At the Human Values & Grand Challenges Conference 2025 hosted by Aalborg University under the Danish EU Presidency, Senior Advisor for Innovation & Sustainability Louise Drogoul underscored that Europe’s ability to deliver sustainable prosperity and societal resilience in the coming decade depends on embedding human values, interdisciplinarity, and social sciences, arts and humanities (SSAH) into the core of its research and innovation (R&I) landscape.
Louise participated in the concluding high-level panel alongside Cecilie Brøkner (Innovation Fund Denmark), Matthias Reiter-Pázmándy (Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research), Connie Hedegaard (former European Commissioner), and Annelien Bredenoord (Erasmus University Rotterdam), moderated by Simon Pickard (Science|Business).
The first day set the research context, emphasising that societies are shaped not only by technological breakthroughs but also by the ideas, norms and values that govern how technologies are used. Across keynotes and working groups, a shared message emerged: Europe must move beyond “SSH integration” and instead embrace genuine convergence of disciplines.
Speakers highlighted that:
Europe’s true comparative advantage is not only technology — it is our values.
Day 2 explored the policy dimension. Opening the day, Aalborg University Rector Per Michael Johansen reflected on the speed at which AI has entered every home, classroom, and institution:
“AI is not a divine being. It reflects the values and incentives of those who build it.”
He emphasised that universities are both catalysts for technological breakthroughs and centres of critical reflection — and must therefore ensure that human values are not ethical add-ons but core features of R&I programmes.
Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund urged policymakers to learn from the past:
“Imagine if in 2004, when Facebook launched, we had truly considered the societal consequences. Innovation must serve democracy and human dignity.”
ERC President Maria Leptin delivered a powerful address showing that Europe’s future depends as much on the insights of social sciences and humanities as on technical advances. She warned that treating these disciplines as auxiliary to policy priorities risks undermining the very knowledge that keeps societies conscious of their values, choices and responsibilities.
In the concluding panel, Louise emphasised that Europe cannot deliver competitiveness or societal wellbeing if it continues working in silos. Interdisciplinarity — across STEM, SSH, industry and the public sector — is essential to aligning innovation with societal needs, sustainability and European values.
Drawing on CESAER’s work, she argued that interdisciplinarity is not a quota, but a method for impact, and that success must be judged by whether the mix of disciplines improves trust, adoption, usability and market potential.
“We shouldn’t count disciplines — we should measure whether the mix helped the innovation survive contact with society.”
A major theme of Louise’s intervention was the strategic connection between FP10 and the proposed European Competitiveness Fund (ECF).
While some speakers saw the ECF as focused primarily on industry and defence, Louise stressed that universities — especially science and technology universities — must help shape it. Service to society happens in the connection between FP10’s knowledge base and the ECF’s deployment and scale-up logic.
She highlighted that SSAH disciplines are essential to ensuring coherence between the two instruments:
“We should not abandon the ECF — we should shape it. A coherent FP10–ECF interface is one of Europe’s strongest opportunities for service to society.”
Louise emphasised that to achieve truly human-centric, interdisciplinary impact, FP10 must move beyond Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Drawing on examples such as KTH’s Innovation Readiness Levels, she called for multi-dimensional readiness frameworks covering societal, values-based, regulatory and market readiness.
This approach mirrors conference recommendations to replace TRLs as defining criteria with more socially focused, non-linear alternatives.
“Technologies can reach TRL 7 and still fail in the real world. FP10 needs societal and values readiness alongside TRLs.”
She stressed the need for a Pillar II Board — an interdisciplinary governance body to ensure coherence across missions and clusters and embed human-centricity throughout FP10’s design.
Across the panel, speakers agreed that the time to act is now.
“If we do nothing, no one will make the case for interdisciplinarity and values-driven research and innovation on our behalf.”
Louise emphasised the importance of working with industry as peers and partners, not counterparts. Early, structured collaboration across sectors is essential for Europe to translate frontier knowledge into societal benefit at scale.
For more information, please contact our Senior Advisor for Innovation & Sustainability Louise Drogoul.
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