New Reports on EU Genome Editing Policy for Agriculture Presented

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On 22 July 2021, Re-Imagine Europa (RIE), together with knowledge partners ALLEA and EU-SAGE, presented two reports on innovation in agriculture in a virtual event. The publications look into existing narratives concerning the role of genome editing for crop improvement and potential ramifications for European policy.

 

At the event, titled ‘Beyond the Apple of Discord: Changing our Agri Culture’, science-policy stakeholders discussed the future of new breeding techniques, such as genome editing in crops, in moving towards sustainable European agriculture systems and in addressing climate and environmental-related challenges. Keynote speakers of the event included  Janusz Wojciechowski, European Commissioner for Agriculture; Norbert Lins, Member of the European Parliament; and Urs Niggli, President of agroecology.science. The event was chaired by Professor Louise Fresco, President of the Wageningen University.

 

Invited speakers: Professor Louise Fresco, Wageningen University (top left); MEP Norbert Lins, Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (top right); EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski (bottom left); Urs Niggli, President of agroecology.science (bottom right).

 

The RIE-led Task Force on Sustainable Agriculture and Innovation aims to better understand the emotions and values behind different perspectives and to see if, with ambitious European climate, sustainability, and biodiversity goals as clear priorities, it is possible to find positive pathways forward.

During the event, the task force presented two reports that look at what we can learn from existing narratives and the potential implications for policy actions. For a short description of the task force and a summary of the reports, see “Overview of the Reports on Sustainable Agriculture and Innovation”. 

In the first report, “Beyond the Apple of Discord: Existing Narratives and Ways Forward”, the task force focuses on how different stories, symbols, images, and metaphors are used to inform the debate on the future of European agriculture. The report specifically describes the role of these emotions and narratives in framing the way we think about using genome editing for crop improvement. 

As stated by Prof. Louise Fresco, “Rather than focusing on the ‘apple of discord’ we should address the ‘apples of confusion’; there is a lot of common ground, but we must identify and address where the confusion lies.” 

 

 

The second report, “White Paper on the Regulation of Genome Editing in Agriculture” aims to describe the attributes of an ideal regulatory system that balances the need for embracing innovation in agriculture, such as new genomic techniques, whilst ensuring protection of human health, the environment, and biodiversity. The report also presents five policy options to be considered in the upcoming debate on genome editing between the Council, the European Parliament, and relevant stakeholders.  

In his opening remarks, Janusz Wojciechowski, European Commissioner for Agriculture, reassured that “For us it is crystal clear that any policy decision should protect human and environmental health. Making European Food Systems sustainable and resilient is one of our key objectives.” 

 

 

The task force is currently planning a follow-up meeting to be held in the European Parliament in Brussels in October/November 2021 (date and time to be announced and depending on Covid restrictions). This meeting will consider, amongst other things, how to further develop a shared vision for sustainable European agriculture systems and which policy options should be further pursued to achieve these goals.

ALLEA-GYA Event Report on Research Assessment Published

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ALLEA and the Global Young Academy (GYA) have published a report covering the key takeaways of their webinar ‘Research Assessments that Promote Scholarly Progress and Reinforce the Contract with Society’. The event brought together science and policy stakeholders to rethink current research assessment models.

The report tackles three main questions debated by presenter Ellen Hazelkorn (BH Associates) and discussants Kostas Glinos (European Commission), Michael Hill (DORA Steering Committee), and Martin Dominik (Global Young Academy):

  • How can we strike a balance between funding of research to advance scientific progress in itself on the one hand, and public accountability in terms of societally relevant research on the other when assessing research?
  • How can the societal relevance of research best be assessed and who defines the criteria?
  • How should research assessment be done?

Among other messages, the report underlines that:

  • All research that significantly adds to the scholarly record holds the potential of being translated into concrete value for society sooner or later, although not necessarily by those who originally carried out that research.
  • Societal accountability covers a wide sphere of impact, hence there is a need to include researchers from the social sciences and people with expertise on social impact, as well as co-expertise between researchers and lay-people.
  • Meaningful assessments will need to respect and be tailored to a specific context, provide an answer to a concrete question, and meet the aim of the assessment.

The report is based on a webinar held on 25 November 2020 and moderated by Roger Pfister (Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences). The video can be watched on ALLEA’s YouTube channel. The work was led by the ALLEA Permanent Working Group Science and Ethics.

This project is part of a strategic partnership between ALLEA and the GYA, which seeks to strengthen cross-border collaboration between researchers from different age groups, disciplines and career stages. Building on and further consolidating existing forms of cooperation, both organisations aimed to analyse and rethink current research assessment models, as well as scientific publication and peer-review practices.

Download Event Report

Noam Chomsky on Academic Freedom and Intellectual Dissent

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US linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky delivered the keynote “The University at Times of Crisis” as part of the international conference “Academic Freedom and Intellectual Dissent” co-organised by Scholars at Risk and ALLEA on 8 June. 

In his keynote, Chomsky reflected on the crisis and privatisation of universities and academic institutions. He advocated for enabling  the scientific community to make use of research funds without the intervention of politicians or donors.

He pointed out to this underlying tension within academic institutions as one of key aspects impeding the scientific community to reach an ideal of academic freedom. “Looking over the centuries, the ideal has often been uphill, but it has been a constant battle to try to sustain it in the face of external, social, economic and ideological pressures”, he argued.

He also challenged the idea of attributing the drivers of innovation and discovery in today’s societies to private businesses’ risk-taking. “This doctrine is mostly myth. Most of this work takes place in the public sector with public funding”, he stated.

An international conference on academic freedom

Chomsky’s keynote was preceded with an address by Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins and followed by Q & A with the public moderated by Maria Baghramian (University College Dublin).

The conference focussed on the importance of intellectual dissent and academic freedom to democratic societies in a Western, particularly European, context. The speakers and the panel discussed the scope and the limits of academic freedom in the context of political populism, neoliberalism and the exigencies of the post Covid social and educational landscape.

Topics of the event included but were not limited to academic freedom in relation to other core academic values, e.g. openness, trustworthiness, research integrity, and social responsibility; the scope and limits of intellectual dissent and academic freedom; ways of strengthening academic freedom in a changing university funding landscape, the impact of social media on academic freedom and lessons from a global pandemic.

The full video of the events and the programme can be accessed on this webpage.

Working Group Kick-Started Project on Climate Sustainability in Academic System

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On 5 July 2021, the newly constituted working group met for the first time to take up its function within the ALLEA project ‘Climate Sustainability in the Academic System’. 


Led by its member Die Junge Akademie (German Young Academy), the project aims to develop a proposal for a sustainable transformation of academia that is deliberated, balanced and accounts for all relevant perspectives such as to meet the challenge of a climate sustainable academia without compromising excellence in research and without diminishing international exchange and collaboration in academia.  

The members of the working group – which represent a variety of disciplines and, to a large extent, member academies of ALLEA – discussed the scope of the project and a preliminary timeline. In addition, the group has started to review existing data on the climate impact of academia and to take stock of pertinent best-practice examples set in motion in similar contexts. As such, the group intends to elaborate on considerations relative to climate sustainable academia and present these early next year. 

Members of the Working Group 

  • Carlo Barbante – National Academy of the Lincei, Italy 
  • Magnus Breitholtz – Stockholm University, Sweden 
  • Valerie Domcke – Die Junge Akademie, Germany 
  • Astrid Eichhorn – Die Junge Akademie, Germany  
  • Antonin Fejfar – Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic 
  • Raphael Heffron – Young Academy of Scotland/Royal Society of Edinburgh, United Kingdom 
  • Jan Hladky – Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic 
  • Debbie Hopkins – University of Oxford, United Kingdom 
  • Agnes Kreil – ETH Zurich, Switzerland 
  • Ambreena Manji – Learned Society of Wales, United Kingdom 
  • Mykolas Poškus – Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Lithuania 
  • Jana Prodanova – Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Macedonia 
  • Sverker Sörlin – KTH Stockholm, Sweden 
  • Diarmuid Torney – Royal Irish Academy, Ireland 
  • Bart Vermang – Young Academy of Belgium/Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Belgium