ALLEA Permanent Working Group Science & Ethics met in Stockholm

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The ALLEA permanent Working Group on Science & Ethics held its first meeting in 2016 in the exquisite premises of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities on 18 and 19 February. Following a dinner with academy Vice-President Professor Anders Andrén, the group had a busy schedule for the second day of the meeting, including the election of a new chair and a discussion about a potential update of the ALLEA-ESF European Code of Research Integrity.

Gruppenbild Stockholm 2

The members of the ALLEA Permanent Working Group Science & Ethics

The meeting welcomed the attendance of the Chair of the ALLEA Permanent Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights, Professor Joseph Straus. He came to Stockholm to offer valuable input on issues surrounding open access and the patentability of plants. Professor Straus’ attendance is a further sign of continued cooperation between ALLEA working groups, a development that is intended to continue in the future.

A particular welcome was also extended to the new members of the working group, Els van Damme from the The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts and Maura Hiney from the Royal Irish Academy.

In one of the first decisions of the day, the Chair of the working group, Professor Göran Hermerén was re-elected to chair the group for another three years. The participants thanked Göran Hermerén for his work and he voiced appreciation for the support and is optimistic the working group will continue to provide work of importance for the scientific community in general and for ALLEA and the member academies in particular.

Another important item on the meeting’s agenda was the consideration of a potential update for the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. The original document was released in 2010 together with the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the members of the group agreed that an update and the inclusion of new issues would be highly desirable. The group will now look into potential amendments to the code, taking into consideration related documents that have been published since the original publication of the code. Results are intended to be presented at the fifth World Conference on Research Integrity in Amsterdam at the end of May 2017.

The next meeting of the working group is planned for autumn 2016 in a yet to be decided location.

Sweden_Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities_photo Philip Ha°kansonQueen Lovisa Ulrika founded the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities 20 March 1753 to promote research and other activities in the humanities, theology, law, and social science disciplines, as well as stewardship of cultural heritage sites.

The Academy’s aims are:

  • to initiate and support international collaboration in the disciplines within the Academy’s field of activities;
  • to publish academic writings in the Academy’s domain;
  • to support deserving researchers and others who have furthered the objectives of the Academy;
  • to issue statements in matters related to the domain of the Academy’s activities

 

The Academy awards three major prizes and several smaller ones.

As a free learned society the academy receives no governmental funding but has through multiple donations built up considerable capital.

The Academy supports extensive conference and symposium activities and funds projects of great academic value that are not given priority by governmental financiers.

To read more about the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities click here.

For more information about the ALLEA Permanent Working Group Science & Ethics click here.

Report from first ALLEA Board meeting in Bucharest

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For the first Board Meeting of 2016, the member of the ALLEA Board convened, on the kind invitation of the Romanian Academy, in Bucharest on 29 February and 1 March. With the ALLEA General Assembly approaching fast, the Board received updates on the current status of preparations. Additionally, the Board was informed about the latest developments with the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) and ALLEA’s role therein.

Romanian academyThe participants were warmly welcomed to the Academy by the Academy’s President Professor Ionel Valentin Vlad. Throughout his career as a physicist, Professor Vlad has always sought to engage in international scientific cooperation and was, thus, highly appreciative of ALLEA’s visit to his Academy. To start off the meeting, ALLEA President Günter Stock informed the participants about recent ALLEA activities and the Board members received an update on the status of membership dues for the year 2015 as well as an outlook for the year 2016. Furthermore, the participantsdiscussed the progress made in the preparation of a European Commission Horizon 2020 call, in cooperation with a consortium of academy networks, to participate in SAM.

On the second day of the meeting the group received an update on the preparation of the ALLEA General Assembly in Vienna in April 2016, with information about the speakers of the symposium and the preparation for the Mme de Staël Prize Award Ceremony, as well as an outlook to the General Assembly 2017 in Budapest.

To conclude the meeting, the Board members discussed upcoming events in 2016, followed by a visit to the library of the Romanian Academy.

