ALLEA issues Joint Declaration “15 Years of Lisbon Agenda” on science and research in Europe ALLEA; President Günter Stock re-elected for three-year term

ga.pm_saalOn the occasion of its 2015 General Assembly on 23/24 April, ALLEA has issued a Joint Declaration “15 Years of Lisbon Agenda” on behalf of its nearly 60 member academies. The declaration appeals to the European Institutions and Member States to sufficiently undertake clear actions in order to achieve the aims of the Lisbon Agenda that still remain unfulfilled. In the course of ALLEA´s annual meeting, hosted by the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, the ALLEA President was unanimously re-elected by the ALLEA member academies for a second term in office.

Click to read the Joint Declaration

ALLEA presented the Joint Declaration to the public at the closing of a Scientific Symposium on the topic “Science and Research in Europe – Past, Present and Future: 15 Years of Lisbon Agenda” which provided the thematic context for the declaration and aimed to identify what actions are still needed to create a knowledge-based economy, as set out in the Lisbon Agenda 15 years ago. The declaration appeals to the European Institutions and Member States to follow through on those actions that are needed in order to realise the Lisbon Agenda’s ambitions, which are also incorporated into the current Europe 2020 strategy. It addresses aspects including the preservation of funding programmes, support for early career researchers, and inequalities that hinder competitiveness, among others. Please click on the link to the left to view the full text of the Joint Declaration.

The Scientific Symposium was followed by the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values prize ceremony, at which the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, handed over the ALLEA prize to laureate Dame Helen Wallace of the British Academy.

At the annual meeting of ALLEA on 24 April the member academies of ALLEA unanimously voted to re-elect ALLEA President Professor Günter Stock for a second term (2015 – 2018). In a subsequent meeting, the ALLEA Board re-elected Professor Daniela Jezova of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Professor Ed Noort of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences as ALLEA Vice Presidents.

In addition to the elections, the ALLEA delegates voted to welcome a new ALLEA member, the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, and heard activity reports from the chairs of ALLEA working groups as well as a presentations of the activities and mission of Euro-CASE, the European Council of Applied Sciences Technologies and Engineering, delivered by its President Professor Reinhard Hüttl.

More information on the 2015 ALLEA General Assembly can be found here.

All photos by Felicitas Soeiro.

ALLEA Prize awarded to Dame Helen Wallace by Commissioner Carlos Moedas

Dame Helen Wallace and Commissioner Carlos Moedas

Dame Helen Wallace and Commissioner Carlos Moedas

At an award ceremony in Lisbon on 23 April, Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation awarded the All European Academies Madame de Stael Prize for Cultural Values to Professor Dame Helen Wallace of the British Academy. The prize honours her renowned scholarly work on European political studies and European integration and was awarded on the occasion of the ALLEA General Assembly at the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon.

Commissioner Moedas said: “For the European Union to best serve its citizens, we need continuous debate on research, science and innovation matters involving all levels of society. Academic leaders, like Dame Helen, provide much of the momentum and expertise for such discussions, helping us all to better understand the challenges ahead and how we can equip ourselves to build a prosperous future.”

From left to right: Luís Aires-Barros, President of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon; Dame Helen Wallace, prize laureate; Günter Stock, President of ALLEA

From left to right: Luís Aires-Barros, President of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon; Dame Helen Wallace, prize laureate; Günter Stock, President of ALLEA

“Dame Helen Wallace has provided us with an invaluable resource in her work. Her personal as well as her scholarly integrity is unwavering and her commitment to European cooperation is undisputed”, stated Professor Günter Stock, ALLEA President and chairman of the prize jury, in his speech to the ceremony’s international audience at the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon.

The laureate has served as Foreign Secretary of the British Academy since 2011 and was previously Professor at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Professor Wallace’s research has focused on European politics in nearly every context and region, establishing her reputation as an authority in the field. Her seminal work Policy-Making in the European Union is currently entering its seventh printing. Her advice and consultation is sought after at the highest levels of European policy making.

