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ALLEA Member Academies unanimously re-elected Professor Antonio Loprieno as President for the term 2021–2023. Board Members Professor Annette Grüters-Kieslich and Professor Luke Drury were appointed as ALLEA Vice-Presidents.

The elections’ results were announced today during the annual meeting of ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities. As a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the voting took place by correspondence ahead of the virtual meeting.

“I am very grateful for the trust and support from our Member Academies. It is an honour for me to serve ALLEA during these critical times, and I am looking forward to an increasingly productive dialogue between science and society, in order to carry ALLEA’s European vision and mission across borders, disciplines and societal actors”, President Loprieno said.

As representative of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, Loprieno assumed the ALLEA Presidency in May 2018 for a first three-year term. The ALLEA President serves a maximum of two consecutive terms and chairs the ALLEA Board with responsibility for strategic priorities, the overall policy direction, budgetary issues and other governance topics of the European Academies’ federation.

Following the General Assembly, the ALLEA Board convened and appointed its members Annette Grüters-Kieslich (Leopoldina / Union of German Academies) and Luke Drury (Royal Irish Academy) as ALLEA Vice-Presidents for the President’s term 2021–2023.

ALLEA’s 2021 General Assembly also featured the virtual scientific symposium ‘Across Boundaries in Sciences’, co-organised with the Council of Finnish Academies on 5 May. The event gathered leading academics, policymakers, and civil society from over 40 countries to discuss today’s position of science in society and in relation to policy, including a particular focus on interdisciplinary research and a debate on the recently released ALLEA discussion paper ‘Fact or Fake? Tackling Science Disinformation’.

Helen Keller, Laureate of the 2021 ALLEA Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values

On the occasion of ALLEA’s General Assembly, law scholar Helen Keller was announced laureate of the 2021 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values. The Jury recognised Keller’s important contribution to the development and consolidation of human rights jurisprudence in Europe as well as her commitment to fundamental rights.

Helen Keller is Chair for Public Law, European and Public International Law at the University of Zurich. She is a former member of the UN Human Rights Committee and served as Judge at the European Court of Human Rights in the period of 2011-2020. In December 2020, she was appointed Judge to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The ALLEA Prize recognises researchers or intellectuals whose work represents a significant impact on the advancement of Europe. Professor Keller will deliver a Prize Lecture during a dedicated online event in the second half of 2021.

ALLEA and the Council of Finnish Academies hosted an international scientific symposium online on 5 May 2021. The event gathered leading academics, policymakers, and civil society to rethink the role of science in society in response to wicked problems and particular threats like science disinformation.

A diverse programme of keynotes, plenary discussions and breakout sessions invited the participants to explore the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research and the boundaries of science across regions, disciplines and generations. The conference closed with a dedicated presentation and discussion of ALLEA’s newly published report ‘Fact or Fake? Tackling Science Disinformation’.

Interdisciplinarity was the focus of the first part of the symposium which started with the keynote ‘Fostering convergence across disciplines’, by Academician of Science and Professor Riitta Hari (Aalto University).

As a physician herself working on neuroscience and arts, she reflected on her lessons learned to achieve convergence. Among her suggestions to move towards interdisciplinary, she underlined the need for deep knowledge foundations, the importance of learning how to work in a team (not in a group) and how to communicate with other disciplines.

Other speakers also recognised the great uncertainty that interdisciplinary research entails. “A discipline is like a security blanket for academics. Interdisciplinarity is inventing your own security blanket”, said Professor Joyce Tait (Co-Director at Innogen Institute, Royal Society of Edinburgh).

Moving into interdisciplinary research is not an easy choice for early-career researchers, argued Dr. Mona Mannevuo (Postdoctoral researcher, Young Academy Finland), but encouraged her fellows to think of interdisciplinarity as a strategy: “not for instrumental purposes but for restructuring the order of knowledge.”

Science, Politics and Disinformation

In the second part, ALLEA President Antonio Loprieno shared the stage with Adrienn Király, Head of Cabinet of European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, and Permanent Secretary Anita Lehikoinen, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland. He presented his view on the future of academies when rethinking the boundaries between politics and science.

According to him, in times of crisis like the ongoing pandemic, academies may prove more flexible in providing science advice thanks to their experience and know-how on increased interdisciplinary interaction and flexibility.

The symposium closed with a final panel dedicated to discuss the recently published report ‘Fact or Fake? Tackling Science Disinformation’. Its lead author, Professor Dan Larhammar (President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), provided an overview on the main findings with an optimistic message, despite the dangers of this phenomenon.

“Research provides a great deal of hope to fight disinformation. There is evidence that people can be made aware of disinformation. They can be inoculated against it”, he stated after presenting examples of strategies to counter science disinformation.

The symposium was recorded and is already available to watch here.

©Krister Majander

On the occasion of the 2021 ALLEA General Assembly, ALLEA and the Council of Finnish Academies are organising the scientific symposium ‘Across Boundaries in Sciences’ on 5 May. The online event is open to all upon registration and will consist of a full-day of thought-provoking discussions on today’s science boundaries with leading academics, policymakers, and civil society.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the boundaries of science have been increasingly pushed and pulled. These tensions have shaken our understanding of science not only within the scientific system, but in relation to politics and society in general. In this evolving scenario, leading academics, policymakers and civil society will join to reflect upon three guiding questions:

• How can interdisciplinary research increase the impact of science in society?
• Are the boundaries between science and politics changing?
• Do we need to strengthen the boundaries of science to tackle science disinformation?

The event will open with the keynote “Fostering Convergence Across Disciplines” from Prof. Riitta Hari (Aalto University). Questions regarding action-focused interdisciplinary research and the boundaries of science across regions, disciplines and generations will be discussed in the following panels, including a breakout session where participants will be able to interact within smaller groups.

In the afternoon part of the event, “Rethinking Boundaries Between Politics and Science”, participants will attend a speech by Ms Adrienn Király, Head of Cabinet of European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, followed by the contributions of ALLEA President Antonio Loprieno and the Finnish Minister of Education and Culture Annika Saarikko.

Science Disinformation on Focus

The final panel discussion will tackle the topic of science disinformation and focus on the role of policy, science, and civil society in fighting this multi-dimension phenomenon in the context of the blurring boundaries of science and society.

The line of speakers will include Prof. Dan Larhammar (President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), Permanent Secretary Anita Lehikoinen (Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland), Prof. Jane Suiter (Director Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society, Royal Irish Academy), and Roman Adamczyk (Research Coordinator at EU DisinfoLab).

The debate will also delve into the upcoming work of the ALLEA project Fact or Fake? Tackling Science Disinformation, which deals with the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying ‘infodemic’.

The symposium is free and open to all, but registration is mandatory.

Learn more about the programme, concept, and speakers on this dedicated conference website, and join the discussion on social media at #ScienceXBoundaries.

The Scientific Symposium “Across Boundaries in Science” is fast approaching. As previously announced, we will sadly not be able to meet in person in Helsinki on 5 May 2021, where our co-organiser Council of Finnish Academies was expecting us. Nevertheless, this online symposium promises to be the place of exchange, discussion and reflexion that we have known at ALLEA previous assemblies.

Featuring a wide range of international perspectives from research, politics, and civil society, speakers will share and discuss their latest insights on this complex topic. Join us online for thought-provoking talks, workshops, roundtable discussions, and inspiring conversations.

Registrations and full programme will open early April 2021. Stay tuned!