EuroScience welcomes very much that these important umbrella organisations of institutions in the world of science speak up for the necessity to guarantee freedom and autonomy with a particular but not exclusive reference to recent events around the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
The European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities EASSH just published a position paper that comments on the 4th Monitoring Report published by the European Commission on the integration of social sciences and humanities in Horizon 2020.
On Wednesday 20 March, the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of the European Union reached a partial political agreement on the new European Framework Programme on Research and Innovation, called Horizon Europe, for the period 2021-2027.
EuroScience is extremely concerned about the recent request of the government of Hungary to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) that would result in a transfer of control of the research institutes of the MTA to the Ministry of Innovation and Technology.
EuroScience has as the leading pan-European interdisciplinary grassroots organisation of researchers and science professionals consulted its members on the implementation of Plan S. The GB of EuroScience has validated the resulting response.
In the current context of vibrant and lively debate on the future of scientific publishing, the EuroScience Governing Board has decided to launch a consultation of our membership on the essential issues surrounding the agenda on open access publishing of research.
EuroScience strongly endorses the principles laid down in Plan S for rapid achievement of effective Open Access publication of publicly funded research. They are a good basis for the consultation that is now open and EuroScience intends to actively respond to it.
“Missions” will be introduced as a central new tool in the architecture of FP9, though many think they already exist in prior Framework Programmes. They can provide a new perspective but it is quite an exaggeration to say that “most technologies have emerged from missions”: curiosity-driven research led to many. Several issues need more elaboration.
EuroScience calls together with ALLEA, HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area, an initiative of National Funding Agencies), and several other organisations for a major role for social sciences and humanities in the missions that most likely will be a cornerstone for FP9.
Here are some brief impressions of members of the Governing Board of EuroScience who participated in Marches for Science in several European cities.