Focus on research and society – Europe meets up in Switzerland
This year's annual High Level Workshop of Science Europe is being held in Switzerland, with the SNSF acting as host. It will be attended by member organisations plus the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation.
Scientific integrity as well as questions of scientific ethics have come under greater scrutiny in times of crisis – especially in the context of a dialogue with the public. Consequently, the annual High Level Workshop of Science Europe has decided to devote itself to this topic. This year's host is the SNSF. Research-funding organisations, government representatives, researchers and representatives of civil society from all over Europe are getting together at the workshop being held in Zurich at the end of November. Science Europe – the organisation representing the leading research funding bodies – has been dedicating itself to the European Research Area since 2011.
Dialogue poses a mounting challenge
Research is increasingly confronted with the numerous challenges arising from complex and interdependent societies. The current crises (Covid-19, climate change, international conflicts, etc.) are putting research systems and researchers under pressure to offer direction and solutions.
The High Level Workshop is a platform on which participants discuss how scientific stakeholders can help to shape the dialogue between research, politics and society more efficiently and effectively. The aim of the two-day workshop: to develop a joint understanding of the way in which abstract concepts such as research ethics and scientific integrity can be made more concrete and brought to life.
The participants will use the results obtained to develop guidelines that they will subsequently publish as a report. The ultimate goal of the event is to bring scientific research closer to citizens.
Image: Angelika Kalt, Director of the SNSF, opens this year's annual High Level Workshop of Science Europe in Zurich.