Report from first ALLEA Board meeting in Bucharest

For the first Board Meeting of 2016, the member of the ALLEA Board convened, on the kind invitation of the Romanian Academy, in Bucharest on 29 February and 1 March. With the ALLEA General Assembly approaching fast, the Board received updates on the current status of preparations. Additionally, the Board was informed about the latest developments with the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) and ALLEA’s role therein.

Romanian academyThe participants were warmly welcomed to the Academy by the Academy’s President Professor Ionel Valentin Vlad. Throughout his career as a physicist, Professor Vlad has always sought to engage in international scientific cooperation and was, thus, highly appreciative of ALLEA’s visit to his Academy. To start off the meeting, ALLEA President Günter Stock informed the participants about recent ALLEA activities and the Board members received an update on the status of membership dues for the year 2015 as well as an outlook for the year 2016. Furthermore, the participantsdiscussed the progress made in the preparation of a European Commission Horizon 2020 call, in cooperation with a consortium of academy networks, to participate in SAM.

On the second day of the meeting the group received an update on the preparation of the ALLEA General Assembly in Vienna in April 2016, with information about the speakers of the symposium and the preparation for the Mme de Staël Prize Award Ceremony, as well as an outlook to the General Assembly 2017 in Budapest.

To conclude the meeting, the Board members discussed upcoming events in 2016, followed by a visit to the library of the Romanian Academy.

The Romanian Academy (Academia Românã) was founded in April 1866 as the Romanian Literary Society. The following year it began its activities, but was now called the Romanian Academic Society. In 2016, the Academy will celebrate its 150th anniversary on 4 April. On behalf of ALLEA and its member academies, ALLEA President Günter Stock will address the audience during the festivities. In 1879, by means of special legislation, it was promulgated as a national institution with the current name of Academia Românã – the Romanian Academy. Form the very beginning the newly founded institution was a national, encyclopedic and active society. It was:

  • National, because it was representative of the culture of not only the territory of what was then Romania, but also those territories under foreign domination by the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. Hence, the 21 founding members were scholars and literati, not only from Wallachia and Moldavia, but also from Transylvania, Banat, Bukovine, Bessarabia (today the Republic of Moldova) and the Balkan Peninsula.
  • Encyclopedic, since its preoccupations embraced all domains of the arts, letters, and sciences.
  •   An active society, because the Romanian Academy was conceived by its founders as a forum of national recognition, but at the same time as an active centre of scientific research and literary and artistic creation.

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Contact:
125 Calea Victoriei, sector 1
010071 Bucharest
Romania

Phone: +40 21 212 8640
Fax: +40 1 211 6608
http://www.academiaromana.ro

Rémi Brague to be awarded 2016 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values

Bild RB 2To commemorate his extensive scholarly work on religions in Europe and his reflections on European society, the French philosopher Rémi Brague will be the third scholar to be awarded the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values; a prize initiated by ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities with the friendly support by Stiftung Mercator.

The prize will be awarded to philosopher Professor Rémi Brague by EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, in the premises of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna on 18 April 2016. His research is an important reference point for the comprehensive understanding of the relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam today. “Rémi Brague uses his extensive historical, philosophical and theological expertise to study the question what makes Europe a distinct cultural entity”, quotes Professor Günter Stock, ALLEA President and chairman of the prize jury. “He exposes the deep relationship between religion and culture, between the roots and the concepts of today. He is an eminent scholar of medieval theology, philosophy and culture of the three main religions bridging knowledge and beliefs of former times with contemporary problems.”

Rémi Brague, born in Paris in 1947, 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. His best-known works are Europe, la voie romaine (1992) (E: Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization (2009), Au moyen du Moyen Age: Philosophies médiévales en chrétienté, judaïsme et islam  (2006) (E: Legend of the Middle Ages: Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (2009) and La Loi de Dieu. Histoire philosophique d’une alliance (2005) (E: Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea (2008) and Du Dieu des Chrétiens et d’un ou deux autres (2008) (E: On the God of the Christians (and on one or two others) (2013).