The Romanian Academy (Academia Românã) was founded in April 1866 as the Romanian Literary Society. The following year it began its activities, but was now called the Romanian Academic Society. In 2016, the Academy will celebrate its 150th anniversary on 4 April. On behalf of ALLEA and its member academies, ALLEA President Günter Stock will address the audience during the festivities. In 1879, by means of special legislation, it was promulgated as a national institution with the current name of Academia Românã – the Romanian Academy. Form the very beginning the newly founded institution was a national, encyclopedic and active society. It was:

  • National, because it was representative of the culture of not only the territory of what was then Romania, but also those territories under foreign domination by the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. Hence, the 21 founding members were scholars and literati, not only from Wallachia and Moldavia, but also from Transylvania, Banat, Bukovine, Bessarabia (today the Republic of Moldova) and the Balkan Peninsula.
  • Encyclopedic, since its preoccupations embraced all domains of the arts, letters, and sciences.
  •   An active society, because the Romanian Academy was conceived by its founders as a forum of national recognition, but at the same time as an active centre of scientific research and literary and artistic creation.

Click here to read more.

Contact:
125 Calea Victoriei, sector 1
010071 Bucharest
Romania

Phone: +40 21 212 8640
Fax: +40 1 211 6608
http://www.academiaromana.ro

Rémi Brague to be awarded 2016 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values

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Bild RB 2To commemorate his extensive scholarly work on religions in Europe and his reflections on European society, the French philosopher Rémi Brague will be the third scholar to be awarded the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values; a prize initiated by ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities with the friendly support by Stiftung Mercator.

The prize will be awarded to philosopher Professor Rémi Brague by EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, in the premises of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna on 18 April 2016. His research is an important reference point for the comprehensive understanding of the relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam today. “Rémi Brague uses his extensive historical, philosophical and theological expertise to study the question what makes Europe a distinct cultural entity”, quotes Professor Günter Stock, ALLEA President and chairman of the prize jury. “He exposes the deep relationship between religion and culture, between the roots and the concepts of today. He is an eminent scholar of medieval theology, philosophy and culture of the three main religions bridging knowledge and beliefs of former times with contemporary problems.”

Rémi Brague, born in Paris in 1947, is professor emeritus of Arabic and medieval philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and holds the Romano Guardini chair of philosophy (emeritus) at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Professor Brague’s work provides an invaluable wealth of analysis on the interplay between Judaism, Christianity and Islam as they progressed through history. His best-known works are Europe, la voie romaine (1992) (E: Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization (2009), Au moyen du Moyen Age: Philosophies médiévales en chrétienté, judaïsme et islam  (2006) (E: Legend of the Middle Ages: Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (2009) and La Loi de Dieu. Histoire philosophique d’une alliance (2005) (E: Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea (2008) and Du Dieu des Chrétiens et d’un ou deux autres (2008) (E: On the God of the Christians (and on one or two others) (2013).

The All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values is co-sponsored by Stiftung Mercator and endowed with 25,000 EUR. ALLEA established the prize to pay tribute to the boundless intellectual and cultural diversity and richness of Europe, and to highlight how outstanding scholarly work, particularly in the fields of the humanities and social sciences, contributes to the understanding of Europe as a cultural and intellectual entity. The first laureate, Professor Luisa Passerini, received the prize from former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in 2014 to honour her work on European cultural identity. In 2015, Professor Dame Helen Wallace was awarded the prize by EU Commissioner Carlos Moedas for her outstanding work on political studies and policy in Europe.

 

Click here to visit Rémi Brague’s website
Click here for more information about the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values.

SAM High Level Group meets in Brussels for the first time

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On 29 January the seven leading scientists who make up the European Commission’s new Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) High Level Group met for the first time in Brussels to discuss issues the advisors will tackle in the near future and to decide on the chairmanship of the Group. The meeting was also attended by Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation as well as Andrus Ansip, the Commission’s Vice-President for the Digital Single Market.

SAM is designed to assist the European Commission with high quality and timely advice. As of the end of the meeting, SAM is officially considered to be fully operational.

