About the 2019 ALLEA General Assembly

The 2019 ALLEA General Assembly also marked the 25th Anniversary of the inception of ALLEA and was be hosted by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences at the Congress Centre Kursaal in Bern. ALLEA celebrated its 25th anniversary at the opening of the 2019 General Assembly with a special address on the role of academies in European societies by ALLEA President Antonio Loprieno at the University of Bern on 8 May 2019. On this occasion, Director-General for Research and Innovation Jean-Eric Paquet delivered a keynote to commemorate 25 years of European academies’ cooperation and reflect on the future of European research. The celebration also counted with the welcome address of the rector of the University of Bern, Christian Leumann. The programme continued with the ALLEA Madame de Staël Prize award ceremony and a festive reception. On 9 May, we held the ALLEA scientific symposium “Science and Society in Present-day Europe.” An enriching cultural programme was kindly organised by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences held in Bern and Basel on 9-10 May.

ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, was founded in 1994 and currently brings together almost 60 Academies in more than 40 countries from the Council of Europe region. Member Academies operate as learned societies, think tanks and research performing organisations. They are self- governing communities of leaders of scholarly enquiry across all fields of the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities. ALLEA therefore provides access to an unparalleled human resource of intellectual excellence, experience and expertise.

Independent from political, commercial and ideological interests, ALLEA’s policy work seeks to contribute to improving the framework conditions under which science and scholarship can excel. Jointly with its Member Academies, ALLEA is in a position to address the full range of structural and policy issues facing Europe in science, research and innovation. In doing so, it is guided by a common understanding of Europe bound together by historical, social and political factors as well as for scientific and economic reasons.

The Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, the host of the 2019 ALLEA General Assembly, is an association of the four Swiss Academies of Sciences: the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAHS), the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS), the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT), and the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW). It further comprises the Centre of Excellence for Technology Assessment (TA-SWISS) and Science et Cité as well as other scientific networks.