From the Editor

As spring begins to oust winter across Europe we bring you an equally combative issue of The Euroscientist.

For a start, our Euroscience President, Enric Banda, and Peter Tindemans, erstwhile convenor of the Euroscience Working Group on Science Policy, have written an incisive article on how Europe should proceed if we wish to optimise the way our scientific effort is made on this continent. The fragmentation and one-size-fits-all approach of the past have not been good for European science, and Enric and Peter present their thoughtful analysis of how to make the best of what we have. Europe has great scientific talent and excellent facilities, with the promise of further improving both to the benefit of us all, but the direction and process must be carefully thought through and planned.

One issue that is always to the fore in discussions about how Europe’s science should progress is that of mobility of scientists. This is the focus of another article in our series addressing the problems that Europe’s young scientists face. Elena Rybalkina and Karoline Holländer, from Eurodoc, draw a comparison between the mobility of young scientists in Russia and those in Western Europe and explain why Russia should modify its norms and procedures to give scientists in the early stages of their career greater opportunities to work in different places and broaden their experience, knowledge and abilities.

The issue of mobility and the importance of travelling to experience working in other institutions and countries is also highlighted in the report of an interview with a leading Iranian scholar, Professor Mohammad Bagheri, who describes research and teaching in Iran’s higher education system and of the opportunities for scientific exchange between Iran and other nations.

Another look at a specific scientific situation is provided by Philippe Nozières, who describes the French system of research assessment, past and planned. His essay discusses the roles of central versus local systems and the place of universities and national funding agencies in the process. Admittedly this is a French perspective, but the basic issues affect every country in Europe and Philippe’s article should strike a chord across the continent.

Communication is critically important for science, whether we are referring to communication within the scientific community or about it. We rely on science journalists to interpret and report the outcomes of scientific effort widely, to the ‘interested amateur’ and more widely to the general public. There is a thirst for knowledge and understanding about science among the peoples of Europe, as the articles on science cafes demonstrated so clearly in an earlier issue of The Euroscientist. In this issue, Sallie Robins gives an account of the state of science journalism ahead of the big World Conference of Science Journalists in London in June. Sallie reports that science journalism jobs are declining, something that must have detrimental effects for science.

Communication between scientists is something generating much debate as the Web takes over from paper as the primary means of publishing findings. There is a concomitant move to direct peer-to-peer communication whose challenges will engage us in some careful thinking over the next few years. In this issue of The Euroscientist, Hélène Bosc, convenor of the Euroscience Working Group on Science Publishing defines and describes Open Access, the model for science communication that is supplanting Toll Access (or Subscription Access) to the scientific literature. Hélène has long been engaged in promoting Open Access in Europe and her efforts have been partially rewarded by the recent announcement that 20% of the outputs from FP7 research must be made Open Access, in line with similar (but further-reaching) policies around the world. The Euroscience Working Group on Science Publishing has called for this policy to be extended to cover 100% of FP7 outputs, for why should only certain areas of science benefit?¹

Finally, an advance notice: there will be a large conference on the ERA in Brussels in October, an opportunity for discussion and debate on a range of issues to do with European science. The next issue of The Euroscientist will provide details of dates, the programme and how to register.

Wishing you all a mild and energising spring.

Alma Swan

Editor

¹ Euroscience Workgroup on Scientific Publishing: Study N°1, June 2006