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What role do European academies play in building bridges between the production of knowledge and its diffusion to society? How can they contribute to anchoring the values of the Enlightenment upon which scientific progress is based? ALLEA celebrated its 25th anniversary addressing those key questions through a two-day commemorative and scientific programme hosted by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences in Bern on 8-9 May.

SAPEA panel session on tackling microplastics pollution held in Bern as part of the ALLEA scientific symposium ‘Science and Society in Present-day Europe’ on 9 May 2019. Credit: Eric Schmid

The event was part of the ALLEA General Assembly, the annual meeting of European Academies that brings together representatives of more than 50 academies from over 40 countries in Europe. This year, the programme was opened at the University of Bern with a session commemorating a quarter of a century of ALLEA on 8 May.

In his speech, ALLEA President Antonio Loprieno recalled the beginnings of ALLEA by the end of the Cold War when academies across Europe joined forces to build a new platform for interaction on the European level.

“ALLEA emerged 25 years ago in the wake of profound political changes. Changes that were taking place in Europe after 1989 and after the era of partition between the East and the West. Science became more globally interconnected and international collaboration of European academies more visible and indeed necessary,” Loprieno recalled.

As part of the anniversary session, the European Commission’s Director-General for Research and Innovation Jean-Eric Paquet delivered a congratulatory speech which reflected on the past and future of European science and the role of European academies in shaping the conditions for science and in providing science advice for the European Commission via SAPEA.

“25 amazing and exciting years when Europe and science changed tremendously, but also when science and Europe were challenged deeply and ALLEA was both witness and key actor of this remarkable period”, he remarked in his speech.

Honouring Mariana Mazzucato, 2019 Madame de Staël Prize laureate

The celebration was dedicated to memory and remembering ALLEA’s 25 years, but also to honouring forward-looking and innovative science. After the anniversary session, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize was handed over by Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin to Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), and Founder and Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

The award ceremony was introduced by the President of Compagnia di San Paolo Francesco Profumoand included a laudatory speech by Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European Research Council.

Bourguignon praised Mazzucato’s work on the relation between innovation and economic growth, as well as her focus on challenging common misconceptions on the functioning of markets and the role of the state in innovation. He also remarked that Mazzucato is considered as one of the “scariest economists” of today, as many have labelled her.

In her acceptance speech, Mazzucato expressed her gratitude and honour to be awarded a prize named after Madame de Staël, who “contested the status quo” of her time and challenged those who called themselves revolutionaries such as Napoleon.

In a similar spirit, she challenged in her speech those in the innovation, science and technology community who are defining sometimes uncritically what innovation means for the economy and society at large.

“What are markets? What are values? What is public value? We need to redefine how public and private come together and really question who is at the table”, she remarked.

“Is the market the same as the private sector? The market itself is an outcome of how public and private, and third sector, or civil society organisations, come together, but also how they are individually governed”, Mazzucato pointed out.

Science and Society in Present-day Europe

The discussions continued on 9 May in the scientific symposium ‘Science and Society in Present-day Europe’ dedicated to exploring the interaction between science and society from different angles and actors. Speakers remarked on the “enhanced role” of scientific actors in today’s digital society as Bourguignon highlighted in his keynote speech.

Madeleine Herren-Oesch, Director of the Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel, focused on the need to promote interdisciplinary knowledge and the role of social sciences and humanities in the building of new visions and narratives for the future of society.

The Global Young Academy analysed the potential for a (Re-)Enlightenment to bridge the gaps between society and science, and to address new challenges such as mistrust in science or digitalisation.

In the next session, Science et Cité introduced an interactive session on how big scientific breakthroughs such as the moon landing shape the public perception of science.

SAPEA, the European consortium of academy networks providing of scientific advice to policy as part of the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism, concluded the debates with a panel session on the role of science advice in tackling microplastics pollution.

For those who cannot join us in Bern, the ALLEA General Assembly will also be available on livestream on our website: www.alleageneralassembly.org. The video will be produced by an autonomous camera operator managed by Seervision, a spin-off from the Automatic Control Laboratory of ETH Zurich and winner of the Swiss Technology Award 2018.

The livestream will include the ALLEA 25^th anniversary keynotes and the Madame de Staël award ceremony on 8 May (18:00 – 20:00), and the scientific symposium ‘Science and Society in Present-day Europe’ on 9 May (10:30 – 17:30).

Seervision

The filming will be a good opportunity to see first-hand how digitalisation is taking part in our everyday life. Seervision allows an almost fully autonomous video production. Their intelligent camera system can track moving objects without the need for a hands-on camera operator, who would normally be adjusting the camera’s position. We are honoured to welcome a further beta test of the camera at our conference!

