Letter from the editor
The first thing I want to do here is to say a big thank-you to Janna who has published this issue on the web despite the disruption of the Euroscience office move this week. Our new home is still in Strasbourg but now we share an address with the European Science Foundation. The two organisations are natural neighbours. We anticipate much cross-fertilisation of ideas and satisfying scientific companionship.
This issue of The Euroscientist covers a number of different topics. Enrico Predazzi’s team in Torino is, of course, very hard at work now preparing for ESOF2010. The event is only 12 months away now so there is a busy year ahead for them. Read more >>
Towards ESOF 2010 in Torino
After a rough start, things are now progressing rather smoothly and the team is now operating quite efficiently.The Call for Proposals for the Scientific Programme has been so far successful. In addition, almost all plenary and keynote speakers have been selected and invited by the Programme Committee. It’s a formidable and diverse list of prominent scholars (including three Nobel laureates), more than one third of which are women.
The Career, Science to Business and Science in the City programmes are also shaping up, and we expect a good return of proposals by mid-September, when the deadline is set. Read more>>
Issues for Young Scientists
Eurodoc speech
by Karoline Holländer (outgoing president) and Nikola Macharova (incoming president)[from the Second Annual meeting of the EUA Council for Doctoral Education, 4 – 5 June 2009, University of Lausanne, Switzerland]
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It
is a great pleasure for me as the new President of Eurodoc – The
European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers [and me
as outgoing President] – to speak here at this conference.
We
would like to address our special thanks to the organisers – especially
the representatives of the European University Association and the
University of Lausanne as host of the convention – for giving us the
opportunity to speak on behalf of the European federation of national
organisations of young researchers. Read more >>
Documenting Diversity in European Doctoral Education
by Karoline Holländer, Sverre Lundemo, Zaza Nadja, Lee Hansen and Nikola Macharova, Eurodoc“There is a lack of comparable data on doctoral programmes and on how the doctorate within Europe is perceived. Some outcomes from national surveys, or surveys only on some topics can be found. However, these only focus on single areas of the doctorate and do not give information which provides a "general overview" on the situation of doctoral programmes and doctoral candidates in Europe. Making decisions and recommendations without having data showing the whole picture complicates the situation. This is made even worse by the diversity and the direction of structural and organisational reforms in Europe, which have taken place during the last decade. Read more >>
Media coverage of ESOF
by Michael Kessler, Media Manager, ESOF 2008I’d like to belatedly respond to the analysis of ESOF 2008 media operations offered by both Ingrid Wünning Tschol and István Palugyai in last August`s Euroscientist newsletter. In doing so I’ll base my response on the media evaluation which I sent to the ESOF steering committee in December 2008.
In that evaluation I included a
reflection on the media operations at ESOF 2008 as well as an extensive
list of recommendations for Torino 2010 (and future ESOF operations).
Read more >>
Scholarly Communication
What would science look like if it were invented today?
by Daniel Mietchen[Editor’s note: In keeping with its message, this article was composed on a wiki and is intended to be a living, evolving document, growing and changing as a result of feedback and annotation, both for this first part and the second part yet to come. If you want to see how it develops further, the document can be accessed as it evolves.]The Internet represents an opportunity to change this system, one which has created a 300-year-old, collective long-term memory, into something new and more efficient, perhaps adding in a current, collective short-term working memory at the same time. With new online tools, scientists could begin to share techniques, data and ideas online to the benefit of all parties, and the public at large. (Robert J. Simpson, paraphrasing Michael Nielsen)
Sure, it is hard to imagine you reading this blog post in a world which hadn't yet engaged in science but the question "What would email look like if it were invented today" was recently addressed during the presentation of the Wave protocol, and entertaining some similar ideas on reinventing science may perhaps be worthwhile: how would a system have to be designed that creates and structures knowledge such that these two complex processes can effectively feed on and adapt to each other, making use of the most appropriate technologies at hand? Both processes are highly interrelated but to facilitate the discussion, we will first consider them separately (in this and the next issue of the Euroscientist), and then provide a synthesis (to which you can contribute). Read more >>
University rankings and the public(’s) governance of science
by Linda Wedlin, PhD Department of Business Studies, Uppsala UniversityIf you have any questions or other requests concerning the Euroscientist, please contact:
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