The All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values is co-sponsored by Stiftung Mercator and endowed with 25,000 EUR. ALLEA established the prize to pay tribute to the boundless intellectual and cultural diversity and richness of Europe, and to highlight how outstanding scholarly work, particularly in the fields of the humanities and social sciences, contributes to the understanding of Europe as a cultural and intellectual entity. The first laureate, Professor Luisa Passerini, received the prize from former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in 2014 to honour her work on European cultural identity. In 2015, Professor Dame Helen Wallace was awarded the prize by EU Commissioner Carlos Moedas for her outstanding work on political studies and policy in Europe.

 

Click here to visit Rémi Brague’s website
Click here for more information about the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values.

SAM High Level Group meets in Brussels for the first time

On 29 January the seven leading scientists who make up the European Commission’s new Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) High Level Group met for the first time in Brussels to discuss issues the advisors will tackle in the near future and to decide on the chairmanship of the Group. The meeting was also attended by Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation as well as Andrus Ansip, the Commission’s Vice-President for the Digital Single Market.

SAM is designed to assist the European Commission with high quality and timely advice. As of the end of the meeting, SAM is officially considered to be fully operational.

Chaired by Carlos Moedas, the first point on the agenda saw the designation of the Chair and Deputy Chair of the group. Henrik C. Wegener was subsequently appointed as Chair, with Elvira Fortunato as Deputy Chair. In the following, the group laid out, how cooperation with the wider scientific community, and especially with European academies and learned societies, will take place. Carlos Moedas was pleased with the outcome and said, the group’s “experience, expertise and plans to consult European Academies of Sciences and the wider scientific community, will make an important independent contribution to science advice for European policymaking”.

The group agreed that its first advice to the Commission will be on the topic of cybersecurity. The given advice is intended to support the Commission’s efforts to build trust in the development of the Digital Single Market.

In addition, the group will also focus on CO2 emissions testing from cars and vans, in order to improve future policies regulating their measurements.
A first document where the group will work out in more detail the scope of its future work will be published in a few weeks.

For more information on the Scientific Advice Mechanism please click here

Turkish academics: ALLEA supports declaration of International Human Rights Network of Academies

ALLEA fully supports the following declaration of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies, as published on 19 January 2016, on the recent developments involving Turkish academics:

‘The International Human Rights  Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies (H.R. Network) supports and defends the rights of fellow academics, anywhere in the world, to peacefully express their lawful opinions and concerns. We, the members of the H.R. Network’s Executive Committee, are alarmed by the increasingly repressive and inflammatory reaction by Turkish government leaders, many university officials, and other intolerant individuals toward hundreds of our Turkish colleagues, solely because they publicly expressed humanitarian concerns about the grave crisis in south eastern Turkey. Surely, citizens of a democratic country such as Turkey, and its academics in particular, have a civic duty to remind their government, when deemed necessary, of its obligations to respect Turkey’s constitution, adhere to humanitarian standards for all of its citizens, and give priority to peaceful solutions in crisis situations.

We condemn any threats, false accusations, and incitement to violence against our colleagues by the government of Turkey, which is obligated, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to allow its citizens the “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” In addition, we urge the government of Turkey to protect the rights of its citizens, to desist from threatening academics who are performing their civic duties by participating in governance, and to call its operatives to order – thereby discouraging hostile action against our colleagues.’

The original declaration of the International Human Rights Networks of Academies and Scholarly Societies can be accessed here.

To download this press release please click here.

ALLEA President Guenter Stock visits Academy of Sciences of Moldova

Professor Guenter Stock receives honorary doctorate and delivers laureate speech on the role of science in shaping our future.

On 19 January 2016, ALLEA President Guenter Stock visited the Academy of Sciences of Moldova on the kind invitation of academy president Academician Gheorghe Duca in Chisinau. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the academy for his substantial contribution to the promotion of scientific excellence and academic cooperation.

Photo credit: Academy of Sciences of Moldova

Photo credit: Academy of Sciences of Moldova

In his laureate speech Guenter Stock expressed deep gratitude and pride to receive this prestigious award. He reaffirmed ALLEA’s inclusive outlook on Europe, transcending the political boundaries of the EU and highlighted the importance of scientific autonomy and independence from political, ideological and commercial interference. Especially with a view towards the European Commission’s new Scientific Advice Mechanism and the role of the academies therein, the autonomy of the science community is now more important than ever in order to provide meaningful, unbiased and evidence-based policy advice. He reiterated the unique ability and responsibility of the scientific community “to spot problems earlier than the general public and politicians” and hence derived the duty to “make our fellow citizens, our politicians aware of what the future holds and how positive solutions could be found”.

