On 23 May 2024, SAPEA organised two engaging workshops in Berlin aiming to address key aspects of scientific collaboration among European academies and to promote the involvement of early and mid-career researchers in science advice. This event brought together 90 representatives from various European academies and was included as part of the ALLEA General Assembly.
ALLEA marked its 30th anniversary with its general assembly in Berlin on 22–23 May 2024. The event featured a public symposium which convened prominent researchers, policymakers, and civil society representatives from across Europe to explore the complexities and opportunities of open research collaboration in today’s evolving geopolitical climate.
In alignment with the recent ALLEA statement on the guiding principles for Framework Programme 10, which advocates for increased investment in Research and Innovation in the upcoming 10th European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, ALLEA is proud to join the #ResearchMatters campaign.
Both ALLEA’s statement and the #ResearchMatters campaign call for a substantial boost in research and innovation funding, urging European leaders to allocate over 3% of GDP to R&I and to double the FP10 budget to 200 billion EUR. These measures are crucial for addressing Europe’s pressing environmental, societal, and technological challenges and for ensuring its competitiveness and future prosperity. We encourage you to read and share the open letter widely within your network.
Open letter (read the PDF here)
In a world of major environmental, societal, and geopolitical crises, it is imperative that Europe invests in its future. Investing in our knowledge capital is the foundation for Europe’s competitiveness, wellbeing, and peace.
We need urgent solutions to address the complex challenges facing our societies: Climate change, AI, cybersecurity, environmental and energy crises, threats to democracy and security, pandemics, among others. Developing and enhancing excellent research and innovation with a long-term, multidisciplinary, and cross- sectoral perspective is key to our future.
In recent years, North America and Asia have massively ramped up their investments, leaving Europe behind. To remain competitive and advance the economic, ecological, and societal transitions, European countries and the EU must boost their research and innovation funding.
With the ResearchMatters campaign, leading research, and innovation (R&I) organisations urge Finance Ministers of European countries, and the European Council, Commission and Parliament, to act boldly and:
Together, these measures are critical to provide Europe with strategies to cope with current and future geopolitical and societal challenges. By increasing investments in knowledge creation, research, and research- driven innovation, we are investing in the very future of Europe and its people. In this campaign, we urge the European institutions and all European countries, national and regional policymakers, the whole research and innovation community, society, and the media, to join our quest.
The time to act is now! Let’s get our act together and build a bright future for Europe. Read about the campaign and stories on the benefits of R&I on: research-matters.eu.
Sincerely,
International organisations
Academia Europaea
ALLEA (All European Academies)
CESAER (Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research)
Coimbra Group Universities
EARMA (European Association of Research Managers and Administrators)
ECIU (European Consortium of Innovative Universities)
EERA (European Energy Research Alliance
EOSC Association
EASSH (European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities)
EUA (European University Association)
EU-LIFE (Alliance of independent European research institutes in the life science)
Eurodoc
EUPRIO (European Association of Communication Professionals in Higher Education)
EuroTech Universities Alliance
LERU (League of European Research Universities)
Science Europe
UAS4EUROPE
The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities
ISE (Initiative for Science in Europe)
UnILiON (Universities Informal Liasion Offices Network)
YERUN (Young European Research Universities Network)
Young Academy of Europe
National organisations
ARCES
Universities
Hanken School of Economics, Sweden
Eindhoven University of Technology
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Vrije Universiteit Brussels
If you’re interested in signing this initiative, please send an e-mail at info@research-matters.eu.
Yesterday, leading academics and policy experts from across Europe came together to discuss the critical role of international research collaboration in today’s rapidly changing geopolitical environment. ALLEA had invited them to Berlin for a public symposium on ‘European Research Collaboration in a Shifting Geopolitical Landscape’.
As a part of ALLEA’s 30th-anniversary celebrations and their annual general assembly, this event took place at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. It was co-hosted by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, and the Junge Akademie.
