NEWS

Registration for the Symposium ‘Transforming Science’ Is Now Open

The registration for the symposium ‘Transforming Science: Pathways Towards Sustainability and Trustworthiness’ is now open. The event will take place in Brussels and online on 11-12 May 2022. Scientists, policymakers and professionals from across Europe will join to discuss current trends pressing science in light of the transformations occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Call for Early/Mid-Career Researchers: European Crucible 2022

The call for applications to participate in European Crucible 2022 is open to applicants from European institutions until 21 February 2022. The call is open to early/mid-career researchers from Scotland or Europe who are carrying out research in science, engineering, technology, medicine, healthcare, arts, design, humanities, business, or social and political science.

Breakthrough Prize Opens Public Nominations for 2023

The public nomination period for the 2023 Breakthrough Prizes in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics is now open. Nominations can be submitted online today through April 1, 2022. While self-nominations are prohibited, anyone may nominate another person. The nomination forms and rules are available at breakthroughprize.org.

Final Conference: ‘Health Inequalities: New Methods, Better Insights?’

Hosted virtually by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) on 8 December, the conference 'Health Inequalities: New Methods, Better Insights?' served as the official presentation of the final report produced within the three-year-long ALLEA-FEAM Health Inequalities project.

A Patent Waiver Is Not a Silver Bullet in the Pursuit of Vaccine Equity

The low level of Covid-19 vaccination in the Global South is ethically unacceptable and risks prolonging the pandemic. The patent waiver will not solve these vaccination bottlenecks in the short-term. Instead, additional measures should be adopted to accelerate local manufacturing and distribution of vaccines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), ramp up investment in vaccination campaigns, and facilitate the compulsory licensing of patents and transfer of know-how.

UN Proclaims 2022 as the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development

We need more basic sciences to achieve Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This is the message sent to the world by the United Nations General Assembly on 2 December 2021: Member States approved by consensus the resolution 76/A/L.12 promulgating the year 2022 as the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD 2022).

UNESCO General Conference Adopts Recommendation on Open Science

The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science has been adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO at its 41st session on 23 November 2021. The Recommendation defines shared values and principles for Open Science and identifies concrete measures on Open Access and Open Data, with proposals to bring citizens closer to science and to facilitate the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge.

PERITIA Lectures: 10 Speakers, 1400+ Participants, 200+ Questions

The PERITIA lectures series [Un]Truths: Trust in an Age of Disinformation came to an end this Tuesday with the final lecture ‘Expertise, Democracy and the Politics of Trust’ by Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School). Her lecture brought the series to a close with a reflection on the changing role of expertise across different political cultures.

Future of Science Communication Conference: Interactive Portal Now Available

On 24-25 June 2021, ALLEA partnered with Wissenschaft im Dialog to organise the 2021 Future of Science Communication Conference. An interactive portal is now available to revisit all the panel discussions and audiovisual content created during the two-day conference.

New Methods to Study Health Inequalities Require Investments in Data Infrastructures, European Academies Report Says

A new generation of scientific methods are helping to better understand health inequalities in Europe, but investments in data infrastructures are required to make use of its full potential for informing policymaking, European academies say in a new report.

ALLEA Awards Legal Scholar Helen Keller at the 2021 Madame de Staël Prize Lecture

On Saturday 6 November, ALLEA celebrated its annual Madame de Staël Prize Lecture. On this occassion, the 2021 Madame de Staël Prize laureate, Professor Helen Keller, accepted her award and delivered a lecture in a hybrid event hosted by the Swiss Embassy in Berlin. This event took place as part of the Berlin Science Week.

ALLEA Signs Open Letter Calling for Finalising UK Association to Horizon Europe

An open letter to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed by 25 European umbrella research and innovation organisations - including ALLEA - urges the European Commission and UK Government to work towards a successful UK association to Horizon Europe, “to safeguard this valuable and mutually beneficial R&I cooperation”.

“Climate Action is Slow for a Combination of Understandable Reasons”

Climate action has been far too slow. Why? The obvious answer: distrust of the science. Yet, even in places where the scientific findings have been accepted, and even as scepticism is waning, the response remains sluggish. Philosopher Philip Kitcher sheds a light on some of the forces that continue to hold climate action back.

It Matters How We Open Knowledge – ALLEA Statement on Equity in Open Access

Today, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) published the statement “Equity in Open Access” that addresses how “gold” open access publishing routes and large read-and-write deals contribute to establishing inequitable structures within academic research.

ALLEA Leads New SAPEA Project on Strategic Crisis Management in the EU

ALLEA is taking the lead on a new SAPEA project on the topic “Strategic Crisis Management in the EU”, to address a question raised by European Commissioners to the Scientific Advice Mechanism: Based on a broad and multidisciplinary understanding, how can the EU improve its strategic crisis management?