Science Europe’s Post

Living the world we live in, and facing the complex and challenging problems of modern societies require better-informed and evidence-based policymaking. How can we do that? That’s the origin and purpose of #Science4Policy. The mutual understanding of #scientists and #policymakers needs to improve in all regions, but we already have some good examples of best practices across Europe.   CSIC is evolving in the right direction. The largest Spanish public-performing research organization, with more than 14k employees distributed among 121 research institutes in the country, is changing from being a “knowledge generator” research institution and is increasingly transforming into a “knowledge synthesizer” one.   If you are interested in these matters, please go, and check the new Guidance Science-Policy Activities coordinated by Science Europe

Mercredi 6 mars, le STS Lab de Université de Lausanne a le plaisir d'accueillir Alexandra Hofmänner (Université d’Aachen et Université de Bâle) pour parler de politiques scientifique en Suisse. Some reflections on science and the state in Switzerland Collaboration between science and policy sparked unusually intense and polarizing public debates during the Covid-19 pandemic. Public attention on the interplay between science and policy, however, swiftly diminished even before the Swiss National Covid-19 Science Task Force was dissolved at the end of March 2022. When the Swiss Federal Council in December 2023 approved of a framework agreement on how to activate national scientific expertise in future crises, this news received minimal coverage in the daily press. This presentation offers a brief overview and examination of recent developments, placing them within a broader legal and historical context. The analysis highlights a fundamental discord between legislative norms and expectations regarding the relationship between science and the Swiss state. The roots of this discord can be traced to the wording of the Swiss federal constitution, which addresses “research”, “innovation”, and “teaching” but notably omits "science". This omission carries far-reaching implications for the promotion of science in Switzerland and, ultimately, impacts public trust in the collaboration between science and policy. Disucssion: Marc Audétat (Université de Lausanne) Plus d'info ⬇ https://lnkd.in/e2yQsJ-h

UNCERTAINTY LOOMS OVER FUTURE OF EUROPE'S PREMIER SCIENCE CONFERENCE, ESOF Explore the potential loss of the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) and its impact on early-career researchers, interdisciplinary networking, and European science. Despite financial challenges faced by EuroScience, stakeholders aim to preserve the event's essence and legacy in fostering scientific dialogue, collaboration, and advocacy. https://lnkd.in/duTmVv3v

It was a pleasure today to participate in the conference #rethinkingresearchassessment organised by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding - UEFISCDI; the Open and Universal Science (OPUS) Project; Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment and the UNESCOChairSTIP- TN and Science Europe. James Morris from Science Europe presented our recent survey report on the Strategic Approaches to and Research Assessment of Open Science, exploring how Science Europe members are actively shaping and contributing to the evolving landscape of open science and #researchassessment reform, central to enhancing research quality and impact. Science Europe members are aligning their assessment practices with their open science strategies, reflecting a strong coherence between policy and implementation and part of ongoing processes, influenced by international initiatives such as CoARA). A research culture perspective is vital when approaching the reform of research assessment and/or the promotion of open science, and provides a framework to analyse the effects and unintended consequences of policy and practice changes, as well as their impact upon the behaviours and attitudes of the research community – it is this interconnected viewpoint that Science Europe strives for in its current activities. Find out more about the report here: bit.ly/3NGn0Cg Lidia Borrell-Damian as a member of the COARA Steering Board provided an an update on the status of the coalition and its many activities, highlighting the importance of a true international perspective and bringing together different stakeholder groups to support research assessment reform to develop shared perspectives.

How can research funding and performing organizations expand their #Science4Policy activities? Reflecting on the latest guidance on the topic from Science Europe, I think we need to work on 3 levels to develop: - institutional capacities - tools and infrastructures - policies and enabling conditions Great to discuss this with Hans Willems from Research Foundation Flanders - FWO; Alberto Mercado from CSIC; Margarida Prado from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT); and Mari Sundli Tveit from Norges forskningsråd. Thanks to Science Europe Lidia Borrell-Damian and Nicola Francesco Dotti for organizing this stimulating discussion. More info on the guidelines here: https://lnkd.in/eRk-VSuM

🌍 Just attended and spoke at the Young Königswinter Alumni Conference 2024 at Goethe Institute London, an event that brings together people from business, politics, academia and other sectors from Germany and the UK to foster close relationships, especially post-Brexit. 🌟 The organising committee has put together an incredibly exciting event. Many thanks in particular to Dr. Birgit Bujard and Hannes Christoph Bächle for involving me! The event also came with a particular joy – a session with remarks by Annette Dittert, whose expert reporting from the UK in ARD my whole family has appreciated since a long time. 🚩 My guess is that the panel I’ve been on, chaired by Charles Emmerson, with Irina von Wiese and David Frost (The Rt Hon Lord Frost of Allenton CMG), provoked discussions indeed. 💡 As someone who has spent a significant amount of time at scientific conferences, this experience was particularly refreshing and enlightening. It made me realise how crucial and fascinating these kinds of multidisciplinary get-togethers are! 🏛 Academia is often fostering a culture where we mingle in particular among colleagues doing the same job, rather than who deal with similar topics but while working in a very different sector. At academic conferences, we (potentially) get the feedback that helps us to improve the papers that we hope to publish eventually. We network with the people who can become co-authors or co-writers of the next funding application. We just don’t get this quite in the same way at multidisciplinary events – but maybe this focus comes at the cost of perhaps sometimes not seeing the bigger picture – or at least, to understand thinking in other sectors. 📚 ❓ The academic community is perhaps not one that incentivises permeating its community boundaries. Some people are able to do it frequently – chapeau! My hunch is that the opportunity cost, both in time and travel budget, often leads us to prioritise scientific gatherings. 🤝 Learning how people in other sectors think about the same problems is just so incredibly enriching – I learned a lot about how the people in other sectors think about the same problems that people in my field work on – spanning from misinformation, and populism, to AI and European integration more generally.

