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2024 GRC European Regional Meeting

28>31 Oct. 2024
Register before 28-10-2025 12:00

The Global Research Council (GRC) is a network comprised of the Heads of science and engineering funding agencies from around the world. Every year, they meet to discuss relevant issues for research funding communities. The next Annual Meeting will take place in 2025.

On 28-30 October 2024, Heads of Organisation in the European region will meet to discuss and prepare European contributions to the Annual Meeting. Similar meetings will take place in the four other GRC regions: Americas, Asia–Pacific, Middle East/North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

About the European Regional Meeting of the Global Research Council

The 2024 Regional European meeting of the Global Research Council has been jointly organised by the Estonian Research Council (ETAG) and Science Europe.

In 2024, each GRC regional meeting, convened across the globe, will contribute to shaping the agenda for the Annual Meeting, occurring in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This significant gathering is a collaborative effort between the Estonian Research Council (ETAG) and Science Europe.

The topic for discussion for this edition will be research and sustainability and will be developed in two sub-topics, namely:

  • Research Management in the Era of AI
  • Working Together in Co-Creation to Address Global Challenges

These topics are of increasing importance in the research policy debate in recent years. AI is a fast-moving area and is considered more than a tool of reshaping things. Discussions could present the AI application risks, lack of boundaries, clear guidelines, ethics, patent, and copyrights implications. The AI topic is aligned not only with the outcomes of the 2023 GRC Foresight Report in which the AI was one of the recommended thematic focuses that will shape the future of the GRC but also the topic is aligned with the G20 held in India.

The discussions taking place during the Regional Meetings are intended to serve as input to the development of a Statement of Principles, due to be adopted at the Annual Meeting of the GRC in 2025. Moreover, at the European Regional Meeting we will identify areas for collaboration with Africa.

Cooperation between Europe and Africa – best practice, future possibilities, and the role of Science Europe

Science Europe and its Member Organisations share an ambition to develop opportunities for cross-border collaboration to support excellence in science. Recognising that we should no longer categorise the world into the Global North and Global South, as we are one world, facing common challenges, Science Europe is launching a new series of workshops on this theme, between our members and different world regions in turn.

The first workshop in Tallin on 30 October, following the European GRC Regional Meeting, will focus on Africa-Europe co-operation. Selected European and African countries will share existing good practices and opportunities for future co-operation, exploring the following questions: 

  • How can we further develop and increase co-operation between Africa and Europe?
  • What are the preferred approaches to co-operation from an African perspective?
  • How can we develop our future co-operation based on reciprocity and equitable partnerships?