The Value of Open Research Collaboration
Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and world-leading physicist, received ALLEA’s Madame de Staël Prize for her distinguished contributions to European values and science collaboration. In her keynote address, Dr Gianotti gave an inspirational talk about her experiences in CERN and the discovery of the Higgs boson. As the leader of Europe’s most significant collaborative research project and one of the world’s most influential scientists, Dr Gianotti stressed that scientific cooperation, open science and data are essential means of boosting science and reducing global inequities. She depicted CERN as a laboratory for people around the world and as a model for global collaboration that not only drives innovation, but also creates and maintains a value system that promotes peace and prosperity in a world facing significant geopolitical shifts.
Limits to Openness
The symposium featured engaging discussions with a panel of international experts and leaders in academia and policy, including Katja Becker (German Research Foundation – DFG), Nienke Buisman (European Commission), Janneke Gerards (Utrecht University), Fabiola Gianotti (CERN), and Valeska Huber (University of Vienna).
The panel addressed the role of research collaboration and its limits amid geopolitical complexities by asking: “How open can we be?”. It was stressed that the autonomy and freedom of research and researchers are indispensable, but that the times dominated by a romantic illusion of openly sharing data and ideas with everyone without any risk are over.
An emphasis was also put on the fact that international scientific cooperation needs to be both open and safe, and that the goal should be to build capacity at various levels in European research systems. The main objective for policies governing research collaboration and research security should be providing researchers and research institutions with the necessary means to make informed decisions on the ‘red lines’ before entering international collaborations.
Responsible Internationalisation
To conclude, the discussions underscored the necessity of strengthening international partnerships, for instance through international academy networks such as ALLEA. The symposium explored practical solutions to overcome barriers to such collaboration, emphasising the importance of maintaining high standards of academic freedom, integrity, and responsibility, creating a safe research environment, enabling an open debate, supporting the international mobility of researchers, and ultimately reducing polarisation and conflict within and between our societies.
For more information and documentation about the symposium, please visit the ALLEA General Assembly website: https://www.alleageneralassembly.org/scientific-symposium-2024-allea-general-assembly/
The General Assembly of ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, convened in Berlin to commemorate its 30th anniversary and inaugurate a new president and board. Paweł Rowiński assumed the role of the organisation’s eighth president, taking over from Antonio Loprieno, who led ALLEA from 2018 onwards. Additionally, the assembly welcomed three young academies as new members thereby expanding ALLEA’s total membership to 59.
Around 70 delegates from across Europe gathered in Berlin on 22 May for the 2024 ALLEA General Assembly, co-hosted by the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, and the German Young Academy. The event stood as a milestone in ALLEA’s history, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the organisation, as well as consolidating its legal status as a registered charitable organisation in Germany.
The meeting of representatives from more than 50 member academies marked the starting point for a new president and board for the term 2024-2027. Professor Paweł Rowiński of the Polish Academy of Sciences, who has served on the organisation’s board since 2018, will steer ALLEA as President for the next three years.
Professor Rowiński, an outstanding scholar specialising in Earth Sciences, previously held the position of Vice-President at the Polish Academy of Sciences from 2015 to 2022 and serves as the Director of the academy’s Institute of Geophysics in Warsaw. His research interests include mathematical methods in geophysics, geophysical flows, river hydrodynamics, and fluvial hydraulics. In addition to his notable contributions to his field of study, he actively engages in science advice, science popularisation, science ethics, and demonstrates a strong commitment to water and climate issues.
“ALLEA is a strong voice of European science on a global level and plays a crucial role in shaping the research ecosystem, promoting academic freedom, facilitating a green transition even in times of crises, and advising on the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation. I am deeply honoured and grateful for the opportunity to serve ALLEA in the coming years. As international collaboration faces increasing challenges, cross-border cooperation among academies becomes more vital than ever. I am committed to working closely with all ALLEA members to ensure that the voice of the academies continues to be heard,” said Professor Rowiński about his upcoming presidency at ALLEA.
