The scientific objectives of the CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences are to study and understand societies and human beings by developing theories, methods and tools in the units it steers alone or jointly. In partnership with universities and major research and higher education institutions, the CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences favours the emergence of new research themes, multidisciplinarity within the human and social sciences and interdisciplinary links with other sciences. Finally, it promotes the internationalization of French humanities and social sciences.
Throughout their history, human beings have created languages, languages and signs. They have invented forms of expression and representation, nurtured and transmitted cultures and developed knowledge and theories. They have also been willingly involved in complex political, social, legal and economic organizations. They have explored, occupied and managed the Earth which has often led to conflict with significant consequences for other species and the planet's resources. The aim of the research carried out by the CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences's units is to understand this full set of elements.
CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences integrates CNRS policy into its research fields. The Institute works in partnership with universities and major research organisations to promote multidisciplinarity throughout the humanities and social sciences and interdisciplinarity with other sciences. It leads networks that organise research at site and national levels by leading multidisciplinary thematic networks, research groups, scientific interest groups and research federations. The Institute also works on the internationalisation of French humanities and social sciences.
The CNRS humanities & social Sciences has prioritized the internationalization of its scientific communities' research as have the other nine scientific directions. It implements this policy through a variety of initiatives and projects. In particular, the Institute encourages its staff to interact with scientific communities in countries with a long tradition of research as well as in scientifically emerging countries.
To achieve this, the CNRS humanities & social Sciences has created several International Research Laboratories (IRLs). With the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the CNRS humanities & social Sciences jointly steers an exceptional network of International Research Laboratories (Umifre). The Institute also provides financial support for the international mobility of many researchers. It encourages their participation in International Emerging Actions (IEAs), International Research Networks (IRNs) and International Research Projects (IRPs).
CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences is committed to research that is interdisciplinary and international and also attentive to the principles of open science. The Institute also manages major research infrastructures for the whole national humanities and social sciences research community
CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences defines and supports scientific priorities through dialogue with its Scientific Council, the sections of the National Committee for Scientific Research (CoNRS) and, more broadly, the research communities involved in its research units and networks. The Institute's work is also based on the objectives set out in the CNRS Objectives and Performance Contract (COP).
By their very nature, these priorities are constantly evolving but their definition in the COP makes it possible to effectively direct the scientific policy of CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences for several years or longer. For example, currently CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences particularly supports archaeology and anthropology and is coordinating a major ancient sciences research programme. CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences is also committed to reinforcing certain methodological approaches such as those implemented in areal studies, shared sciences, digital humanities, conceptualisation and formalisation, qualitative and quantitative data analysis and finally experimentation. Finally, CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences supports and promotes the development of research into subjects like health, the planet's habitability, digital transitions, educational inequalities and artificial intelligence.
CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences also works on developing collective foresight thinking and therefore from 2022 onwards it has been taking part in, co-organising and designing foresight conferences while supporting foresight networks and so forth.
Beyond the above-defined priorities, CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences organises or supports multidisciplinary humanities and social sciences communities united by common research topics. Please see this website's Humanities and Social Sciences Research Portal section.
The CNRS humanities & social Sciences has prioritized the internationalization of its scientific communities' research as have the other nine scientific directions. It implements this policy through a variety of initiatives and projects. In particular, the Institute encourages its staff to interact with scientific communities in countries with a long tradition of research as well as in scientifically emerging countries.
To achieve this, the CNRS humanities & social Sciences has created several International Research Laboratories (IRLs). With the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the CNRS humanities & social Sciences jointly steers an exceptional network of International Research Laboratories (Umifre). The Institute also provides financial support for the international mobility of many researchers. It encourages their participation in International Emerging Actions (IEAs), International Research Networks (IRNs) and International Research Projects (IRPs).
The CNRS humanities & social Sciences works in harmony with the approach involving exchanges and cross-disciplinary research defined by the CNRS's Mission for Transversal and Interdisciplinary Initiatives (MITI).
For example, the Institute works on joint research projects on the brain, cognition and behaviour with the CNRS Biology. The CNRS humanities & social Sciences also runs projects with the CNRS Ecology and Environment which study the relationships between human beings and their environments involving research units that are steered or jointly steered by the Institute. It also encourages its researchers to interact with the fields of computer and engineering sciences.
The National Plan for Open Science published in 2018 by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research defines open science as "the practice of making research publications and data freely available. It takes advantage of the digital transition to develop open access to publications and, to the fullest extent possible, to research data". These national guidelines led the CNRS to produce and adopt framework documents to guide its Open Science policy:
The 2019 CNRS Roadmap for Open Science;
The 2020 CNRS Research Data Plan.
CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences is in charge of implementing this policy within its own field. To do so, the Institute takes the requirements and practices of the humanities and social sciences disciplinary communities into account through the mechanisms set out below.
CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences applies institutional guidelines by encouraging researchers to deposit their scientific articles in the national open archive HAL as systematically as possible. This practice has been linked to criteria in CNRS researchers' annual reports on the RIBAC database in accordance with the provisions in favour of open access set out in the Law for a Digital Republic(in French).
CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences also advises researchers not to pay publication fees for open access publications (Gold or Author-Pays model) but instead to deposit their work in HAL or publish in Diamond model journals at no cost to either readers or researchers.
CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences organises a campaign to award subsidies to support scientific journals that is based on the criteria of good editorial practices and open science principles.
In compliance with the guidelines set out in the CNRS Research Data Plan, CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences promotes the default openness of research data combined with compliance with the FAIR principles. These guidelines recommend that research data should be "as open as possible and as closed as necessary". This means that only legitimate extrinsic reasons can justify any restrictions on research data dissemination and re-use.
Personal data protection issues are more frequent in the humanities and social sciences than in other disciplinary fields. This in itself may justify protection measures or secure sharing mechanisms. CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences worked with the CNRS Data Protection Department to draw up the 'Humanities and social sciences and the protection of personal data in the context of open science' guide for researchers.
The Institute recommends that researchers use trusted repositories to deposit their research data, particularly Huma-Num and Progedo (French links), the two IR* research infrastructures labelled as thematic reference centres for the humanities and social sciences.
CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences is the supervisory authority for the following national research infrastructures which it also supports. These play a highly important role in the free dissemination of scientific publications and research data in the social sciences and humanities:
OpenEdition for free access to journals (Journals), books (Books), research notebooks (Hypotheses) and upcoming events (Calenda);
Huma-Num for the storage, dissemination and processing of digital humanities data;
Progedo for access to and dissemination of survey and quantitative data;
The National Network of Houses for the Social Sciences and Humanities (RnMSH) and its 21 Houses for the Social Sciences and Humanities (MSH) in France for local support from research engineers, technology platforms, editorial centres and journal incubators.
CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences has adopted open science orientations that are fully reflected in the structuring actions and programmes it creates or is responsible for:
Its SOSI (Open Monitoring of Societies and their Interactions) observatories which carry out long-term studies and surveys.
The PEPR (National Research Programmes) which CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences has provided with guiding principles on data management and dissemination.
Access to digital data is both an asset and a challenge for the CNRS humanities & social Sciencesbecause it promotes interdisciplinarity. Research Infrastructures (IRs) specializing in the humanities and social sciences make the best use of these massive data flows.
This is particularly the case of two Very Large-Scale Research Infrastructures (TGIRs) whose national roll-out is actively supported by the CNRS humanities & social Sciences :
They work in conjunction with the National Network of Houses of Human Sciences (RNMSH)which brings together and coordinates the research of 23 establishments in France. Today, the RNMSH has become the prime meeting place for partnerships and exchanges between universities, organizations and local authorities.
For the HCERES evaluation of the CNRS, CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences produced an analysis for the reference period (2017-2021) of the CNRS evaluation that was based on data on scientific production in the humanities and social sciences. Scientific publications were initially analysed according to their typology. We also paid particular attention to the issue of open access publishing (part II) and multilingualism in scientific publications (part III). Finally, we wished to highlight the forms of multidisciplinarity that exist within the HSS. The editorial in the January 2023 'InsHS Newsletter' gave a summary of the main points.
CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences applies CNRS research policy at its own level. Its work is based on the various operational structures jointly created and led by the CNRS and its partners - joint research units (UMRs), joint service units (UMSs), service and research units (USRs), research federations (FRs), research networks (GDRs), service groups (GDSs). With the National Network of Houses of Human Sciences, the Institute jointly supports 22 of the network's Houses.
Source : Zento Instituts, November 2024
CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences encourages its research communities to produce research reports on scientific subjects that are also seen as societal issues. Such reports take a cross-disciplinary approach to the humanities and social sciences and take stock of the state of knowledge, methods and access to sources at a given point in time.
Mis en place en juin 2024 par sa direction, le comité d’éthique opérationnel de CNRS Sciences humaines & sociales a pour objectif de répondre aux enjeux éthiques de la recherche dans les domaines qui sont les siens.
La demande d’avis auprès du comité d'éthique opérationnel (CEO) de CNRS Sciences humaines & sociales doit être envisagée avant tout comme un exercice d’auto-évaluation éthique, qui ouvre à un dialogue réflexif avec les membres du comité, à l'issue duquel un avis sera rendu.
