Paper short abstract:

The European Commission tackles social needs such as improvements in healthcare or the protection of the environment through funding research and innovation projects. However, the related translation processes are culturally complex. I will show in which ways, and problematise the policy discourse.

Paper long abstract:

For many years the European Commission (EC) has tackled various social needs or 'grand societal challenges', such as improvements in healthcare or the protection of the environment, through funding research and innovation projects in related areas. I will unpack the governance structures at both programme and project level, analyse their interplay, and consequently provide a multifaceted understanding of social needs that are as much shaped by big ideas as by numerous small issues emerging locally. To put it differently, the paper argues that programme and project level are linked to one another through processes of translation that are culturally complex. Relevant features will be exemplified with a particular EC funding programme focusing on the development of Information and Communication Technologies. In this case the funder's rhetoric of social needs has been entangled with the discourse of the information society in a rather unfortunate way. Also, the mix of epistemic, technical and national cultures at the project level entails different understandings of what 'needs' to be done ('socially' and otherwise). These and other findings will be discussed based on a mixed-methods approach (document and discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews). I will conclude by questioning the existing policy discourse, and by problematising the ways in which it is inscribed into concrete funding programmes.