Final Report Summary - THINK AND ACT (Think and Act) The overall objective of THINK & ACT was the improved articulation between EC funded research results in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) and policy making at national, regional and local level in the European Union. The emphasis was on the examination of international themes in national contexts through using research results from projects funded under the Fourth Framework Programme (FP4), the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) and the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), as well as appropriate actions funded by other sources (national or international). The project succeeded in bringing together about 1 000 participants over a total of ten days in five cities. THINK & ACT produced a final document of conclusions and recommendations based on a meta-analysis of the five conference appraisal documents (CADs) that were produced after each of the conferences by the presidents of the scientific committees. It contains conclusions and recommendations for the EC, national policy makers and researchers on how to improve the coordination between research results and policy-making in the specific research theme concerned. A key conclusion of all conferences was that the EC's Framework Programmes provide a unique and invaluable platform for researchers to undertake trans-national cooperation and knowledge exchange. On the other hand, major challenges in working towards improving the coordination between research and policy were presented. A general conclusion reached was that the professional priorities of academics and policy-makers are highly dissimilar. There is no accountability framework in which researchers and policy-makers can be held accountable for ensuring that research results are duly considered and filtered into policy. There is a great diversity of concepts, terminology and methods used by academics, policy-makers and lawyers who contribute to defining legal terminology. Comparability of data and systems is an important element in enabling structured meta-analysis of similar phenomenon in different national contexts. All the documents produced within the THINK &ACT project are available on the website and downloadable for free: - five abstract books, containing the abstracts of the EC-funded research projects presented during the conferences; - five proceedings of the conference 'Final document with the conclusions and recommendations to the EC' arose from the conferences' debate. Related documents Final Report - THINK AND ACT (Think and Act)
