This conference took place in the Royal Irish Academy on May 7 2013. The conference sought to strengthen the profile and advance the research agenda of the Humanities and qualitative Social Sciences within the framework of Horizon 2020. The central objective of this event was to give prominence to previously neglected aspects of the Humanities and Social Sciences as the means of identifying 'alternative competences' and demonstrating their central value with regard to cultural, social and economic innovation in both the European and global contexts.