He succeeds Antonio Loprieno from the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, who has led ALLEA as President since 2018. Reflecting on his term, Professor Loprieno remarked, “It has been a privilege to serve the community of European academies in a critical, but also pivotal period of our institutional history: a time during which science has turned into a decisive player in social and political life in European societies; a time during which the voice of European scientific academies has become clearer, younger, and stronger. And it is particularly gratifying to see that ALLEA’s mission will be continued by very capable hands!”
The new ALLEA Board who will serve alongside President Rowiński includes:
The ALLEA General Assembly welcomed three new members: the Young Academy of Belgium (Flanders), the Young Academy of Spain, and the Hungarian Young Academy, thereby increasing the total membership to 59 academies from EU and non-EU countries, including young and senior academies. With their admission, ALLEA now counts six young academies among its members, reflecting the organisation’s commitment to promoting inclusivity, diversity, and collaboration across generations.
Today, presidents of national academies of sciences of the EU addressed a message to the candidates for the 2024 European Parliament elections. The address underscores the indispensable role of robust, open, and free science and education for Europe’s future.
Given the significant representation of ALLEA member academies among its signatories, the EU national academies’ address echoes ALLEA’s core mission and priorities, reflecting our shared vision on the primacy of science and education in shaping Europe’s future trajectory. This statement stands as a pertinent message to the candidates of the 2024 European Parliament elections, emphasising the importance of international cooperation, academic freedom, and the use of scientific evidence in policymaking. Read it here
On 24 April, ALLEA responded to a public consultation by the European Commission, where different options are presented to enhance support for research on technologies that may have both civilian and military applications (i.e., dual-use technologies).
At present, European funding programmes for civil research and development projects and those with defence or security applications are strictly separated. However, to boost the EU’s (economic) security and competitiveness, the European Commission is currently exploring ways to promote cross-fertilisation between the two funding instruments.
In its response, ALLEA details how some of the proposed options pose the risk of creating adverse incentives, introducing ambiguity, and imposing additional administrative burdens. In addition, ALLEA stresses that equitable assessment of research proposals should remain central to any solution, and that support for projects with potential dual-use applications should not come at the expense of funding for civil research.
Read the full statement here.
A group of renowned scientists, nominated by academies through the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism, have advised Commissioners on the use of AI in science.
The advice comes in response to a request from Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, to guide and support the overall European Commission’s strategy for AI in research and innovation. These recommendations were handed over to Commissioners Ivanova and EVC Vestager, today in Brussels. The Scientific Advice Mechanism provides independent scientific evidence and policy recommendations to the European institutions.
“By bringing together experts from various scientific backgrounds, we have crafted comprehensive scientific advice on artificial intelligence that informs top EU policymakers” – says Professor Stefan Constantinescu, Chair of the SAPEA Board.
According to the advice, artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionise scientific discovery, accelerate research progress, boost innovation and improve researchers’ productivity.
Professor Anna Fabijańska, the co-chair of the SAPEA working group that reviewed the scientific evidence to inform these recommendations, says we need to rebalance the situation and boost public research across all disciplines and member states.
“That means giving universities and research institutes across Europe fair access to state-of-the-art AI facilities.” – Professor Andrea Emilio Rizzoli, co-chair of the SAPEA working group added.
As part of the new advice, the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission recommends forming a new European institute for AI in science that would provide massive high-performing computational power, a sustainable cloud infrastructure, and AI training programmes for scientists.
Alongside these services, a European AI in Science Council would provide dedicated funding for researchers in all disciplines to explore and adopt AI in their sciences. These would also ensure that AI in research aligns with EU core values.
AI-powered scientific research requires a vast amount of data. That data should be high quality, responsibly collected and well curated, with fair access for European researchers and innovators.
Finally, scientists highlighted that the technologies of the future must be driven by people and communities, not only by profit. The EU should promote research on the philosophical, legal, and ethical issues that arise when AI is used in science, and the impact of these issues on fundamental human rights, transparency and accountability.
The evidence report by SAPEA and the recommendations by the Advisors are available here.
On 2 and 3 April 2024, the ALLEA Permanent Working Group on Science & Ethics (PWGSE) met in Brussels to reflect on the experiences and impact of recent activities, discuss emerging topics in research ethics and research integrity, and scope future activities.