Chaired by Carlos Moedas, the first point on the agenda saw the designation of the Chair and Deputy Chair of the group. Henrik C. Wegener was subsequently appointed as Chair, with Elvira Fortunato as Deputy Chair. In the following, the group laid out, how cooperation with the wider scientific community, and especially with European academies and learned societies, will take place. Carlos Moedas was pleased with the outcome and said, the group’s “experience, expertise and plans to consult European Academies of Sciences and the wider scientific community, will make an important independent contribution to science advice for European policymaking”.

The group agreed that its first advice to the Commission will be on the topic of cybersecurity. The given advice is intended to support the Commission’s efforts to build trust in the development of the Digital Single Market.

In addition, the group will also focus on CO2 emissions testing from cars and vans, in order to improve future policies regulating their measurements.
A first document where the group will work out in more detail the scope of its future work will be published in a few weeks.

For more information on the Scientific Advice Mechanism please click here

Turkish academics: ALLEA supports declaration of International Human Rights Network of Academies

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ALLEA fully supports the following declaration of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies, as published on 19 January 2016, on the recent developments involving Turkish academics:

‘The International Human Rights  Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies (H.R. Network) supports and defends the rights of fellow academics, anywhere in the world, to peacefully express their lawful opinions and concerns. We, the members of the H.R. Network’s Executive Committee, are alarmed by the increasingly repressive and inflammatory reaction by Turkish government leaders, many university officials, and other intolerant individuals toward hundreds of our Turkish colleagues, solely because they publicly expressed humanitarian concerns about the grave crisis in south eastern Turkey. Surely, citizens of a democratic country such as Turkey, and its academics in particular, have a civic duty to remind their government, when deemed necessary, of its obligations to respect Turkey’s constitution, adhere to humanitarian standards for all of its citizens, and give priority to peaceful solutions in crisis situations.

We condemn any threats, false accusations, and incitement to violence against our colleagues by the government of Turkey, which is obligated, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to allow its citizens the “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” In addition, we urge the government of Turkey to protect the rights of its citizens, to desist from threatening academics who are performing their civic duties by participating in governance, and to call its operatives to order – thereby discouraging hostile action against our colleagues.’

The original declaration of the International Human Rights Networks of Academies and Scholarly Societies can be accessed here.

To download this press release please click here.

ALLEA President Guenter Stock visits Academy of Sciences of Moldova

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Professor Guenter Stock receives honorary doctorate and delivers laureate speech on the role of science in shaping our future.

On 19 January 2016, ALLEA President Guenter Stock visited the Academy of Sciences of Moldova on the kind invitation of academy president Academician Gheorghe Duca in Chisinau. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the academy for his substantial contribution to the promotion of scientific excellence and academic cooperation.

Photo credit: Academy of Sciences of Moldova

Photo credit: Academy of Sciences of Moldova

In his laureate speech Guenter Stock expressed deep gratitude and pride to receive this prestigious award. He reaffirmed ALLEA’s inclusive outlook on Europe, transcending the political boundaries of the EU and highlighted the importance of scientific autonomy and independence from political, ideological and commercial interference. Especially with a view towards the European Commission’s new Scientific Advice Mechanism and the role of the academies therein, the autonomy of the science community is now more important than ever in order to provide meaningful, unbiased and evidence-based policy advice. He reiterated the unique ability and responsibility of the scientific community “to spot problems earlier than the general public and politicians” and hence derived the duty to “make our fellow citizens, our politicians aware of what the future holds and how positive solutions could be found”.

A video recording of the speech can be found on the website of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova under this link and to view the picture gallery please click here.

In addition to his laureate speech at the academy, Professor Stock signed the Book of Honorable Guests at the Museum of the academy, and inter alia met with esteemed representatives of the Moldovan scientific and medical community. Professor Stock highly commended a draft concept published by the academy towards ensuring the proper conditions for the improvement of research performance and the creation of premises to attract talented youth in research. In his position as ALLEA President he reaffirmed his offer to support and assist where possible in achieving these laudable goals.

The Academy of Sciences of Moldova (A.S.M.) is the highest scientific forum of the state, and represents the only public institution of national interest in science and innovation sphere, it is a plenipotentiary coordinator of scientific and innovation activity. Also, it is a scientific consultant of the public authorities in the Republic of Moldova and has a Statute of Autonomy and acts on the basis of self-administration principles.