Thumbnail_ALLEA Prize Press Release

Click here to download this press release as a PDF.

The All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values is co-sponsored by Stiftung Mercator and endowed with 25,000 EUR. The prize “honours research such as Dame Helen’s which helps us better understand how European integration can be achieved”, said Professor Stock. To find out more about the prize, please click here.

All photos by Felicitas Soeiro.

ALLEA reiterates its support for Open Access to Scientific Publications in Europe

In November 2013, ALLEA issued a Statement on the Enhancement of Open Access to Scientific Publications in Europe. The recent developments at national level, in particular in the Netherlands, offer a good opportunity for ALLEA to reiterate its support for the Open Access model in a follow-up statement to the original document (accessible via the above link).

With the Internet, it is now possible to share the research results at a low cost throughout the world, including in more remote or less developed regions. The results of publicly funded research should be made freely accessible online. Open Access publications can more easily be identified and are thus read and quoted more often. Open Access publishing is beneficial to science and researchers, but as well to the users, the public and society as a whole.

Both the green and the gold routes to Open Access should be envisaged taking into account the specificities of the various academic fields (natural sciences vis-à-vis humanities and social sciences).

It is advisable that authorities define targets for the implementation of an Open Access policy. The transition to an Open Access model should be supported by the authorities.

For the transition to succeed, researchers should be aware of the advantages of Open Access. They should advocate the conversion of publishers towards an Open Access model when they are involved in the publishing process, whether as author, reviewer or member of editorial boards.

ALLEA thus supports all the attempts to work out a balanced solution in favour of Open Access, and in particular the negotiations between the academic community and the publishers that take place in various countries.

This follow-up statement was issued by the ALLEA Permanent Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights in March 2015.

To download the follow-up statement as a PDF, please click here.

Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation receives ALLEA President

Carlos Moedas, Member designate of the EC in charge of Research, Science and Innovation receives Gunter Stock, President of ALLEA (All European Academies)

Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation receives Gunter Stock, President of ALLEA (All European Academies) (Photo courtesy of the European Commission)

On 9 April 2015 the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Mr Carlos Moedas, invited the ALLEA President, Professor Günter Stock, to discuss a number of current issues and on-going developments in the science and research landscape in Europe. Among other topics, the discussions included the European Fund for Strategic Investment and ALLEA´s position and proposals towards ensuring that future investments benefit the science and research sector.  

On the invitation of the Commissioner, the ALLEA President took the opportunity to present ALLEA´s mission and activities and to elaborate on the role and potential of European Academies for the science and research sector in Europe. The interlocutors addressed the upcoming ALLEA General Assembly in Lisbon (23/24 April 2015) which includes a scientific symposium on “Science and Research in Europe: past, present and future – 15 years of Lisbon Agenda” where the Commissioner will deliver a speech and award the All European Academies Madame de
Staël Prize for Cultural Values Prize to Professor Dame Helen Wallace, Foreign Secretary of the British Academy.

The ALLEA President discussed the Memorandum of Understanding signed between five academy organisations in Europe (Academia Europaea, ALLEA, EASAC, Euro-CASE, and FEAM) and discussed with the Commissioner the added value of coordinated joint activities and interdisciplinary advice which academies in Europe could provide via their networks.

On the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), the discussion focused on the question of to what extent scientists and scholars could be involved in and help with the evaluation of investment projects in order for the funds to benefit the science and research sector in Europe and therewith compensate for an impending loss of resources originally provided through the Horizon 2020 programme.

Professor Stock also raised the question of how the impact of research in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), a core activity of ALLEA, could be increased for the prosperous development and well-being of the European society.

As a related issue, it was discussed how the potential of SSH can best be harnessed to efficiently contribute towards tackling the big challenges that Europe faces, both through a substantial embedding of SSH in the funding programme and via the separate funding line “Europe in a changing world” (Societal Challenge 6). To that end, it would be instrumental to first and foremost increase the opportunities for SSH applications to be successful in the upcoming calls.