The meeting was generously hosted by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB) at the neoclassical Academy Palace in Brussels. It brought together research ethics and integrity experts from ALLEA Member Academies under the chairwomanship of Dr Maura Hiney (Royal Irish Academy).
The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity: growing impact
A central and recurring theme in the meeting was the revised edition of the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, which was developed following extensive consultation with European research stakeholders. Since its publication in June 2023, the revised Code has been steadily finding its way into the research system, with already 12 translations released on the ALLEA website, and many more to come in the coming weeks and months.
In addition, the Code prompts the development and update of national and institutional codes of conduct and is increasingly referenced in discipline-specific guidelines and (European and national) policy documents. For example, the Code inspired detailed general and field-specific guidelines for responsible Open Science, developed by the Horizon-funded ROSiE (Responsible Open Science in Europe) project, as well as the recently published guidelines on responsible use of AI in research by the European Research Area Forum.
The future of research ethics and integrity within EU-funded projects
The working group welcomed Isidoros (Dorian) Karatzas, Head of Sector for Ethics and Research Integrity at the European Commission Directorate Research & Innovation (DG-RTD), to the meeting for an extended discussion on the impact of the Code and the future of research ethics and integrity as part of EU-funded projects. Joint reflections identified additional outreach strategies, both with Academies and the wider research community, to further improve awareness and knowledge on good research practices. They also pinpointed a number of clauses from the Code where the PWGSE may be able to support researchers and their organisations by providing further context, help with interpretation, and additional resources.
Agenda highlights: insights and initiatives discussed
Further items on the agenda included reflections on and lessons learnt from the group’s recent publication on Predatory Publishing, as well as a joint statement with the ALLEA Working Group on Science Education on Scientific Literacy for Young Learners. In addition, the group discussed possible tensions that can arise when academic researchers collaborate with or are funded by the private sector, a request for feedback by the European Commission on support for projects with dual-use potential, and progress of ALLEA’s various activities as part of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).
Amidst rapid technological advancements and a growing emphasis on Open Science and digital outputs, the humanities discipline has undergone a profound evolution in scholarly practices. Integrating digital methodologies into humanities scholarship is imperative for maintaining relevance and advancing research methodologies in the swiftly evolving academic realm. This integration not only sparks a transformative shift in academic discourse but also paves the way for innovative research and scholarly outputs. ALLEA’s report ‘Recognising Digital Scholarly Outputs in the Humanities‘ illuminates the very landscape of digital humanities scholarship, addressing, evaluating, and acknowledging these transformative changes.
Maciej Maryl is an interdisciplinary researcher in digital humanities and sociology of culture.
In this interview with Dr. Maciej Maryl, Founding Director of the Digital Humanities Centre and Chair of the ALLEA Working Group E-Humanities, we delve into the significance of incorporating digital practices into humanities scholarship, acknowledging innovative research methods, and exploring strategies to navigate the challenges within this dynamic field.
Maciej Maryl: My background is in sociology and literary studies, which I combine in my research in the sociology of literature. I have always been interested in how technology reshapes the way we read and perceive culture, which was the topic of my doctoral dissertation. While working on it, I had a chance to learn digital methods from the late Prof David S Miall at the University of Alberta and Max Louwerse, then a professor at the Institute of Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis. Right after obtaining my PhD, I was tasked with establishing the Digital Humanities Centre at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which federated and coordinated scattered digital initiatives of the Institute and provided a fruitful ground for the new ones.
Right from the onset, the Centre aimed at establishing international collaborations to learn from other colleagues. It was very early that we got involved in cooperation with relevant European networks, such as NeDiMAH (Network for Digital Methods in Arts & Humanities), and research infrastructures like DARIAH (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities) and CLARIN (Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure). This not only helped us avoid reinventing the wheel, but we also became actual contributors. OPERAS, the Research Infrastructure supporting open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the European Research Area, is a great example, as my institution is one of the early champions of this research infrastructure.