A video recording of the speech can be found on the website of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova under this link and to view the picture gallery please click here.

In addition to his laureate speech at the academy, Professor Stock signed the Book of Honorable Guests at the Museum of the academy, and inter alia met with esteemed representatives of the Moldovan scientific and medical community. Professor Stock highly commended a draft concept published by the academy towards ensuring the proper conditions for the improvement of research performance and the creation of premises to attract talented youth in research. In his position as ALLEA President he reaffirmed his offer to support and assist where possible in achieving these laudable goals.

The Academy of Sciences of Moldova (A.S.M.) is the highest scientific forum of the state, and represents the only public institution of national interest in science and innovation sphere, it is a plenipotentiary coordinator of scientific and innovation activity. Also, it is a scientific consultant of the public authorities in the Republic of Moldova and has a Statute of Autonomy and acts on the basis of self-administration principles.

Final ALLEA Board Meeting of 2015 held at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin

At its fourth and last meeting of the year the ALLEA Board came together in Dublin on the kind invitation of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) from December 7-8. At the meeting, the members of the Board discussed current and future activities as well as received an update on the latest developments concerning ALLEA’s involvement in the new Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM).

The attending members were welcomed to the Academy by Professor Mary E Daly, President of the RIA and member of the Irish government’s Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations. The first day of the meeting started with a recap by Professor Stock on ALLEA’s recent activities including the announcement of  a follow-up project to the “Survey and Analysis on Academies SSH research in Europe” which was published earlier this year. Further updates on the status of preparations for the 2016 General Assembly at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the 2016 Mme de Staël Prize for Cultural Values as well as the 2017 General Assembly to be held jointly with Academia Europaea at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences were also provided.

The Royal irish Academy

The Royal irish Academy

On December 8, the members of the Board reconvened to hear an update on the status of the Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) as well as ALLEA’s participation in the SAM Horizon 2020 call in cooperation with a new consortium of European academy organisations.

The meeting concluded with an overview of upcoming events in the next year, starting with the first Board Meeting of 2016 in Bucharest. Following the conclusion of the Board meeting, the members of the Board held a joint meeting with the Chairs of the ALLEA Working Groups.

The Royal Irish Academy champions Irish academic research. One of its principal roles is to identify and recognise Ireland’s world class researchers. It supports excellent scholarship and promotes awareness of how science and the humanities enrich our lives.

The Academy is an all-island independent forum that brings together the worlds of academia, government and industry, to address issues of mutual interest through major outreach events and legacy projects. Drawing on the expertise of its Members, the Academy makes a significant contribution to public debate and public policy formation on issues in science, technology and culture. The Academy leads important national research projects, particularly in areas relating to Ireland and its heritage. In addition, the Academy represents the world of Irish learning internationally, maintains and enhances a unique globally-recognised library and is a leading academic publisher.

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Contact:
19 Dawson Street
Dublin
Ireland

Phone: +353 1 676 2570
Fax: +353 1 676 23 46
http://www.ria.ie

Taking stock: The Integration of Social Sciences and Humanities in Horizon 2020

ALLEA participates in Meeting between DG Research and Stakeholders in SSH Research

On 2 December 2015, ALLEA participated in the second external stakeholder workshop on the Integration of Social Sciences and Humanities in Horizon 2020. The invitation-only workshop gathered a limited number of eminent experts from European and international scientific organisations active in the fields of social sciences and humanities as well as representatives from the European Commission, particularly from its Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. ALLEA was represented by Professor John Bell, Chair of the ALLEA Working Group on Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and Fellow of the British Academy.

The meeting followed up on a first workshop on “Embedding Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in Horizon 2020” held in Brussels in November 2014. With these workshops, the Commission intends to receive feedback from various involved SSH stakeholders on how to further improve the integration of research in the social sciences and humanities in Horizon 2020. In 2014, participants were invited to provide feedback on the quality of the integration of SSH in the first calls of Horizon 2020. Furthermore, they provided feedback on how to further improve true interdisciplinarity in the calls, with the SSH as an integral part of the research projects to be funded. This year’s workshop focussed on a discussion around the recently published Commission Monitoring Report on the integration of Social Sciences and Humanities in Horizon 2020 in the first calls for proposals of Horizon 2020.

