What's going on?

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.

On 22 June, the co-initiators of the Stick to Science initiative have sent an open letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, asking her to intervene urgently in the critical issue for science created by the delay of the association of the United Kingdom and Switzerland to Horizon Europe.

Science Europe will contribute to the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) 2022 with sessions on several key topics: the green and digital transition, research careers, open science, and the reform of research assessment systems.

The European reform of research assessment initiative is taking shape, and the Reform of Research Assessment Agreement is almost final. Soon, the process of establishing a coalition before the end of 2022 will start.

The first Workshop of a cycle of three events dedicated to Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence took place on 24 May. A main line of Science Europe is to promote ‘Brain Circulation’, as opposed to the ‘Brain Drain’ phenomenon.

On 10 June, the Competitiveness Council adopted Conclusions on Research Assessment and the Implementation of Open Science.