“There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres.” Following Pythagoras’ revelations on the interconnection between science and music, as quoted by Aristotle in his Metaphysics, music will feature prominently in the conference programme. Thanks to the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences participants will be able to discover and enjoy musical experimentations and performances by some of the most talented musicians in Switzerland.

Gardan Quartet

Jakub Przybycień, Jacek Świca, Dominik Klauser and Alessandro Sica, who attended Bern University of Applied Sciences, are the four talented musicians that form Gardan Quartet. In 2017, the string quartet won Orpheus – Swiss Chamber Music Competition. This success paved the way for them to perform at the Swiss Chamber Music Festival and also at the Festival Musikdorf Ernen. Their music will accompany the Madame de Staël Prize award ceremony on 8 May.

From Scientific Discovery to Music

Experience a musical intervention with a modern twist. Matthias Müller is a musician, a Professor for Clarinet at the Zurich University of the Arts and the founder of SABRe. In his performance, he innovatively combines the classical tone of acoustic music with the digital world, which allows the audience to experience a musical performance from a new perspective. He will be performing on 9 May as an interlude of the scientific symposium ‘Science and Society in Present-day Europe’.

The jury praised her novel thinking, challenging conventional wisdom in the understanding of the role of the state in public policy and innovation. The prize worth €20,000, with the support of Compagnia di San Paolo, is awarded annually by ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, to eminent scholars and intellectuals whose work represents a significant contribution to the identity and values of Europe.

Economist Mariana Mazzucato is the recipient of the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, honouring her wide-ranging and stimulating work in the field of political economy and particularly her ground-breaking contributions to understanding the role of the state in innovation. The jury valued her outstanding efforts in shaping new narratives for Europe and its economy through her scholarly work and public engagement.

The award further recognises Mazzucato’s commitment to connect academia with European policymaking, most visibly through her contributions to the EU’s research and innovation agenda, encouraging cross-disciplinary cooperation to achieve true innovation with societal relevance, both within and beyond Europe.

“Mariana Mazzucato’s scholarly work is rather exceptional in a way that it transcends academia. She is a brilliant and provocative economist who has challenged stories of value creation, innovation and growth. In an ingenious way, she has been able to create new economic narratives to understand contemporary realities in Europe and beyond. The jury honours her outstanding academic work and her engagement to bridge the gap between academia and policymaking”, said Antonio Loprieno, President of ALLEA and chairman of the Madame de Staël Prize jury.

ALLEA’s Madame de Staël Prize

Mariana Mazzucato will be the sixth scholar to receive the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, an initiative of ALLEA with the support of the foundation Compagnia di San Paolo.

The prize was established to commemorate a deep-rooted understanding of European culture as connected by an inherent diversity supported by a dynamic and vigorous intellectualism. The prize will be awarded during a ceremony in the context of the 25th Anniversary of ALLEA. The celebration will take place at the University of Bern and is hosted by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences in Bern on 8 May. Switzerland’s Federal Councillor for Economy, Education and Research Guy Parmelin will be opening the ceremony, and the President of the European Research Council Jean-Pierre Bourguignon will provide the laudatory speech.

About Mariana Mazzucato

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) holds the Chair in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), and she is Founder and Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). IIPP is dedicated to rethinking the role of public policy in shaping both the rate of growth and its direction—and training the next generation of civil servants with a focus on the dynamic organisational capabilities required for mission-oriented policies.

Professor Mazzucato advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led inclusive growth and is currently a member of the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisors; the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Leadership Council; and SITRA’s Advisory Panel in Finland. She is currently a Special Advisor for the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, and has recently authored the high impact EC report Mission-Oriented Research & Innovation in the European Union. She is also a Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, for the OECD’s New Growth Narrative.

Mazzucato has written several books, book chapters, journal articles and policy papers on issues related to economic and finance policy, innovation, sustainability and inclusive growth. Her highly-acclaimed book The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (Anthem 2013; Public Affairs, 2015) was on the 2013 Books of the Year list of the Financial Times. Her new book The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy was published in April 2018 in the UK (Penguin) and was launched in the USA in September 2018 (Public Affairs). It was shortlisted for this year’s Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize.

About Compagnia di San Paolo

The Compagnia di San Paolo, founded in 1563 as a charitable brotherhood, is today one of the largest private-law foundations in Europe. It pursues aims of public interest and social use, in order to foster the civil, cultural and economic development of the community in which it operates. The Compagnia is active in the sectors of Research and Health, Art, Cultural Heritage and Activities, Cultural Innovation, Social Policies, and Philanthropy.

You can now register to participate in the 2019 ALLEA General Assembly, which will be hosted by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences on 8-10 May in the city of Bern.

Please note that attendance to the General Assembly is free of charge, but registration is mandatory for all participants. If you wish to register, please refer to the registration page.