The invited members of the scientific community concluded that considerable progress had been made in improving the integration of SSH. However, several Societal Challenges would still benefit from further integration while other areas even show a worrisome lack of SSH input at all. In agreement with the Commission’s conclusion that more efforts and actions are still required for the SSH to become an integral part of the development process for new research questions, the stakeholders identified several areas of improvement to strengthen the role of SSH in Horizon 2020 calls. It was noted that experts with SSH expertise constituted only a minority within H2020 Expert Advisory Groups as well as among proposal evaluators. In addition, Societal Challenges that would naturally require a stronger inclusion of Humanities subjects too often show low levels of inclusion (SC 6&7). In terms of geographic distribution, the participants raised concerns that countries from Central and Eastern Europe still show very low participation rates and project coordination is most often awarded to countries with strong infrastructure to support the preparation of bids.

In its concluding remarks the Commission reaffirmed its plans to continue the publication of an annual monitoring report. In addition, the importance of deeper SSH inclusion in “Societal Challenges” was underlined and concrete actions were highlighted to improve the integration of SSH in Horizon 2020. The Commission committed to continuing the fruitful and constructive exchange with the SSH stakeholder community and announced that the next stakeholder meeting will be held in June 2016.

New ALLEA Statement “On the Status of the Patent System of the European Union” issued by PWG IPR

In June 2011, ALLEA via its Permanent Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issued a Statement on “The Future Patent System of the European Union” which supported the creation of a European patent with unitary effect and the renewal of the European Commission’s efforts to harmonise employee’s invention laws as well as provide for a grace period in order to facilitate implementation of the anticipated unitary EU patenting rules.

ALLEA’s newest statement prepared by the PWG IPR revisits these issues in light of recent developments regarding EU patent regulation on the basis of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC Agreement) signed by 25 Member States in February 2013 as well as the 2012 Unitary Patent Regulation and the 2012 Regulation on translation arrangements.

Thumbnail_Statement Patent SystemThe statement welcomes the introduction of these pieces of legislation “despite the fact that the three legal instruments constitute a complex and complicated compromise, which does not meet all the expectations and whose implementation into practice will have to overcome several hurdles”. It then proceeds to assess the difficulties and deficiencies that will arise in the course of their imminent implementation. For example, the Unitary Patent Regulation and the UPC Agreement reveal a problematic situation in which the validity of “unitary effect”-holding patents is dependent on the date of their respective Member State’s accession to the UPC Agreement.

Thus, the statement offers several recommendations for resolving these issues and emphasises that the coordination of Member States’ accession to the UPC Agreement is essential for avoiding inconsistencies and confusion related to the unitary effect of patents. Moreover, ALLEA via the PWG IPR reaffirms its commitment to supporting the introduction of the aforementioned grace period, which still remains unaddressed in the existing legislation.

This statement will be addressed to the relevant European authorities and national governments in an effort to concretely contribute to the continuing development of the European patent system.

Please click here to read the full statement.

ALLEA President delivers MacCormick European Lecture in Edinburgh

On 4 November 2015, ALLEA President Günter Stock delivered the annual MacCormick European Lecture at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the kind invitation of RSE President Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. In his lecture, Professor Stock reflected upon the role of academies in the age of the Enlightenment, drawing a parallel to today’s contemporary academies and arguing that providing scientific advice can be viewed as a form of “modern enlightenment”. Ulti­mately, the mandate of academies remains to enlighten – by upholding and continuing this tradition of enabling the discovery and communication of scientific knowledge. The following text encapsulates the main themes of enlightenment and the academies as conveyed by Professor Stock in his lecture.

Academies were a result and at the same time an enormous driving force of and for the Enlightenment. And hence, academies like the RSE rightly consider themselves as enlightenment societies. The German writer Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach once said, “Who doesn’t know anything, has to believe everything,” a modern version of the phrase used by Immanuel Kant during the Enlightenment: sapere aude.

