Archive for category: ALLEA News

In its first meeting since the 2016 General Assembly, the ALLEA Board came together in Minsk on 20/21 June, on the kind invitation of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, to discuss ongoing ALLEA business and to lay the groundwork for the impending start of the SAPEA project in autumn.

On the first day of the meeting, the members of the Board were welcomed by the President of the Belarusian Academy, Academician Vladimir Gusakov, who expressed his deep gratitude for ALLEA’s interest in the science system of his country and highlighted how membership in ALLEA has led to many fruitful cooperation agreements with other academies across Europe. The NASB has been a member of ALLEA since its foundation in 1994

The following meeting saw for the first time the participation and accreditation of the newly elected Board Members Hubert Bocken of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts, Brigitte Mazohl of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and of Krista Varantola of the Council of Finnish Academies.

Picture credit: National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

The focus of the meeting on the first day was on the implementation of issues which were agreed upon during the ALLEA General Assembly in Vienna as well as other recent, on-going and future activities of ALLEA and partners.

The second day of the meeting primarily dealt with ALLEA’s role in the SAPEA project, in which ALLEA as a consortium partner together with Academia Europaea, EASAC, Euro-CASE and FEAM will be providing science advice to policy makers in the European Commission. As such, possible avenues for ALLEA member academies to get involved in the project were discussed and followed-up from the General Assembly.

Additionally, the Presidency was pleased to report on active working groups, with the Permanent Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights finalizing a statement on CRISPR-Cas technology, the Permanent Working Group on Science & Ethics working on a revision of the European Code of Conduct of Research Integrity and the Working Group Science Education preparing the third AEMASE conference in Malta.

The meeting was concluded with an exquisite cultural programme organized by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and discussions on ways to foster cooperation between NASB and sister academies in Europe under the umbrella of ALLEA.

The ALLEA Board was accompanied during its visit by NASB Chief Scientific Secretary Alexander Kilchevski and the Head of the Department for International Cooperation, Vladimir Podkopaev.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture: The ALLEA Board, absent: Daniela Jezova, Nikolay Miloshev

 The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NAS of Belarus, or NASB) is the highest
state scientific organization of the Republic of Belarus, which carries out the organization and
coordination of fundamental and applied research performed by all subjects of scientific
activities, provides fundamental and applied research and developments in the main directions of
natural, engineering, social sciences, the humanities and arts with the purpose of obtaining new
knowledge about human, society, nature and artificial objects and increasing the scientific and
technical, intellectual and spiritual potential of the Republic of Belarus. The National Academy
of Sciences carries out the organization, conduction and coordination of the state of scientific
expertise, pursues common state policy, coordination and state regulation of activities of
organizations in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, serves as an
umbrella organization of Belarus on scientific and methodological support of informatisation
development, and also carries out some functions of a republican body of state management in
the field of science

For pictures and a report (in English) of the meeting by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus please click here.

The President of Austria, Heinz Fischer, opened the scientific symposium on the freedom of scientific research

Madame de Staël Prize awarded to Rémi Brague by Commissioner Johannes Hahn

The President of Austria, Heinz Fischer, opened the 17^th ALLEA General Assembly and welcomed the participants of the scientific symposium “The Freedom of Scientific Research in the Face of Political and Societal Demands” which took place at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna on 18 April 2016.
At the award ceremony in the evening, Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations, awarded the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values to French philosopher Rémi Brague.

The 17^th ALLEA General Assembly was opened by Heinz Fischer, President of Austria, and Professor Anton Zeilinger, President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences hosting the conference, and Professor Günter Stock, President of ALLEA, with a scientific symposium on The Freedom of Scientific Research in the Face of Political and Societal Demands.

Symposium speakers included ERC President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, physicist Sir Peter Knight, chair of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council at the UK Ministry of Defence until 2010, as well as the former President of the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice, Professor Irmgard Griss, and former German State Minister for Culture and the Media, Professor Julian Nida-Rümelin. The symposium discussed the increasing interactions between the scientific, political and societal spheres, their risks and opportunities, from a scientific perspective and aimed to contribute to advancing the discourse about the autonomy of scientific research on the European level.

In the subsequent festive ceremony for the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, former Austrian Federal Minister for Science and Research, handed over the ALLEA prize to French philosopher Rémi Brague, expressing: “The prize gives humanities a true European framework and helps establishing a distinct European cultural identity! I warmly congratulate today’s laureate Rémi Brague for his distinct contribution and ALLEA for the tireless effort of working on a better Europe.”

