As the SSH CENTRE (Social Sciences and Humanities for Climate, Energy and Transport Research Excellence) project enters its final phase, members of the consortium gathered between 11-12 June 2025 for a two-day meeting at the historic King’s College, Cambridge. The event focused on writing deliverables, project reflection and strategic planning, and brought together partners to work together on the key outputs and final recommendations of the project.
Earlier this month, members of the SSH Centre project attended a two-day meeting at the historic King’s College in Cambridge. Between 11-12 June 2025, Partners from ARU – Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge – invited consortium members from Belgium, Czechia, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom to a focused meeting during the last quarter of the project, with the aim of collaborating on shared outputs and recommendations for the entire project.
Photo by Kirsten Drew on Unsplash
Day 1: writing, reflection, and connection over tea in Cambridge
The first day was structured around intensive writing blocks in teams working together across partner organisations on key deliverables. The CzechGlobe team worked on developing and consulting the Formative Evaluation Report deliverable, which is an ongoing process of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different parts of the project. In addition to finding out what the barriers and opportunities are for SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) collaboration in climate, energy, and mobility research within the project, we also seek to understand how broader knowledge and policy systems have shaped these collaborations, and make recommendations to the European Commission. The Research and Innovation Agenda that emerges from this research will inform the next Horizon Europe and other key funding programmes for research and innovation in Europe.
We spent many enjoyable moments with our partners, not only while working – of course we couldn’t take a break without a cup of tea and a biscuit. The evening brought a touch of culture with a visit to Evensong at King’s College Chapel, followed by a guided tour of historic Cambridge sites and a group dinner at a local restaurant.
Day 2: strategic planning and knowledge sharing
On Thursday, we reflected on the previous day’s writing process before beginning strategy sessions focused on communications, open science (including a recent Open Science webinar), project recommendations, and final conference planning. Our CzechGlobe team presented on Work Package 5, specifically on the Formative Evaluation Report and Research and Innovation Agenda.
Consortium partners at the meeting
The next steps of the SSH Centre project
The consortium meeting of the SSH Centre project was a great success. Did you know that Cambridge is one of the places with the lowest rainfall in Britain? Perhaps that also contributed to the beautiful sunny weather and the overall experience. The setting of King’s College at Cambridge, quieter than usual due to ongoing exams, certainly helped our concentrated work on the key deliverables.
As we approach the grand finale of the project, keep an eye on our blog and the project website – there will be many interesting publications, an online course about open science for SSH researchers, and an announcement about a final conference in Brussels with high-profile guests.
Authors: Tereza Prášilová & Vojtěch Gerlich
SustainableCZ 
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