Climate Change Education Webinar

On 24 November, ALLEA and the Royal Irish Academy, held a webinar entitled “Can Climate Change Education save the planet? European perspectives” to address the role and importance of climate change education within both the European and the Irish context.

If you missed it, now you have an opportunity to watch the recording on YouTube:

Key speakers at the webinar included:

  • Dr Cliona Murphy, Dublin City University and ALLEA Science Education Working Group Chair
  • Professor Paweł Rowiński, Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences and ALLEA Board Member
  • Dr Philippe Tulkens, acting Head of the Climate and Planetary Boundaries Unit in Directorate “Healthy Planet” of the European Commission
  • Professor Pierre Léna, Emeritus Professor at the Université Paris-Diderot
  • Dr Agata Gozdzik, Head of the Science Communication and Education Unit, Polish Academy of Sciences
  • Dr Michael John O’Mahony, Director of Environmental Education Unit, An Taisce – The National Trust for Ireland

New Task Force on “Sustainable Agriculture and Innovation” launched

ALLEA, together with Re-Imagine Europa and EU-SAGE, is part of a new Task Force on “Sustainable Agriculture and Innovation” chaired by Carlos Moedas, former European Commissioner for Research, Science, and Innovation. This initiative, led by Re-Imagine Europa, aims to build inclusive and pragmatic proposals on how innovation can support the creation of more sustainable and resilient European agricultural systems.

To achieve this, the Task Force will convene an Expert Committee of approximately 100 prominent individuals representing a multitude of perspectives from academia, politics, and key stakeholder groups.

“We need to change the way we reflect on future proofing regulation so that our laws can keep up with our labs”, said Moedas.

The Steering Committee currently consists of the following experts: Prof. Anne Cambon-Thomsen [CNRS, EGE]; Prof. Maria da Graça Carvalho MEP; Prof. Paolo De Castro MEP; Garlich von Essen [Euroseeds], Prof. Dirk Inzé [VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology], Dr. Peter Kearns [formerly of the OECD]; Pekka Pesonen [Copa-Cogeca], Prof. Pere Puigdomènech [ALLEA, Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics]; Dr. Daria Tataj [Tataj Innovation]; Nils Torvalds MEP.

The first meeting of the Task Force’s Steering Committee, a smaller group who will coordinate the work of the Expert Committee, took place on 17 November.

Read the press release

Read ALLEA’s report “Genome Editing for Crop Improvement

KVAB online panel discussion: Genome editing for crop improvement

The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts will organise an online panel discussion on the conclusions and recommendations of the recent KVAB-ALLEA symposium report “Genome Editing for Crop Improvement” on 3 December, at 16:00 CET. Registration for the event is open.

The discussion will include the lead authors of the report, Oana Dima (VIB), Hubert Bocken (UGent, KVAB), René Custers (VIB), Pere Puigdomènech (CRAG, ALLEA) and Dirk Inzé (VIB, KVAB). The debate will be moderated by Godelieve Gheysen (UGent, KVAB).

The event will delve into the key takeaways of the report, which tackles the impasse of European policy and legislation after the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU of 2018. This decision placed genome-edited crops under the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) legislation. Since then, the scientific community has passionately debated the future of these new breeding techniques.

The publication presents the state of the art of scientific evidence in the field and explores paths to harmonise EU legislation with recent scientific developments, while particularly considering relevant ethical and societal considerations.

Among the conclusions, the authors warned that continued legislative and policy restrictions may hamper the selection of more productive, diverse, and climate-resilient crops with a reduced environmental footprint.

The article also calls for an open, honest dialogue with all stakeholders, including the public, in the decision-making processes for introducing genome-edited products into the market, ensuring that the implications of market introduction are accurately communicated.

Register to the event

Download report

Science Does Not Have a Passport

A commentary by the ALLEA President

It has now been more than 4 years since the decision by the people of the United Kingdom to depart from the European Union. The European research community was united in shock upon receiving the results of the plebiscite and has since, with many voices and on many occasions, raised concerns that scientific collaboration should be looked at as a global concern rather than a political negotiation piece. Scientists are by nature revelling in discourse and disagreement, yet for once we all shared the same sentiment: we are better off together.

In fact, not only are we better off together, after more than 60 years of growing ever closer, of researchers moving about freely across the continent, of multinational research consortia spearheading most innovative scientific breakthroughs, it is inconceivable to disentangle the many co-operations that exist on so many levels across European academia. And even if we were able to do so, the price to pay would be diminished quality of research, something that we can all agree on would be a step in the wrong direction.

