The National network of Houses for the Social Sciences and Humanities (RnMSH) and its 21 houses (MSH) supports scholars in the social sciences and humanities (SHS), with an emphasis on interdisciplinarity and project-based research.

The RnMSH plays an important role in the development and practice of interdisciplinarity, as well as in the structuring research engineering in France.

The Houses for the Social Sciences and Humanities are a hub for strong partnerships between universities, research institutions (in particular the National centre for scientific research (CNRS)) and public bodies.

The RnMSH in a few dates

2006 Creation of the GIS (scientific interest group) – RnMSH, supported by the CNRS and 19 French universities.

2012 Network registered in the roadmap of the Ministry for Higher Education and Research as a research infrastructure in social sciences and humanities (IR), in the domain of scientific and technical information (IST).

2016 RnMSH renewed as a research infrastructure.

2019 Updated RnMSH charter, under the auspices of the CNRS and the Conference of University Presidents (CPU), with the collaboration of MSH and within the framework of the Athéna Alliance.

The national network of Houses for the Social Sciences and Humanities RnMSH brings together five technological platform networks, based in the houses, which develop collaborations with the Very Large Research Infrastructures (TGIR) Huma-Num and Progedo:

Spatio: resources for spatial data analysis, imagery and 3D.

Scripto: written data, from literary texts to contemporary world archives, including music scores.

Audio-visio: audio and visual resources and corpus, from ethnological documentaries to filmed conferences.

Cogito: equipment for research in cognitive sciences, and data from these experiments.

Data: corpus of quantitative data and quantitatively analysed data

RnMSH fulfils some further missions :

It encourages interdisciplinary activities and research in the houses (MSH), as well as the collaborations between the houses

It launches a yearly, nationwide call for projects aimed at funding innovative, explorative and structuring research

It contributes to the evolution of professional experiences and of the careers of junior researchers, university professors, PhD students, engineers and technical staff.

It promotes experience-sharing while disseminating best practices.

Staff :

Directors: Gilles Pollet (MSH LSE), Emmanuelle Poulain-Gautret (MESHS), Nicolas Thély (MSHB).

Secretary-general: Myriam Danon-Szmydt

Communities coordination and facilitation : Chiara Chelini

The RnMSH develops its international collaborations by presenting its activities to institutions having similar strategical focuses. During the period 2017 - 2021, it had in particular a link with two MSH, in Belgium and Tunisia: the maison des sciences humaines of université libre de Bruxelles (MSHULB) and MdMSH (maison du Maghreb des sciences de l’homme) of université de Sfax.

The MdMSH coordinated the european TWINNING project Sfaxforward « Cultural heritage in South Tunisia : promoting interdisciplinary and participatory sciences for an inclusive society », in which the MSH ULB, MMSH at Aix-en Provence and MSH Sud-Est in Nice participate as well and which has been strongly supported by RnMSH.

In January 2024, RnMSH joined CHCI, the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, an international network with its headquarter in the USA, which aims at boosting collaborations, launching calls for projects and bringing together laboratories and structures in social sciences and humanities all over the world.