European Academies call for a clear and inclusive definition of ‘associated countries’ in Horizon Europe

ALLEA PRESS RELEASE

09/07/2018

The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) has submitted feedback to the European Parliament with suggestions for concrete amendments to the Proposal for the Regulation establishing Horizon Europe. It welcomes the main direction of the proposal but voices specific concerns in relation to the participation from all disciplines and especially the inclusion of ‘associated countries’ in the next framework programme.

9 July 2018 (Berlin, Germany) ALLEA welcomes the speed with which the European Parliament is dealing with the matter and the flexibility the structure of the legislation permits to keep up with the dynamic change of research agendas in Europe. All the same, there are a number of concerns about the specific wording of the document.

In relation to the encouragement of participation from all disciplines within the research community, ALLEA fears that the Regulation does not sufficiently support the inclusion of all disciplines, especially the social sciences and humanities (SSH), and argues for substantial investments in transdisciplinary research regarding societal challenges. ALLEA also calls for a greater focus on basic research as a precondition for innovation. Innovation should go beyond just technological aspects and enable change by addressing societal and cultural dimensions, too.

Regarding definitions of ‘associated countries’, ALLEA shares the concerns raised by other stakeholders and calls for a clear and inclusive definition. In the current form, the Regulation is not clear enough on whether third countries (e.g. Switzerland) will have opportunities to participate in the same way that worked successfully in Horizon 2020. ALLEA strongly believes in the openness of science and supports the idea of an integrated European Research Area that is open to global research collaboration.

ALLEA is prepared to engage with the European Commission, the members of the European Parliament and the Council to further elaborate on Horizon Europe. The ALLEA Framework Programme 9 Working Group brings together representatives of its member academies from all over Europe and has published several statements developing a vision for Horizon Europe: https://allea.org/framework-programme-9-working-group/.

About ALLEA (All European Academies)

ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, was founded in 1994 and currently brings together almost 60 Academies in more than 40 countries from the Council of Europe region. Member Academies operate as learned societies, think tanks and research performing organisations. They are self-governing communities of leaders of scholarly enquiry across all fields of the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities. ALLEA therefore provides access to an unparalleled human resource of intellectual excellence, experience and expertise.

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European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity – New set of translations available

With the support of the European Commission’s Translational Services and ALLEA Member Academies, a new set of translations of the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity was published in June 2018. The new available translations include Albanian, Bulgarian, German, Greek, Estonian, Lithuanian, Swedish and Turkish. These and other translations of the Code of Conduct can be found here.

Throughout the year, ALLEA will be publishing translations of the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity in all official languages of the European Union, as well as selected languages from around the globe.

 

Implementing the Code

The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity serves the European research community as a framework for self-regulation across all scientific and scholarly disciplines and for all research settings. The 2017 revised edition of the Code addresses emerging challenges emanating from technological developments, open science, citizen science and social media, among other areas. The European Commission recognises the Code as the reference document for research integrity for all EU-funded research projects and as a model for organisations and researchers across Europe. The revised Code was published originally in English on 24 March 2017. Since its publication in English, the Code has been used by multiple research institutions and universities across Europe, and presented in various conferences on research integrity and research ethics.

 

Make codes for research integrity practical

A correspondence by the lead author of the revised ALLEA Code, Maura Hiney (Royal Irish Academy), was published in Nature on 25 April 2018 calling for making codes for research integrity more practical.