ALLEA Publishes Open Letter in support of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

In response to two proposed laws introduced for voting by the Hungarian Parliament and which threaten the scientific autonomy and financial independence of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the ALLEA President Antonio Loprieno has sent an open letter to the responsible Hungarian Minister of Innovation and Technology, Mr László Palkovics. You may download and read the letter below.

Download the open letter

 

 

 

Statement from the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Sciences

ALLEA Member Academies, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Sciences, have joined the initiative and published a statement in support of the Hungarian Academies of Sciences.

Read the statement

ENERI invites European researchers to join E-community for Research Ethics & Integrity experts

As part of the ENERI project, ALLEA is pleased to announce the initiation of the ENERI e-Community. The objective of the platform is to create an open database of Research Ethics and Research Integrity experts and a space for discussion, sharing of information, exchange of good practices and training material.

The e-community is intended to be a place for practitioners in the field of RE&RI to be able to share their experiences and sources of knowledge with their European peers in order to harmonise procedures at a European level.

Interested members are invited to contact vogt@allea.org for further information on the registration process.

About ENERI

The “European Network of Research Ethics and Research Integrity” (ENERI) establishes an operable platform of actors in the fields of research ethics and research integrity. ENERI is based on existing networks, projects and infrastructures that already initiated and developed important steps in sharing information, training and capacity building. Research ethics committees, review boards, ombudspersons’ offices, research integrity offices and supporting structures are the established bodies monitoring, accompanying and assisting the process of responsible and justifiable research. Therefore the European Network of Research Integrity Offices (ENRIO) and the European Network of Research Ethics Committees (EUREC) mutually initiated ENERI in collaborations with experts in academic research ethics (RE) and responsible research and innovation (RRI), practitioners in training and education in research ethics, and specialists in e-communication and database design.

How do we use data in the 21st century?

Data, in its multitude of iterations and the way we make use of the information it contains, affects nearly all aspects of life today, yet rarely do we ever consider what the deeper implications at the governance level are. ALLEA joins forces with The Royal Society to organise the conference “Flourishing in a data-enabled society”.

The event will convene experts from academies across Europe and from different sectors in Buckinghamshire (UK) in November, to reflect on how society can best seize the opportunities and cope with the major challenges brought on by new uses of data.

The conference, hosted by The Royal Society at Chicheley Hall on 1-2 November 2018, seeks to elaborate a vision for a flourishing data-enabled Europe. In a set of keynotes, panel discussions and breakout sessions, the participants will consider current and future challenges from a variety of cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral angles.

Breakout groups will enable representatives from different sectors, disciplines and geographical areas to make new connections and to discuss key questions in more detail, particularly exploring how different sectors and societies respond differently to these challenges.

Panels will explore how social, ethical and legal tensions arise across sectors, and how different sectors deal with them, so that data and data-enabled technologies can be used for human benefit. Experts will discuss ways to identify, respond and make the most out of the challenges of 21st century data use. The discussions will furthermore address questions on how the use of data for public good might look like in Europe, how societies navigate the significant choices and dilemmas stemming from new data-enabled technologies, and if it is possible to consider a common European vision of the data-enabled society.

SAPEA launches open call for evidence for project ‘Transforming the Future of Ageing’

The European population is ageing rapidly and life expectancy continues to increase. Europe needs to ensure that the increasing numbers of elderly people can spend those extra years of life in good health, with adequate functional ability, and opportunities to contribute to society. To ensure healthy ageing of the European population, a broad range of aspects needs to be considered, such as the prevention of age-related disability, the development of sustainable healthcare and long-term care systems, and innovative ways of assistance and care-giving through integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), eHealth, and robotics in existing health-care systems.

In this project, Science Advice for Policy by European Academies – SAPEA brings together eminent European scientists to explore/answer the question ‘What policies at the EU level could support the Member States in achieving inclusive, fair and sustainable systems of health and social care and to promote the taking up of innovation for ageing societies?’. Further information is available here.

This open call for evidence complements a review of the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Stakeholders are invited to upload relevant evidence (e.g. policy briefs, recommendation papers, scientific conclusions, scientific papers) published in English from 2010 onwards through an online submission form available here. 

The deadline for submission is 2 July 2018.

 

SAPEA provides evidence for the European Commission on authorisation of Plant Protection Products

SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) has published its third Evidence Review Report titled Improving authorisation processes for plant protection products in Europe: a scientific perspective on the assessment of potential risks to human health. The report examines the methods and procedures for assessing potential harmful effects on human health from the use of Plant Protection Products (PPPs), and the ways in which the current authorisation processes could be improved from a scientific perspective. 