Q: Why is it important for you to participate in initiatives such as OPERAS and the ALLEA E-Humanities Working group?
MM: Work for the ALLEA Working Group is special because of the unique place of academies in the humanities, where they are usually tasked with long-term, monumental projects like scholarly editions, lexicons, biographies, or bibliographies. The E-Humanities Working Group aims to guide academies concerning new methods and opportunities while taking into consideration their specificity. We want to ensure that humanities research remains aligned with FAIR principles, i.e., research data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
“We want to ensure that humanities research remains aligned with FAIR principles, i.e. research data is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.”
Q: How are advancements in data science methodologies such as Machine Learning systems enhancing Humanities research? On the other hand, what are the key obstacles to incorporating new technologies into humanities research?
MM: Digital humanities have long employed Machine Learning techniques in textual analysis or data mining. Studies of authorship attribution or recognising entities in texts are all based on such methods. To describe the use of such methods, we employ the term “distant reading”, which – as opposed to close reading of individual texts – expands a singular perspective and allows for the analysis of vast textual resources. However, these methods require interdisciplinary knowledge and data, namely corpora of texts, which are not readily available due to copyright restrictions. This underscores the importance of researchers making their data available so others can compile and use them in new projects.
Q: What was the primary aim of the new ALLEA report, ‘Recognising Digital Scholarly Outputs in the Humanities’?
MM: The report corresponds with our mission, as mentioned earlier, of making digital humanities more accessible to the academies. In this case, it is a natural follow-up or sequel to our previous report, Sustainable and FAIR Data Sharing in the Humanities, which discusses in detail the handling of humanities research data. However, we cannot expect scholars to engage with data sharing and digital practices when they receive credit only for traditional publications like journals and monographs. So, in the present report, we pave the way for recognition of such work.
Q: What would you say are the three main takeaways from the report?
MM: Well, first off, we posit that the digital is the new norm: the report highlights how digital tools and methods are changing the humanities, and digital technology is becoming essential for modern research in fields like history, languages, or arts. Secondly, scholarly work assumes new forms and formats which are better suited for digital data we are working with. The report highlights that digital projects, databases, platforms, and even software can be treated as valuable scholarly work, not just books and articles. Finally, the report argues that all forms of scholarly work, especially digital ones, need proper recognition and credit, just like any other important contribution to knowledge and culture.
Q: The report highlights the “ambiguous status of digital technologies in academia”. What are the primary barriers hindering their recognition within academic circles?
MM: Just as you need a manual or a guide to start using a new electronic device, scholars need proper interdisciplinary support and training to integrate digital tools into their workflows. I think scholars are suspicious of the new types of scholarly outputs because we don’t have standard ways of assessing what constitutes good work in academia. Our report aims to bridge this gap by positioning new genres within the long humanities tradition.
“Scholars are suspicious of the new types of scholarly outputs because we don’t have standard ways of assessing what constitutes good work in academia. Our report aims to bridge this gap by positioning new genres within the long humanities tradition.”
Q: The report highlights shortcomings in current authorship attribution schemes, where diverse contributions are often overlooked as invisible labour, especially evident in Open-Ended inputs aimed at enhancing published work. How do you propose addressing these challenges to foster a more equitable and collaborative research environment?
MM: In the humanities, we still tend to think about authorship in singular terms, and the range of credited contributions boils down to a handful: author, editor, maybe translator. People doing other work, which has become increasingly more important, like coding, data collection, cleaning, or annotation, are merely mentioned in acknowledgements or footnotes. In the best-case scenarios, they could be artificially added as co-authors, which does not reflect the specificity of their actual contribution. We need to use existing taxonomies to appropriately describe the individual’s contribution to the paper so they can receive proper recognition featured in their track record. Such descriptions may sometimes resemble movie credits, but this is the level of detail that is fair to everyone involved.
“We need to use existing taxonomies to appropriately describe the individual’s contribution to the paper, so they can receive proper recognition featured in their track record.”