The laureate is professor emeritus of Arabic and medieval philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and holds the Romano Guardini chair of philosophy (emeritus) at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Professor Brague’s work provides an invaluable wealth of analysis on the interplay between Judaism, Christianity and Islam as they progressed through history.

“Rémi Brague uses his extensive historical, philosophical and theological expertise to study the question what makes Europe a distinct cultural entity”, stated Professor Günter Stock, ALLEA President and chairman of the prize jury, in his speech to the ceremony’s international audience at the Austrian Academy.

The All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values is co-sponsored by Stiftung Mercator and endowed with 25,000 EUR. The prize is awarded to eminent scholars whose work represents a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual values of Europe and to the idea of European integration. More information can be found here.

Click here to download the full programme for the symposium and award ceremony.

Business meeting 2016: delegates from more than 40 academies across Europe elect Board for 2016-18 and welcome new members

The symposium and award ceremony were followed by the annual meeting of ALLEA on 19 April 2016. In the course of the meeting, again hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the ALLEA Board was (re-) elected for the term 2016-18 and the delegates of ALLEA member academies voted in favour of admitting new members to the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities.

At the annual meeting on 19 April the member academies of ALLEA confirmed in office all re-nominated current Board members and elected three new members for the next term (2016-18). With the election, the ALLEA Board for the next two years includes members from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Israel, Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

In addition to the Board elections, the ALLEA delegates voted to welcome two new full ALLEA members, the Royal Norwegian Society of Science and Letters and the Learned Society of Wales.

Delegates heard reports from the ALLEA Presidency and from chairs and representatives of ALLEA working groups. A focus of the meeting laid on ALLEA’s involvement in the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM  which was discussed in detail. Delegates presented and deliberated on topics currently addressed by their academies across Europe which could well be further elaborated at the European level as a contribution to the science policy advice which academies will provide via their European networks.

More information on the 2016 ALLEA General Assembly, including pictures of the symposium and award ceremony, can soon be found here.

The ALLEA permanent Working Group on Science & Ethics held its first meeting in 2016 in the exquisite premises of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities on 18 and 19 February. Following a dinner with academy Vice-President Professor Anders Andrén, the group had a busy schedule for the second day of the meeting, including the election of a new chair and a discussion about a potential update of the ALLEA-ESF European Code of Research Integrity.

The meeting welcomed the attendance of the Chair of the ALLEA Permanent Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights, Professor Joseph Straus. He came to Stockholm to offer valuable input on issues surrounding open access and the patentability of plants. Professor Straus’ attendance is a further sign of continued cooperation between ALLEA working groups, a development that is intended to continue in the future.

A particular welcome was also extended to the new members of the working group, Els van Damme from the The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts and Maura Hiney from the Royal Irish Academy.

In one of the first decisions of the day, the Chair of the working group, Professor Göran Hermerén was re-elected to chair the group for another three years. The participants thanked Göran Hermerén for his work and he voiced appreciation for the support and is optimistic the working group will continue to provide work of importance for the scientific community in general and for ALLEA and the member academies in particular.

Another important item on the meeting’s agenda was the consideration of a potential update for the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. The original document was released in 2010 together with the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the members of the group agreed that an update and the inclusion of new issues would be highly desirable. The group will now look into potential amendments to the code, taking into consideration related documents that have been published since the original publication of the code. Results are intended to be presented at the fifth World Conference on Research Integrity in Amsterdam at the end of May 2017.

The next meeting of the working group is planned for autumn 2016 in a yet to be decided location.

Queen Lovisa Ulrika founded the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities 20 March 1753 to promote research and other activities in the humanities, theology, law, and social science disciplines, as well as stewardship of cultural heritage sites.

The Academy’s aims are:

• to initiate and support international collaboration in the disciplines within the Academy’s field of activities;
• to publish academic writings in the Academy’s domain;
• to support deserving researchers and others who have furthered the objectives of the Academy;
• to issue statements in matters related to the domain of the Academy’s activities

 

The Academy awards three major prizes and several smaller ones.

As a free learned society the academy receives no governmental funding but has through multiple donations built up considerable capital.

The Academy supports extensive conference and symposium activities and funds projects of great academic value that are not given priority by governmental financiers.

To read more about the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities click here.

For more information about the ALLEA Permanent Working Group Science & Ethics click here.