As an integral part of the Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM), SAPEA was asked to produce this Evidence Review Report as one of the documents that informs the Scientific Opinion of the European Commission Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, in response to a request from Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis.

The Evidence Review Report makes suggestions for further improvement in:

  • The scientific data that underpin risk assessments
  • The methods by which such data are analysed
  • The ways in which assessment procedures are organised and tasks are allocated.

The report lists 26 Options, which were used to inform the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors’ Scientific Opinion, alongside a Social Sciences workshop on ‘Risk Perception and the Acceptability of Human Exposure to Pesticides’ (organised by SAPEA in 2017) and other sources of evidence.

To produce the Plant Protection Products Evidence Review Report, SAPEA brought together experts from across Europe, via the European Academy Networks. The experts formed a working group which was chaired by Professor Evangelia Ntzani (Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Greece, and Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health, Brown University School of Public Health, USA) and Professor David Coggon (Fellow of the UK Academy for Medical Sciences and Emeritus Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK).

Commissioner for Science, Research and Innovation, Carlos Moedas said:

“Food safety is non-negotiable for Europeans and a priority for the Commission. I am grateful to the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors and the SAPEA experts for the evidence based recommendations in this opinion. They aim to maintain and enhance our very high standards of food safety and environmental protection and to re-establish trust in scientific risk assessment.”

Professor Bernard Charpentier 2018 Chair of the SAPEA board said:

“This SAPEA Evidence Review Report demonstrates not only the outstanding knowledge of the experts nominated by European academies, learned societies, and academy networks, but also the experts’ exemplary commitment to the voluntary task of bringing the best and newest scientific knowledge into policy making.”

The SAPEA evidence review report is available at: www.sapea.info/plantprotectionproducts

A report on SAPEA’s Social Sciences Workshop ‘Risk Perception and the Acceptability of Human Exposure to Pesticides’ is available at: www.sapea.info/workshopriskperceptionacceptability/

The Group of Chief Scientific Advisors’ Opinion is available at: https://ec.europa.eu/research/sam/pdf/sam_ppp_report.pdf

ALLEA’s FP9 Working Group meets in Stockholm to discuss proposal for Horizon Europe

The ALLEA Framework Programme 9 Working Group met in Stockholm on 4 June 2018 on the invitation of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities to agree on future actions concerning the European Commission’s proposal for the next framework programme for research and innovation: “Horizon Europe”.

Credit: The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities

The experts critically assessed guiding principles, structure, funding lines, and clusters of topics envisioned in the proposal, officially presented by European Commissioner Carlos Moedas on 7 June 2018, which over the coming months will be discussed both in the European Parliament and Council. Horizon Europe will run from 2021-2027 with a budget, as proposed by the Commission, of approximately 100 billion Euros.

In the coming months, ALLEA’s working group will develop a set of activities directed both towards Members of the European Parliament and to the relevant committees in the Parliament and Council of the EU in order to help shape and balance out the final legislation on Horizon Europe in line with the needs of the scientific community, represented by academies from across Europe.

Horizon Europe

The proposal foresees a three-pillar structure with pillar I on “Open Science” including funding for the ERC, for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, as well as research infrastructures. Pillar II is labelled “Global Challenges” and is supposed to receive the lion’s share of the overall budget (more than 50 billion). It hosts five so-called “clusters” (Health; Inclusive and secure societies; Digital and industry; Climate, energy and mobility; Food and natural resources) as well as the European Commission’s in-house science service JRC. The newly established European Innovation Council (EIC) is located in Pillar III (“Open Innovation”) alongside the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and funding for ‘European innovation ecosystems’. In addition to the three pillars, the proposal includes a funding line for “Strengthening the European Research Area” with a special focus on support to the less competitive research systems in Europe. [Click here to access the Commission proposals and background information on Horizon Europe]

ALLEA’s deliberations will include, among others, the proposed conversion of seven societal challenges in Horizon 2020 to five clusters, the new FP’s Global Challenges chapter (Pillar II), the selection and wording of “areas of intervention” of those challenges, and the plans to develop “missions”, which in a cross-cutting fashion are envisaged to form a subset of Global Challenges. Furthermore, the group will address the proposed budget distribution between the different pillars and challenges, as well as the schemes and actions to mitigate the research and innovation divide across Europe and to foster excellence especially in the EU13 countries.

The work will substantially build on and further expand ALLEA’s previous recommendations as set out especially in its Position Paper on Developing a Vision for Framework Programme 9, as well as the joint statement Living Together: Missions for Shaping the Future.