It now seems that at long last, the negotiations on the UK departure from the EU are coming to a close. What started as uncertainty on the conditions of future research association of the UK to the EU is now turning into tense anxiety as firm commitments still go amiss and researchers on both sides of the English Channel fear their tried and trusted collaborations with their partners may soon come to a premature end.

Throughout the process ALLEA has continuously reminded decision-makers on both sides of the table that scientific research must not be used as a pawn in political tit-for-tat. In doing so we did not tire to remind them that partnerships are difficult to build, but easy to destroy. At the moment, we are running the danger of doing the latter without any regard on how to rebuild them after.

As if we needed any more reminders of the vital necessity of international research collaboration, this year’s COVID-19 pandemic has made this point ever more pressing. By giving up on long-established and well-functioning research collaboration mechanisms we risk being worse prepared than better prepared for the global challenges to come, COVID-19 was certainly not the last of them.

ALLEA therefore can only reaffirm its call, which we share with our UK Member Academies, to ensure the highest degree of participation of UK research institutions in EU research framework programmes. As a Swiss myself, I know all too well what it feels like to be in a limbo when it comes to the relationship with the EU. But precisely for this reason I do know that Switzerland benefits from being part of the European scientific area much more than any perceived or real loss of sovereignty could take away from.

The scientific endeavour inherently does not have a passport, it is a truly global citizen and it would be a shame to restrict its abilities for the purposes of political negotiations. It is therefore my urgent call to everyone involved to let common sense prevail, to show reciprocal trust and to ensure that we can wake up in 2021 knowing that our colleagues and partners from yesterday will still be our colleagues and partners tomorrow.

Antonio Loprieno

ALLEA President

Can Climate Change Education save the planet? Programme of the webinar is on-line

On 24 November, ALLEA together with the Royal Irish Academy organise a webinar exploring European perspectives on climate change education.

Findings from a recently published ALLEA report A snapshot of Climate Change Education Initiatives in Europe: Initial findings and implications for future Climate Change Education  will be a starting point for discussing  climate change education initiatives in Europe which will consider successes, challenges and the future of climate change education throughout Europe. A recent Royal Irish Academy Briefing Paper prepared by Dr Cliona Murphy, Chair of ALLEA’s Science Education Working Group and the Royal Irish Academy’s representative, discusses this report and its implications for Ireland and will be included in the discussions.

Programme of the webinar and the registration can be found on the event’s page. 

Job Offer: German-speaking Human Resources and Administration Officer

ALLEAder europäische Dachverband der Wissenschaftsakademiensucht für die Geschäftsstelle in Berlin und zunächst befristet auf zwei Jahre eine/n 

Mitarbeiter*in für Personal-Betriebs– und Verwaltungsangelegenheiten  

(Human Resources and Administration Officer) 

Arbeitsbeginn ist zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt und der Arbeitsumfang beträgt ca. 30 Stunden wöchentlich. Die Vergütung erfolgt nach dem Tarif für den Öffentlichen Dienst der Länder in Abhängigkeit von Qualifikation und Erfahrung bis maximal Stufe TV-L 11. Der Arbeitsalltag kann flexibel im Büro oder von zuhause gestaltet werdenWir schätzen Vielfalt und begrüßen daher alle Bewerbungen – unabhängig von Alter, Herkunft, Geschlecht, sexueller Identität, Behinderung oder Weltanschauung. 

Tätigkeitsbereiche 

Personalangelegenheiten 

  • Erste/r Ansprechpartner*in für jede Form von ALLEA-Personalangelegenheiten  
  • Personalverwaltung, Koordination von Stellenbesetzungen, Administration von Personalübersichten (Urlaubsplanung, Abwesenheitserfassung, …) 
  • Kontakt zu Lohnbüros, Versicherungen, Rechtsberatungen und anderen behördlichen Stellen  

Betriebs- und Verwaltungsangelegenheiten: 

  • Abwicklung des administrativen und operativen Tagesgeschäftes des Verbandes, einschließlich Geschäftskorrespondenz Deutsch/Englisch 
  • Sicherstellung der Funktionalität von IT-Infrastruktur und Datenmanagement unterstützt durch externe IT-Dienstleister  
  • Beschaffung von Waren und Dienstleistungen, sowie Verwaltung von Verträgen und Vereinbarungen mit Drittanbietern 

Allgemeine Verwaltungsaufgaben: 