Le CEO se déclare compétent à examiner :
les demandes concernant des recherches en sciences humaines et sociales ;
les demandes provenant des personnels, statutaires ou contractuels, rattachés à tout type d'unités ayant une tutelle CNRS, quel que soit le statut du porteur ou de la porteuse de la demande (NB : une demande déposée par un doctorant ou une doctorante doit être signée par le directeur ou la directrice de thèse) ;
les demandes portant sur la dimension opérationnelle de la recherche - à savoir le traitement de la donnée à toutes les étapes de la recherche -, et non sur des principes généraux, qui pourraient relever du COMETS ;
les demandes en amont du démarrage de la phase opérationnelle de la recherche.
Exceptionnellement, et sous réserve de justification, le CEO peut examiner :
les projets dont la phase opérationnelle est en cours ;
les projets dont la phase opérationnelle est terminée (les publications ou autre forme de valorisation - le cas échéant, il convient de joindre au formulaire le manuscrit ou tout autre document préparatoire).
Le CEO se déclare compétent pour travailler en relation avec le COMETS du CNRS, en se faisant le relais de préoccupations/questions/problématiques à portée générale identifiées lors de l’examen des dossiers.
Le CEO se réunit tous les 2 mois et s’engage à tout mettre en œuvre pour faire un retour sur la demande dans un délai de 4 mois.
Pour les terrains extra-européens, le délai pourra être de 6 mois. Pour ces demandes, le formulaire peut être envoyé en français et/ou en anglais.
Le formulaire complété est à envoyer à l'adresse suivante: cnrs-shs.ceo@cnrs.fr
Les membres sont choisis au regard de leur expérience des enjeux pratiques et éthiques relatifs à la conduite de recherches empiriques en sciences humaines et sociales et de leur intérêt pour les réflexions éthiques.
CNRS Sciences humaines & sociales s’attache par ailleurs à veiller à la pluralité disciplinaire de la composition du comité, ainsi qu’à une diversité de métiers et fonctions, de laboratoires d’affectation, de genre.
Bureau :
Directrice adjointe scientifique référente : Pascale Goetschel
Chargée de communication : Zoë Cheron
Secrétariat : Pinlai Liu
Fréquence des réunions : tous les deux mois
Le nombre de dossiers examinés se fait en fonction de la capacité de traitement des dossiers par le comité.
| Date limite d'envoi des dossiers | 10 mars 2026 |
| Réunion du comité | 31 mars 2026 |
| Date limite d'envoi des dossiers | 12 mai 2026 |
| Réunion du comité | 2 juin 2026 |
The Institute's field of knowledge is divided into disciplines or groups of disciplines corresponding to the National Committee for Scientific Research's 40 sections.
The National Committee for Scientific Research (CoNRS) is a collective body made up of over 1000 national and international experts which plays an essential role in French scientific life. Independence, competence, representativeness, long-term sustainability, collegiality and transparency are the CoNRS's shared values, the aim of which is to guarantee the relevance and consistency of the Committee's assessments. The scope and keywords of the research sections are discussed and updated if necessary when each four-year mandate begins.
These sections evaluate the work of researchers and research units. They analyze the current situation in science and its prospects for development at the CNRS in France and other countries. It also organizes and staffs recruitment panels for new researchers.
All researchers and laboratories are therefore classified as belonging to one of these sections.
Nine of these sections are steered by CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences.
Nine of the CoNRS's sections are steered by CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences.
Section 26 - Brain, cognition, behaviour – is steered by the Institute of Biological Sciences with a secondary administrative link to CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences.
Section 31 - Humankinds and environments: evolution, interactions - is steered by the Institute of CNRS Ecology and Environment. Some of the units in this section are part of CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences.
The Institute Scientific Council advises and assists the director of the Institute by providing its opinions and recommendations on the relevance and appropriateness of the Institute's projects and activities. Working groups may be set up to help the Institute Scientific Council carry out its tasks.
This Institute Scientific Council is informed of the Institute's positions regarding the creation and abolition of units along with all the sections' opinions thereon. It is consulted on any points of divergence between the sections' views and the Institute's positions as discussed at a meeting between the director of the Institute, the chairman of the Institute Scientific Council and the chairmen of the sectionsconcerned by any such difference of opinion.
The Institute Scientific Council is also consulted on the appointment of members of panels which deliberate on the selection of research fellows.
The Institute Scientific Council is responsible for writing prospective reports based particularly on the Situation and Outlook reports drawn up by the CNRS's sections and Interdisciplinary Commissions.
Institute Scientific Council (ISC)