Q: As a follow-up, how can we adapt evaluation systems to effectively recognise and accommodate the complexities of collective authorship in digital scholarly outputs?
MM: We should align evaluation systems with the wide range of academic contributions, not only focusing on authorship of publications (which are, of course, very important) but also considering the various ways individuals contribute to the scholarly community. The practical aspect of such evaluation is currently under discussion within the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), with a very active contribution from ALLEA.
Q: According to the report, practices in the humanities, particularly around research assessment, “should evolve to keep pace with digitisation”. Which emerging trends could have a transformative impact on the way scholars in the humanities conduct research and disseminate their findings in the future?
MM: I believe we need to support innovative work wherever it fully leverages digital technology to enhance scholarly arguments. In the report, we discuss the Journal of Digital History as a case study. It serves as a great example of how to incorporate different layers of scholarly argument into one output, including scholarly narrative, methodology, and data. Evaluation practices should evolve not only to recognise such work as scholarly output but also to acknowledge the range of contributions from various collaborators. It appears that such work not only improves scholarly communication by aligning it better with the topic and method of research but also facilitates reader engagement with specific methods and data, enabling their reuse or replication of the study.
Q: What would you say are three actions academia can implement in a fairly short time that would have a big ROI in moving the humanities into the digital age, i.e., what are some low-hanging fruits we can address right now?
MM: To recognise the potential of digital tools and methods for the humanities, academia could focus on three general actions. Firstly, we need to ensure that data for digital research is readily available in standardised formats. Hence, we not only need to prioritise the digital collection and preservation of texts, images, recordings, and other types of data but also ensure they are accessible according to the FAIR principles. Our previous report focused on this aspect.
Secondly, we need to establish digital humanities centres within academies to foster interdisciplinary hubs that combine digital technology with humanities scholarship, enabling innovation and collaboration. The Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (ACDH-CH) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences is a perfect example of employing digital methods in pursuing traditional goals of academies.
Finally, we should integrate digital tools and methods of social sciences into humanities curricula not only to broaden the scope of future research but also to provide students with tools allowing for critical scrutiny of other digital humanities outputs. Access to materials, tools, and competencies will form a good basis for digital humanities to flourish.
“We need to establish digital humanities centers within academies to foster interdisciplinary hubs that combine digital technology with humanities scholarship. Finally, we should integrate digital tools and methods of social sciences into humanities curricula.”
Q: During the consultation process, were there suggestions that surprised you or made you rethink a previously held view of digital outputs in the humanities?
MM: Actually, we were surprised by the significant response from the community. Over the course of two summer months, 28 readers left 78 comments and suggested over 200 changes in the document, which, in our opinion, was indicative of the considerable interest in the topic. The feedback was not general or fundamental but rather focused on some of the concepts we used, exemplary case studies of innovative genres, and useful resources we did not mention in the report. This was very beneficial as we aimed to provide links to all relevant resources.
Q: Were there any significant challenges not addressed in the ALLEA report regarding the recognition of digital scholarly outputs that you believe are crucial for future consideration? If so, what are they, and what strategies do you propose for addressing them?
MM: I believe that a significant challenge and opportunity for the academies currently lies in the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Through the digital activities we described in our report, the academies may be able to feature their scholarly resources and output in EOSC services. We will deliberate on this issue in the future work of the Working Group.
This interview is part of the ALLEA Digital Salon Series. The published report ‘Recognising Digital Scholarly Outputs in the Humanities‘ provides extensive insights on improving transparency in linking resources, re-evaluating authorship norms, and enhancing digital competencies for scholarly outputs.
About Maciej Maryl
Dr. Maciej Maryl is an assistant professor and the founding Director of the Digital Humanities Centre at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CHC IBL PAN). In addition to chairing the ALLEA E-humanities Working Group, he serves as an Executive Assembly member of OPERAS, and co-chairs the DARIAH Digital Methods and Practices Observatory. His research focuses on advancing digital research infrastructure for the social sciences and humanities, emphasizing data science applications, innovative scholarly communication, and meta-research on digital practices.
Read more by Maciej Maryl