  • Unterstützung der Mitgliederverwaltung und Pflege von Datenbanken 
  • Organisatorische Aufgaben (Kalenderverwaltung, Termin-, Veranstaltungs-, Reiseplanung) 
  • Unterstützung von Präsidium und Geschäftsführung bei täglich anfallenden Aufgaben 

Voraussetzungen 

  • Hochschulstudium in relevanter Fachrichtung (Business Administration, HR Management, usw.) oder abgeschlossene Berufsausbildung im Verwaltungsbereich (Bürokommunikation o.ä.)  
  • Mehrjährige einschlägige Berufserfahrung  
  • Hervorragende Deutsch– sowie sehr gute Englischkenntnisse in Wort und Schrift (Arbeitssprachen); 
  • Sicherer Umgang mit MS-Office und weiterer üblicher Software (Datenbanken o.ä.) 
  • Organisationstalent, Teamfähigkeit, sowie selbstständige und strukturierte Arbeitsweise 
  • Erfahrung iPersonalwesen, Vertragsgestaltung, öffentlicher Beschaffung wünschenswert 

Über ALLEA und die Berliner Geschäftsstelle  

ALLEA ist eine gemeinnützige internationale Organisation an der Schnittstelle zwischen Wissenschaft, Politik und Gesellschaft, die sich der koordinierten Zusammenarbeit zwischen über 50 Wissenschaftsakademien aus 40 europäischen Ländern widmet.  

Die in Berlin ansässige Geschäftsstelle ist besetzt mit einem interkulturellen und dynamischen Team, das alle anfallenden Verwaltungs-, Koordinations- und Kommunikationsaufgaben betreut und die verschiedenen Aktivitäten des Dachverbandes plant und umsetzt. 

Mehr Informationen bieten unsere Website www.allea.org und unser Twitter-Account @ALLEA_academies. 

 

Bewerbungsverfahren und -formalitäten 

Bei Interesse bitten wir um Übersendung der vollständigen Bewerbungsunterlagen (Anschreiben, LebenslaufArbeitsnachweise/Referenzenin einer PDF-Datei mit dem Betreff „Human Resources and Administration Officer” bis spätestens 6. Dezember 2020 an recruitment@allea.org zu.  

Bitte erwähnen Sie dabei, wie Sie auf diese Ausschreibung aufmerksam geworden sind. Bewerbungsgespräche mit den aussichtsreichsten Kandidat*innen werden in den darauffolgenden Wochen durchgeführt. 

Job Offer: Scientific Policy Officer (2 positions)

ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, is currently seeking two

 

Scientific Policy Officers (f/m/d)

 

to join its team in Berlin from January 2021 for the duration of two years. The positions are offered as part-time (approximately 75%) with potential increase/decrease of working hours over the course of employment if desired.

 

Role and Responsibilities

  • Coordination and implementation of activities and projects within ALLEA’s science-policy portfolios;
  • Organise meetings of working groups with academy fellows and external experts and prepare draft statements and reports based on expert contributions and deliberations (scientific writing);
  • Organisation of consultation processes with academies and their fellows as well as with external stakeholders;
  • Support organisation of public events and dissemination activities of scientific topics together with ALLEA communications staff, including publication of ALLEA statements and reports;
  • Support and organise peer review and endorsement processes for scientific and science-policy publications;
  • Regular reporting to ALLEA Board and Executive staff, as well as to project funders;
  • Establish and maintain close cooperation with relevant European policymakers and other science policy stakeholders;
  • Conduct foresight and horizon-scanning activities and prepare draft project outlines for scientific topics (including work and budget plans) as appropriate;

 

Skills and Experience

  • At least 2-3 years of experience at the interface of science and policy, and/or science management/administration, or in higher education;
  • A postgraduate degree in the natural or social sciences, ideally with some experience in working in an interdisciplinary context;
  • Excellent oral and written proficiency in English, additional languages are an asset;
  • Demonstrated experience in managing budget lines and delivery of scientific or science-policy projects, including grant acquisition and reporting for third-party funded projects;
  • Prior experience in scientific publishing and/or science communication is an asset;
  • Prior experience working in/with European institutions, international membership or research performing organisations is desirable;
  • An established network of relevant stakeholders at the science-policy interface on the European level is an asset;
  • Proficient in relevant office software, project management, and reference management (Endnote or Zotero) software.

