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 GRC European Regional Meeting
The GRC regional meetings, convened across the globe, contribute to shaping the agenda for the GRC Annual Meeting. The next one will take place in 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The organisation of the European Regional Meeting is a collaborative effort between the Estonian Research Council (ETAG) and Science Europe.
The topics for discussion for this edition will be research and sustainability, which will be developed in two sub-topics:
- Research Management in the Era of AI
- Working Together in Co-Creation to Address Global Challenges
These topics have become increasingly important in the research policy debate in recent years. Artificial Intelligence is a fast-moving area and is considered more than a tool for reshaping things. Discussions could present the AI application risks, lack of boundaries, clear guidelines, ethics, patent, and copyright implications. The topic of AI aligs not only with the outcomes of the 2023 GRC Foresight Report, in which AI was one of the recommended thematic focuses that will shape the future of the GRC, but also with the G20 held in India.
The discussions taking place during the Regional Meetings serve as input to the development of a Statement of Principles, due to be adopted at the Annual Meeting of the GRC in 2025. Additionally, at the European Regional Meeting we will identify areas for collaboration with Africa.
