Archive for category: ALLEA News

The Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) has advised the European Commission on how to strengthen Europe’s position in the development and deployment of advanced materials.

The Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA), through its working group of renowned scientists nominated by European academies to work on the topic, played a pivotal role in this advice. The experts provided the overview of the current scientific knowledge on the topic — which the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (GCSA) has used to inform their policy recommendations.

The SAPEA Evidence Review Report and the GCSA Scientific recommendations were submitted on 21 April in Brussels to Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.

The advice comes in support of the upcoming Advanced Materials Act.

Advanced materials, including superconducting materials for computers, biomaterials for drug delivery, and materials that store or distribute energy more efficiently, are designed to deliver superior performance for specific functionalities. These materials are essential for Europe’s autonomy, competitiveness, and resilience.

As co-chair of the SAPEA working group, Anke Weidenkaff, explains, “Europe leads in computational modelling and first-principles simulation codes, yet lacks the high-quality, specialised datasets needed for AI-driven discovery of more sustainable materials. Additionally, Europe’s fragmented cross-border economic ecosystems weaken its ability to compete with concentrated advanced materials manufacturing hubs elsewhere.”

Based on the evidence provided by SAPEA, the GCSA made a range of policy recommendations to the European Commission for advancing Europe’s advanced materials ecosystem, including:

• Safety and sustainability from the outset: Progressive criteria and standards should be applied, with increasing requirements as the technology comes closer
  to market.
• Circular economy and material substitution: Given geopolitical volatility and unreliable supply chains, the EU needs more circular systems that maximise
  recovery and reuse of materials.
• Digitalisation and FAIR data: The EU should develop common data languages, enforce FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles
  across all research, and use AI to connect databases and benefit from existing scientific literature.
• Standards as enablers: Europe’s strength in standards and regulation can become a competitive advantage, provided standards are designed to enable
  rather than hinder innovation. Clear, applicable standards reduce time to market and build investor confidence.
• Coordinated ecosystems: Transforming scientific advances into market-ready products requires closing the gap between research and industrial
  manufacturing. The EU must strengthen connections between discovery, scaleup and manufacturing, provide more support to small and medium enterprises,
  and harmonise regulatory approvals across the continent.
• Support fundamental research: Investment must expand to include education pipelines and address training and skills shortages.

“Investment in fundamental research and human capacity is crucial. Fundamental science requires long-term, predictable funding without expectations of rapid returns,” concluded SAPEA co-chair Olli Ikkala.

The Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) provides independent scientific evidence and policy recommendations to the College of European Commissioners on any subject, including on issues that the European Parliament and the Council consider to be of major importance. The SAM comprises the Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA),  a consortium of academy networks that includes over a hundred academies, young academies, and learned societies, including ALLEA, whose role is to review and synthesise evidence and the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (GCSA), seven eminent scientists whose role is to make policy recommendations.

For the full evidence review report and scientific opinion on Advanced Materials, visit the Scientific Advice Mechanism website.  For more information, contact Justine Moynat.

ALLEA can now count among its members the UK Young Academy following recent election by current membership. This addition marks the eighth Young Academy within the ALLEA network. Bringing this academy into ALLEA’s network not only supports young academics – it fosters further cooperation between Young and Senior Academies as well.

The UK Young Academy is a UK-wide, interdisciplinary membership organisation of early-career individuals who are passionate about making a difference in the world. Bringing together a diverse membership of researchers, innovators, clinicians, professionals, academics and entrepreneurs, it works to tap into the collective potential and expertise of its membership to tackle important issues in society at local, national and global levels, and provide a voice to the UK’s early-career landscape.

The Young Academy was established in 2022 as a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the seven senior academies across the UK and Ireland: the Academy of Medical Sciences, British Academy, Learned Society of Wales, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Irish Academy, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Royal Society. It currently sits under the operational auspices of the Royal Society. 

On 16 March, ALLEA welcomed Tatjana König as the new Director of the Secretariat. Ms König brings extensive leadership experience to ALLEA, having served for many years as Managing Director of the Falling Walls Foundation, an international platform connecting leaders in science, innovation, and society. Following her tenure at Falling Walls, she was a  member of the Executive Board of the Körber-Stiftung, which amongst its many activities annually awards the Körber European Science Prize to honor distinguished scientists conducting research in Europe. At the Foundation, Ms König oversaw the education, science, and communications portfolios, and spearheaded the modernisation of its communications activities.

I am delighted to be appointed Director of ALLEA and to work with all its member academies in jointly strengthening the role of science in society, in ensuring scientific integrity, and defending academic freedom, which is more important than ever. 

– Tatjana König, Director, ALLEA 

Ms König’s wide-ranging expertise in academic settings, politics, complex organisational leadership, stakeholder engagement, and international networks places her in a prime position to lead ALLEA’s diverse strategic interests at the nexus of science and policy, and the secretariat welcomes the chance to work with her, on behalf of ALLEA’s member academies.

 

How can the invisible labour of peer review be meaningfully recognised and rewarded? This question was at the heart of the recent workshop, Turning Recommendations into Reality: Implementing Mechanisms for Recognising and Rewarding Peer Review, which brought together funders, research institutions, publishers, and researchers in Berlin to move from principles to practice.

On 15 January 2026, ALLEA, on behalf of the CoARA Working Group on Recognising and Rewarding Peer Review, organised a hybrid workshop in Berlin to build on its recommendations published in July 2025, which outlined practical ways to better acknowledge peer review as a core scholarly contribution. Participants discussed mechanisms ranging from recognising review activities in CVs and performance evaluations, to registering contributions in research information systems and platforms such as ORCID.

Discussions also highlighted broader challenges facing the peer review system. While openness and transparency are increasingly encouraged, participants emphasised the need for flexibility across disciplines. In some fields, open peer review may strengthen collaboration and recognition, participants cautioned that in others anonymity remains essential due to competitive pressures and power imbalances between junior and senior researchers. Another recurring theme was sustainability. With the volume of publications continuing to rise, many participants noted the growing imbalance between submissions and available reviewers. Proposals such as linking submissions to a proportional number of reviews were discussed as potential ways to re-balance the system and reinforce peer review as a shared academic responsibility.

The workshop concluded with hands-on design sprints, where participants developed pilot proposals to test new approaches to recognising peer review. These ideas, which focused on implementable and scaleable solutions, were designed to support organisations in embedding peer review recognition into research assessment practices and advancing CoARA’s broader goal of more responsible and holistic evaluation systems. Some points highlighted during the design sprint include:

• Exploring the feasibility of assigning formal credit to reviewers, such as issuing certificates, DOIs for review reports, or other verifiable recognition mechanisms. These credits could be publicly visible where appropriate and incorporated into academic evaluations, helping to incentivise high-quality reviewing while preserving flexibility for anonymous peer review where needed.
• Using existing infrastructures, such as ORCID profiles or institutional CRIS systems, to systematically record peer review activities. By registering reviews in a verifiable way, researchers could demonstrate their reviewing contributions across publishers and funders, enabling portable and standardised recognition across institutions.
• Institutions and funders could introduce dedicated sections in CVs, grant applications, and annual review processes where researchers report their peer review activities.
• Making peer review activities more open open and transparent could improve the qualities of reviews, and ultimately allow contribute to research excellence by not only increasing accountability, but by offering the possibility of reviewers collaborating with authors in the long-term.

If you would like to consider piloting the recommendations of the CoARA Working Group on Recognising and Rewarding Peer Review, register your interest here.