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina will be hosting a Roundtable on evidence-based policy at the #HamburgScienceSummit on 19 September 2024. Roundtable #4: Science and politics: The state of evidence-based policy in Europe Gerald Haug (President, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina) Jette Bredahl Jacobsen (Vice-Chair, European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change) David Mair (Head of Unit, EU Joint Research Centre) Paweł Rowiński (President, All European Academies ALLEA) 💡 With Europe facing significant challenges and yet nurturing the ambition to increase its competitiveness and sovereignty, the integration of scientific evidence into decision-making is critical. As problems become more complex and information more abundant, it is often hard to distinguish facts from disinformation, or evidence from mere opinion. This makes it demanding for scientific advisors to transfer insights from science into political and societal contexts. The roundtable, organized by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, will explore obstacles and best practices for producing, delivering, and taking up science-based advice. It will also delve into strategies for overcoming barriers to evidence-based policy and discuss how Europe can lead in grounding policies in robust scientific expertise. 🏔 The #HamburgScienceSummit is an annual conference that brings together scientists, policy-makers, business and think-tanks. Curious to learn more? Check out our website (link in our comment)! #research #europeanscience #policymaking #europeanunion #technologicalsovereignty #hamburgsciencesummit #gesellschaftbessermachen

For one week this April, Kecskemét and John von Neumann University will literally become the centre of the scientific world. The 14th World Congress of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) in Kecskemét has so far attracted more than 390 speakers from 50 countries around the world. Most of the professional participants will arrive from China, but the representation is also strong from Italy, Romania, Japan, the United States of America, Spain, Brazil and Turkey. It is a truly global event, with North and South America, Africa, the Arab world, Europe, Asia, India, Australia and even the Pacific Islands represented. In total, academics from 173 universities around the world will be visiting at John von Neumann University in April 2024 – from 5 of the world's TOP 10 universities and 11 of the TOP 20. The outstanding scientific programme of the year in Kecskemét, the motto of the 14th RSAI World Congress, is "Sustainable regional economic growth: global challenges and new regional development paths". Regional science is a modern spatial science that investigates the role that space plays in a wide variety of economic, social and power-governance processes. It is a basic premise of regional science that no two settlements or regions are alike and that spatial differences are therefore a most natural phenomenon. The economic and social phenomena observed in many regions give rise to territorial disparities. This can be seen in the decisions of households, businesses or even government institutions. Inequalities, the emergence and persistence of underdeveloped regions and the rise of wealthy regions and cities are often the result of long, sustained processes. During the conference, the participants will get to know the sights of the city, experience our hospitality and take part in various cultural activities. They will spread the word about the city and the spirit of its people around the world. By taking an approach that looks at the concrete practical impacts of economic, social science, political and technological change on the ground, the dynamically developing Kecskemét and its region can benefit greatly from the visit of the science experts in April. The international attention and the relationships that will be built will help the city, as a municipality with a unique model of economic cooperation and governance, to achieve social and scientific focus, economic partnerships - and even further investment. Kecskemét, as a rapidly developing Hungarian city and region, can also benefit from hosting prestigious international events in general, but in terms of regional science, the topic has a lot of concrete potential, as regional science has a history of almost eight decades. The RSAI has over 4,000 expert members worldwide, with a network spanning the globe. For more information on the conference, please visit our website at: https://lnkd.in/diPK2UZq

Important seminar to attend for us who are interested in research to support sustainable development in low and middle income countries.

"Mainstreaming Citizen Science in Europe – Status Quo and Future Perspectives" Let's watch the panel discussion live on YouTube! 📆 Wednesday, 03.04.2024, 09:00-10:00 am More info: https://lnkd.in/dAeq2VDF Participants in the panel discussion: ▫ Weitgruber Barbara (Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research) ▫ Dr Susanne Hecker (Chairwoman of the European Citizen Science Association) ▫ Maina Muniafu (Chairman CitSciAfrica) ▫ Dejan Dvorsek (Deputy Head of DG Research & Innovation, EU Commission) Moderation: Christoph Rohrbacher In this panel discussion, the panellists will reflect on the development of citizen science over the last ten years and discuss together how the future of the field could be shaped to promote the mainstreaming of citizen science in Europe and globally.  ➡ How is the future of citizen science seen in Europe and the world? ➡ What role does citizen science play in the current changes taking place around the world? ➡ How is the mainstreaming of citizen science, i.e. the integration of citizen science into existing funding programmes or the awarding of special citizen science funding, viewed? ➡ Are these positive or negative developments? What are the advantages and disadvantages? ➡ How does citizen science fit into new concepts of excellence? ➡ Does citizen science need its own criteria for excellence? ➡ How can the institutionalisation of citizen science (e.g. new infrastructures, new job profiles, long-term funding, embedding citizen science in strategies, etc.) be supported?