arbiter
JournalsAccount

The making of a funding call text: How funding professionals craft interdisciplinary research opportunities for Social Sciences and Humanities

Chris Foulds & Lara Houston

Research Policy2026https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2026.105418article
FT50AJG 4*ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Whilst it is well-known that research funding significantly shapes research landscapes, there is too little known about the processes that sit behind the funding opportunities — and specifically the publicly-shared funding call texts. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate the processes experienced by EU funding professionals in authoring and operationalising funding call texts, to surface the different ways in which interdisciplinarity is understood. In seeing these texts as artefacts of situated practices, we conducted a case study on the European Union (EU) Cluster 5 Work Programmes (on climate, energy, mobility) as part of Horizon Europe, including its predecessor calls in Horizon2020. From our analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews, we identified 10 roles that funding professionals adopt, across three stages of a funding call text lifetime: within the Call Creation stage (led by European Commission Policy Officers), there was Steering, Feedback Integration, Quality Control, and Disruption; the Call Dissemination stage (led by EU National Contact Points) involved Awareness-raising, Matchmaking, and Gap-spotting; and the Proposal Selection stage (led by Commission Project Officers overseeing evaluations) involved Expertise Cultivation, Consensus-building, and being a Critical Friend. This study provides empirically-driven insights into the dynamic social processes and institutional interactions, through which funding calls are negotiated, interpreted and ultimately travel. As such, we also contribute to literature on interdisciplinarity, by examining the ways in which different forms of interdisciplinarity are imagined, designed-in, rewarded and excluded by funders. We make clear how integrating Social Sciences and Humanities, and doing interdisciplinarity, consistently represents hard work by funding professionals. • How funding professionals produce and use funding call texts affects research landscapes. • Horizon Europe Pillar 2 funding is especially complex as it is driven by EU policy priorities. • 10 professional roles directly shaped the forms of interdisciplinarity being funded. • Professionals must work hard to ensure opportunities for Social Sciences and Humanities. • Professionals demonstrate partial agency in steering funding processes.

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2026.105418

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{chris2026,
  title        = {{The making of a funding call text: How funding professionals craft interdisciplinary research opportunities for Social Sciences and Humanities}},
  author       = {Chris Foulds & Lara Houston},
  journal      = {Research Policy},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2026.105418},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

The making of a funding call text: How funding professionals craft interdisciplinary research opportunities for Social Sciences and Humanities

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.