 

Why join us

ALLEA is the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, representing more than 50 academies from over 40 EU and non-EU countries. ALLEA operates at the interface of science, policy and society and speaks out on behalf of its members to promote science as a global public good.

You will be part of a multi-cultural, young, and dynamic team working in the centre of Berlin and help ALLEA reach international stakeholders on societally relevant scientific topics. As a not-for-profit organisation, our working environment is informal and collegial, and our team shares a dedication to work for a common greater good.

This position offers the flexibility of combining working in the office and remotely. Remuneration will depend on the level of previous experience and qualifications and correspond to TV-L 12 or 13 of the German public servant remuneration grade table.

ALLEA is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability or age.

For more information about us, please visit www.allea.org and/or follow us on Twitter @ALLEA_academies.

 

How to apply

If you are interested, please submit your digital application including a cover letter, CV and  relevant corresponding certificates as one single PDF document to recruitment@allea.org by 6 December 2020 referencing the job title in the email subject line. Please also mention where or how you became aware of this job offer. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interviews in the following weeks.

Download the job post here.

ALLEA Webinar on Cultural Memories & Nationalist Sentiments – Recording Is Online

On 5 November, cultural historian Joep Leerssen and Laura Hood of The Conversation discussed why and how national cultures obstruct European politics.

Joep Leerssen, 2020 Laureate of the ALLEA Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, is one of the most remarkable figures in the critical analysis of ethnic and cultural stereotyping. In this conversation with Laura Hood, he gave insights into image shifts and trends of European identities.

The event was organised as a part of the Berlin Science Week 2020.

The Madame de Stael Prize for Cultural Values is awarded by ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, jointly with the foundation Compagnia di San Paolo as major supporter.

 

ALLEA President contributes to JRC workshop on science for policy

ALLEA President Antonio Loprieno participated in the Joint Research Centre (JRC) workshop “Science for policymaking by national academies” on 4 November. The workshop is part to the JRC virtual series entitled “Strengthening and connecting science for policy eco-systems in Europe“.

President Loprieno discussed the contribution of European academies in the provision of science advice to society and policymakers. In his presentation, he argued that academies have historically taken the role of a “disinterested advisor”.

He pointed out to the importance of understanding the boundaries where academies can act or influence in providing science advice. At some point, other actors and policymakers need to take over and turn advice into concrete action.

The debate, moderated by Emanuela Bellan (JRC), covered several questions emerging from previous workshops such as:

  • how can advisers strike a balance between informal, close relations with policy side (mutual trust) and their independence (scientific integrity, public trust)?;
  • what does it mean to be an effective knowledge broker? And how can we organize such structures/bodies in eco-systems?
  • how can we improve the mutual understanding and trust of actors in science and policymaking?
  • what is the role of the public/citizens in all this?

The event included panellists Rudi Hielscher, Coordinator of SAPEA, Brian Norton, Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy, and Julian Revalski, President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Among other objectives, the JRC workshop series aims at building a knowledge base to understand in what ways and under what conditions particular building blocks within different eco-systems work and national eco-systems are connected.

Why Trust Experts?

ALLEA’s EU-funded research project PERITIA has launched the new animation video “Why Trust Experts?“. Inspired by their principal investigator Maria Baghramian’s article “Trust in Experts: Why and Why Not”, the video invites everyone to reflect on the role of expertise in our daily lives.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown once again that experts play a key role in advising politicians and citizens. There may be no better time to ask ourselves some relevant questions about trust in expertise.

  • How does trust in experts work?
  • How is trust in science related to trust in media?
  • Why is trust in expertise important for democracies?
  • How can we learn to trust trustworthy experts?

The short animation video summarizes the key questions of PERITIA’s research in the context of today’s pandemic crisis and raises some relevant points. It touches upon the different dimensions of trust in expertise from a philosophical perspective, the influential role of media (and social media) in how we access scientific information, or the difficult balance between science independence and policymaking.

In the dedicated webpage “Why trust Experts?“, PERITIA delves into these key questions including resources. The page is available to help you learn more about the topic and find more scientific contributions to the debates from the team and their partners.

About PERITIA

PERITIA is a Horizon 2020-funded research project exploring the conditions under which people trust expertise used for shaping public policy. The project brings together philosophers, social and natural scientists, policy experts, ethicists, psychologists, media specialists and civil society organisations to conduct a comprehensive multi-disciplinary investigation of trust in and the trustworthiness of policy related expert opinion. As part of consortium of 11 partners from 9 countries, ALLEA leads the work on public engament and interaction of the project.