed by politicians and researchers, especially in the case of SSH research. Growing push for transparency of public funds and accountability coming from citizens combined with criticisms against SSH for being sociallyinefficient, ideologically biased and living in an ivorytower caused activities directed towards the improvement of societal impactLituanistikos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta