ALLEA Board meeting at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia

The ALLEA Board met in Sofia on the premises of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) from 16 – 17 September. At its third meeting of 2014, the Board discussed, inter alia, recent, current, and future ALLEA activities as well as on-going and planned future initiatives and projects by ALLEA´s five working groups. The meeting was facilitated by Professor Nikolay Miloshev, who is Vice President of the BAS and has represented his Academy in the ALLEA Board since 2013.

The programme opened with a session with Academy President Stefan Vodenicharov, who offered an overview of the many significant activities and services performed by the BAS. He underlined the importance of a reform process that the BAS-led research system underwent after the comprehensive scientific evaluation conducted by ALLEA and ESF in 2009 of the then 69 institutes, centres, laboratories, and other relevant facilities of the BAS.

ALLEA President Günter Stock (left) with BAS President Stefan Vodenicharov (right)

ALLEA President Günter Stock (left) with BAS President Stefan Vodenicharov (right)

The ALLEA President pointed to the prominent role of the BAS in the Bulgarian science system as a whole and in the further strengthening of excellent research in the country against standards of international scientific competitiveness in particular. He also expressed his gratitude to President Vodenicharov for the close cooperation and long-standing engagement of the BAS in ALLEA activities.

Further to the reporting session on its recent activities, the ALLEA Board discussed the current personnel changes in Brussels as a result of the new composition of the European Commission under President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker and noted in particular the nomination of Commissioner-designate Carlos Moedas for the position of Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, which is of special interest to ALLEA and its science policy work. In reiterating ALLEA´s role as the voice of academies towards the European political institutions, the Board agreed on the necessity of sustaining the dialogue which was well-established with outgoing Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn throughout the new term of Mr Moedas.

The ALLEA Board and representatives of BAS

The ALLEA Board and representatives of BAS

The Board proceeded to devote a substantial portion of the meeting agenda to the planning of the General Assembly to be held at the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon in April 2015 as well as the next award ceremony for the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values. Updates were also provided regarding international partnerships with other academy networks and pan-European stakeholders as well as on the Survey and Synergy Analysis of SSH Research (SASSH) project, a joint undertaking by ALLEA and the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities. The meeting was accompanied by a number of supplementary events, including a visit to the BAS-run archeological museum of Sofia. In closing the meeting, the Board looks forward to its next session in December at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem.

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is the largest national centre for scientific research and the premiere research-performing organisation in Bulgaria. The BAS encompasses 42 autonomous research units (institutes) in 9 divisions which perform both fundamental and applied research in practically all fields of knowledge. It is accredited to tutor doctoral students in the areas of research conducted by the BAS institutes. The BAS generates 60% of Bulgaria’s internationally-recognised scientific output, such as publications in international scientific journals, projects, and patents. Read more about the BAS here.

Europe has forgotten to research Europe itself

In a radio report released on 12 July 2014 by Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), ALLEA President Günter Stock was interviewed regarding the inclusion of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the Horizon 2020 funding programme. In addition to Professor Stock, the report included interviews with German state secretary Georg Schütte (Federal Ministry for Education and Research), Jutta Allmendinger (president of the Social Science Research Center Berlin), and Anette Schade, an expert from the European Union office at the Technical University of Berlin.

The radio report focused on identifying the three pillars of Horizon 2020 and the lack of explicit consideration of SSH in these three areas, which include excellence in science, industrial leadership, and societal challenges. Professor Stock described the efforts of the European science academies to convince policymakers to give SSH more consideration within the Horizon 2020 programme. “We went to Brussels and … said to the ministers that one cannot simply shape the future with technology alone,” stated Stock, who continued to emphasize the social challenges facing Europe and the importance of SSH for addressing these challenges.

While Allmendinger noted the lack of opportunities for Horizon 2020 scientists to sufficiently prepare long-term SSH studies, Stock advised these SSH researchers to take notes from those scientists in the fields of medicine and physics, for example, who over the years have developed strategies for competing for funds on the European level.

As a closing remark of the RBB report, Stock warned that Europe could be on its way to losing its own citizens due to a lack of understanding of the mechanisms that drive Europe as a collective entity. “Since Europe, in terms of research funding, has been very oriented towards creating jobs in the technology sector, it has somewhat forgotten to research Europe itself. And that leads many Europeans to ask themselves: what is the purpose of this ‘Europe?’ That is not a technological question,” explained Stock, who continued on to note the first positive chances for SSH to be better represented in Horizon 2020 research funding, although these efforts would need to be substantially fostered by the programme.

To hear the full radio report in German language, please click here.

President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso awards All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values to Italian Professor of Cultural History

from left: Professor Günter Stock, ALLEA President, Laureate Professor Luisa Passerini, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission

from left: Professor Günter Stock, ALLEA President, Laureate Professor Luisa Passerini, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission

At the award ceremony in the premises of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in Brussels on 9 April 2014 José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, honoured the laureate´s exceptional scholarly work on European cultural values and European identity. The prize is initiated by ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, and co-sponsored by Stiftung Mercator. It is endowed with 25,000 Euro.

“A sense of belonging to Europe, to a community of values and culture, is essential to forge that common destiny. Europe is us, each of us. And each of us can make a difference in Europe and contribute to driving positive change. This is what ALLEA is doing through its wide range of activities. This is also what Professor Luisa Passerini is working on, looking at what holds us together. I congratulate Professor Luisa Passerini for her exceptional work which forms part of the important scholarly contributions towards an understanding of Europe as an intellectual and cultural entity”, stated José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission. Click here for the complete speech.

In his opening remarks, Professor Günter Stock, ALLEA President and chairman of the prize jury, pointed out: “It is a pleasure that today we can honour a personality who is so strongly engaged in investigating Europe´s cultures and values. At the same time she follows a critical and professional – truly scientific – approach when it comes to Eurocentrism.”

With reference to President Barroso´s initiative ‘A New Narrative for Europe’ he stated that “we as academies felt invited to contribute and to help creating new narratives. One of these symbolic – as I would call them – narratives, is the creation of the ‘Madame de Staël prize’ for European scholars working in the field of European values.”

Luisa Passerini is part-time Professor at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy, visiting Professor at Columbia University, New York, and former Professor of Cultural History at the University of Turin, Italy. She heads the ERC funded research project “Bodies Across Borders: Oral and Visual Memory in Europe and Beyond” (BABE) which aims to understand new forms of European identity. Luisa Passerini´s further research fields include History of subjectivity, including forms of European identity, Gender and generations or Diasporic subjectivities.

In his laudatory speech, Etienne François, Professor Emeritus of History in Paris and Berlin, characterised Luisa Passerini as “a historian who has proved in her scholarly works that Europe can be better understood from its margins and from the outside than from what is considered its centre.”

ALLEA has established the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, awarded for the first time in 2014, in order to display the boundless intellectual and cultural diversity and richness of Europe and to highlight outstanding contributions of scholarly work, particularly in the fields of the humanities and social sciences.

Click here to learn more about the prize, the laureate and for further information.

See more pictures and a video of all speeches on the pages of the European Commission.

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15th ALLEA General Assembly in Oslo, Norway, on 24/25 April 2014

news bannerThe 15th General Assembly of the European federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, ALLEA (ALL European Academies), will take place on the premises of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo on 24 and 25 April 2014.

The annual meeting of ALLEA is traditionally preceded by a scientific symposium which this year is dedicated to the issue “Enabling early career researchers – needs for training of a new generation”. A keynote will be given by the President of the European Research Council Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon followed by contributions both from outstanding early career researchers and renowned senior scholars and science policy makers who will shed light on different perspectives of a rapidly changing research environment with particular attention to the consequences that these changes represent for the training and preparation of a new generation of scientists and scholars.

With a festive event in the evening of 24 April 2014, ALLEA will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Guests of honour will be the State Secretary of the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, Dr Bjørn Haugstad, as well as Professor Étienne François, Emeritus of the Free University of Berlin and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Member of Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Professor Francois will hold the festive lecture on the basis of his laudatory speech for the laureate of the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values Professor Luisa Passerini The prize winner, who is currently lecturing in New York, will address the audience via video conference.

The programme of and further information about the symposium and the festive session be found here.

On the second day of the General Assembly, 25 April 2014, in the internal ALLEA business meeting, the delegations of all member academies are invited to discuss major topics of the ALLEA´s future policy, work and mission. The General Assembly will elect the ALLEA Board for the period 2014 – 2016 and decide about the admission of new member academies.

The General Assembly is ALLEA’s highest legislative body, where all Member Academies decide on the federation’s policy, governance bodies and budget. The GA programme typically consists of two parts, a scientific conference and a business meeting. The conference sessions are devoted to presentations of papers and activities usually linked to or expanding on ALLEA core activities.

Last year´s conference in Berlin addressed the topic “Management of Large Data Corpora”, the symposium in Rome in 2012 was dedicated to a special session with the Vice President of the European Commission, Ms Neelie Kroes, about “The Digital Agenda and Access to Scientific Information”.

Click here for information and documentation of previous ALLEA General Assemblies.