UK_Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh

Through learning how to understand, interpret, and analyse our world we have created as Jürgen Mittelstraß calls it a Leonardo world. It is therefore obvious that our responsibility for the future of this – our – world is enormous. Whatever the outcomes of what we have achieved might be, they can only truly be mastered with more and better information, knowledge, and science in general, with more wisdom. In recent years, we have learned that the great challenges ahead of us such as climate, energy, health, and inequalities, to name only a few, can only be tackled or, to say more modestly, can only be approached if we are able to combine all of the current knowledge we have and make this knowledge available in a qualitative and timely fashion.

To allow for taking the appropriate measures and developing the means to respond to these challenges, quality assurance and interdisciplinarity of the highest possible standards are the first mandates which have to be brought forward by academia and hence by academies. In a world with ever increasing knowledge, universal geniuses – if they really existed once upon a time – to whom one could conceivably delegate issues and problems are no longer available. It is civil society that needs to understand, in principle, what is needed in order to properly decide upon and implement measures.

It is exactly this responsibility which has to be accepted – not exclusively, but to a great extent – by modern academies. First, they need to help society to develop the necessary mental attitude and then show society what options and alternatives are currently available based on scientific knowledge and judgment. We call this scientific advice or, more histrionically, modern enlightenment.

This enlightenment or science-based advice is of course a global endeavour, a national endeavour, and, even more so, a European task. Currently, a European academy consortium (Academia Europaea, ALLEA, EASAC, Euro-CASE, and FEAM) is preparing, together with the European Commission, a new mechanism for scientific advice (SAM), which will be an important contribution to the improvement of European political efficiency.

Last but not least, European academies have both a mandate and the obligation to preserve, interpret, and make available in the broadest possible sense the European cultural heritage and its relationship with the global cultural heritage. This indispensable task means that we must strive to underline and support what our predecessors have called the “soul” of Europe. Thus, the term enlightenment is neither outdated nor old-fashioned: it is the essence of modern academies.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland’s national academy. Founded in 1783, its Fellowship includes some of the best intellectual talent in academia, the professions and business. It facilitates public debate, research programmes, educational projects and strategy formulation. Its strength is its diversity and impartiality. The Society’s unique multi-disciplinary approach enables it to draw from and link with a broad spectrum of expertise to advance the understanding of globally-important issues. In fulfilling its Royal Charter for the ‘advancement of learning and useful knowledge’, the RSE is seeking to contribute to the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of Scotland.

Contact:
22-26 George Street
Edinburgh, EH2 2PQ, Scotland
United Kingdom

Phone: +44 131 240 5000
Fax: +44 131 240 5024
http://www.royalsoced.org.uk

Supplementary Statement on Open Access released by ALLEA Permanent Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights

Recently, the ALLEA permanent working group on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) elaborated a new supplementary statement on the topic on open access. The Working Group has devoted much attention to this topic in the past two years, having published a Statement on Enhancement of Open Access to Scientific Publications in Europe in Europe as well as a Follow-up Statement on open access. After taking recent laws in the Netherlands and Germany into consideration, the working group has formulated the supplementary statement that can be accessed via the link below.

Supplementary Statement thumbnailIn its 2013 Statement on Enhancement of Open Access to Scientific Publications in Europe, ALLEA invited the European authorities to take measures to facilitate the transition to an Open Access (OA) model for publications in scientific journals. In their supplementary statement, the authors now encourage the European authorities to “advocate, or adopt a legislation on a copyright contract law provision allowing the authors of short scientific works resulting from a publicly-funded research to make their work available to the public free of charge following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published.” Thereby, the statement specifies, the deployment of the so-called Green OA model can be facilitated.

Both the Netherlands and Germany recently have adopted such provisions that give the scientific authors the right to make their article freely available despite any provision to the contrary in their contract with the publisher of the journal.

In the statement, the Working Group suggests that such authors’ rights should apply to articles, and not to books: “[I]t should be limited to short publications resulting from publicly- and in particular EU-funded research programs (not from private research); the free making available should happen after a reasonable period of time allowing the publisher to recoup its investment.”

Those provisions “do not create a new copyright exception […] but only affect the assignability of the economic rights of the authors”. This supplementary statement encourages European institutions concerned with the dissemination of scientific research to consider similar measures which could be adopted at European or national level and to devote more attention to the awareness of author rights in open access models.

Please click here to read the full statement.