What's going on?

Science Europe participates in an OECD Expert Group on ‘Very Large Research Infrastructures’ (VLRIs), and as a satellite meeting of the main International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI 2022), the Expert Group met in Brno (Czech Republic) on 17 October to host a workshop dedicated to the topics of VLRI financing, impact, and long-term strategies. 

The 19^th Annual Meeting of the Science and Technology in Society Forum (STS forum) took place at the Kyoto International Conference Center, Kyoto (Japan), 2-4 October 2022, with the participation of nearly 1,000 global leaders in science and technology, policymaking, business, and media from over 80 countries, regions, and international organizations.

On the occasion of the International Open Access Week 2022 (OA Week 2022) from 24 - 30 October Science Europe reaffirms Open Science as a cross-cutting priority and puts a spotlight on the many activities, initiatives and events carried out in the past months.

The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment launches a Call for candidates for CoARA Chair, Vice-Chair(s) and other Steering Board Members and releases its finalised Governance documents.  

Science Europe firmly condemns the violent response to the demonstrations, the violation of human rights, and the restriction of academic freedom. It calls for the immediate end to the crackdown and to the deployment of security forces in universities, to the release of detained protestors, and to an impartial investigation into the death of Mahsa Amini. Science Europe stands behind women in Iran, supports the ongoing demonstrations, and expresses its solidarity with all victims of the repression.

The Nobel Prizes were announced this week. Every October, six prizes are awarded to reward an individual's or organisation's significant contribution in a specific field. Prizes are given for medicine, physics, chemistry, economic science, literature and peace work. Science Europe warmly felicitates all the laureates. 

Science Europe together with cOAlition S, OPERAS, and the French National Research Agency (ANR) organised the Diamond Open Access Conference on 19 and 20 September 2022 in Zadar on the beautiful Croatian coast and online. The event was sponsored by the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research (MESR) and kindly hosted by the University of Zadar. 

An extensive co-creation exercise throughout the first half of 2022 that gathered the interests and perspectives of +350 organisations from over 40 countries led to the publication of an Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment on 20 July. 

What can countries do to reduce the R&I disparities in Europe? How can national and European funding be used in a complementary way to widen participation in European programmes? What national measures have been developed to boost brain circulation? On 27 September Science Europe members met to address these important questions and exchange on successful initiatives. 

On 23 and 24 November in Zurich, Science Europe, in collaboration with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), will organise the 14^th High Level Workshop on ERA. The topic of this year is Research Ethics and Integrity in the Context of Public Engagement 

This ‘Coalition on Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA)’ will be established before the end of 2022 by organisations that have signed the Agreement. This week, at a high level session of the EU R&I Days, the collection of signatures will be officially opened through the launch of the CoARA website. 

Aix-Marseille Université, cOAlition S, and Science Europe are pleased to announce that they are participating in a Horizon Europe project called ‘Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication’ (DIAMAS). 

Science Europe pays a tribute to the life of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II.

Science Europe, the European University Association, and Dr Karen Stroobants, supported by the European Commission, present an agreement on the reform of research assessment, the result of over six months of co-creation with more than 350 organisations from over 40 countries.

Summer is nearly upon us, and we have prepared an overview of the many and varied activities carried out by Science Europe in the first six months of 2022 - a perfect reading list wherever you may be enjoying the summer weeks ahead. 

This morning (8 July), Science Europe & the European University Association, with the European Commission, hosted the 3rd stakeholder assembly of the reform of research assessment initiative.