Summary This report deals with the contribution of research in the social sciences and the humanities to social innovation and to technological innovation. It was prepared in response to a request addressed to the Conseil by the Minister of Research, Science and Technology in October 1999. The final chapter, Recommendations , suggests ways to best benefit from the results of SSH research, to assure that the knowledge produced through research be used by organizations, companies, institutions, and communities to improve their practices, services, and products. From this standpoint, they can be considered as sources of social and organizational innovation, and of technological innovations as well . Second, certain SSH research focuses on one or another aspect of innovation, adding valuable knowledge to our understanding of innovation, its management and its diffusion throughout society.
Available statistics focus primarily on research funding, especially in the university community.
However, this is a universal trend. Although SSH research exists in the private sector, there is no data available to measure its volume. Yet knowledge of private sector activity in this respect is of primary importance in assessing SSH contribution to the innovation process, especially with regard to organizational innovations associated with technological innovations. However, the gap between SSH and NSE funding remains considerable. Lists of SSH projects funded by granting agencies reveal that numerous researchers across all disciplines are doing work that should contribute greatly to innovation, by producing knowledge that can be used either to improve organizational procedures or as tools to improve our understanding or management of the innovation process itself.