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This report analyses the underlying preconditions and efficiency of Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), based on the evidence available from the many LAP partnerships among Science Europe’s members. It also contains policy recommendations for research organisations so that they gain a more accurate understanding of the Lead Agency principles and are made more able to judge on its scope and limitations.

Research in the social sciences regularly faces its own ethical issues, yet it lacks an equivalent codification of approaches that are tailored to its disciplines, as well as sufficient infrastructures at the institutional level to assess proposals. The importance and value of ethics in social sciences research are not yet universally embraced, creating divergence in approaches and resourcing between countries, institutions and disciplines. Furthermore, social sciences research is undergoing a period of rapid change. There is increasing participation in multidisciplinary projects, while changes in technology are creating new challenges for social sciences researchers, which need to be addressed. The social sciences urgently need ethical protocols that can function effectively across disciplines and can adapt to advances in research methodologies and strategies. 

In recent years scientific research has changed markedly. High throughput technologies have resulted in the generation and accumulation of unprecedented quantities of data, which can be collected, analysed and interpreted through advances in computational science. This, in turn, has led to rapid progress in the development of computational models that can represent natural phenomena across the range of scales, from the level of atoms and molecules to the structure and evolution of galaxies. Such models allow researchers to test and develop new ideas; they can provide new insights into the behaviour of systems under different conditions that would be difficult to test directly through experiment, and they can be used to predict how a system will react to changing circumstances. With computer modelling becoming an increasingly important tool for researchers, the Science Europe Scientific Committee for Life, Environmental and Geo Sciences organised a workshop to explore how different scientific disciplines use computational modelling and simulations of complex structures in space and time.

This report – which consolidates the outcomes of a two day workshop co-hosted with the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) in November 2015 – identifies and acknowledges the challenges in transforming big data into better health and makes a number of key recommendations.

This workshop was convened by the Science Europe Scientific Committee for Physical, Chemical, and Mathematical Sciences to explore issues surrounding the concept of ‘convergence’ and its potential relevance to, and implications for, research funding organisations and research performing organisations in Europe. The aim of this exploratory workshop was to provide a forum for debate and discussion, rather than to arrive at specific conclusions or formulate policy recommendations. The workshop, attended by some 45 delegates, took the following format: four keynote speakers with expertise relevant to the topic of convergence gave presentations, followed by three short interventions. Delegates were then split into three groups which sat in parallel to explore the areas of governance, tools and infrastructures, and training and careers. Again this was followed by an open discussion.