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Science Europe welcomes the adoption of the Bonn Declaration on ‘Freedom of Scientific Research’ at today’s Ministerial Conference on the European Research Area in Bonn. Academic freedom is of utmost importance for democratic societies to continue building Europe’s resilience.

Science Europe welcomes the European Commission’s ambitious Communication for ‘A New ERA for Research and Innovation.’ To further strengthen Europe’s world-leading research, a strong ERA is essential and must be based on research excellence, international collaboration, openness, inclusiveness, and academic freedom.

Science Europe welcomes the European Commission’s ambitions for digital and green transformation as highlighted by President von der Leyen today.

Science Europe encourages the EU to keep leading projects to tackle the challenges brought on by COVID-19 and offers the expertise and experience from its members to build the necessary collaborative approaches.

It is with great sadness that Science Europe learned of the passing of the ERC Executive Agency's Theodore Papazoglou earlier this week. Many of the colleagues at Science Europe met or worked with Theodore at different points during his many years at the ERC.

Amid the many European Commission programmes to foster research and innovation, the European Research Council (ERC) stands out as the programme based on scientific excellence and following a bottom-up approach. Science Europe fully endorses these principles as a part of a variety of different approaches to research and innovation investments.

At a time when the expectations on research are very high and the safeguarding of public trust in Science is cardinal, we deeply regret that internal issues within the ERC have been played out so publicly. This may be damaging to the ERC as an institution.

Science Europe has always been a strong supporter of the ERC and we will continue to be so in the future. We look forward to collaborating with the next ERC President.

From all of us at SE

Science Europe congratulates Ursula von der Leyen for her election as President of the European Commission (EC) and confirms its full support to Mariya Gabriel, new Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, following the approval of the new College of Commissioners by the European Parliament.

Science Europe held its 18th General Assembly in Brussels, today. Marc Schiltz, the outgoing President, has been re-elected for a second mandate. He is joined by Ingrid Petersson (Director General of the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development- FORMAS) and by Rosa Menéndez (President of the Spanish National Research Council- CSIC) as Vice-Presidents. The new Governing Board gathers 13 members, from across the entire membership.

Science Europe joins 300+ organisations in call to EU decision-makers to pledge ambitious EU Budget on vital R&I.

Our Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management was officially release in January 2019. Ten months later, the guide’s recommendations have found their way into a number of organisational and, in some cases, even national Open Science or data management policies.

Science Europe, the Academy of Finland, and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture are organising the 11th annual High Level Workshop on the European Research Area (ERA) in Helsinki on 10 and 11 September 2019.

Lidia Borrell-Damián has been appointed as the new Secretary General of Science Europe. She succeeds Stephan Kuster who leaves the organisation this June after nine years.

Today cOAlition S releases revised guidance on Plan S implementation which has been approved by all coalition members. “Plan S is a bold step forward which the European Commission, along with a growing number of national funders, is committed to implement” explained Carlos Moedas, the European Commissioner for Science, Research and Innovation.

Science Europe congratulates Professor Mauro Ferrari on his appointment as the next President of the European Research Council (ERC) and wishes him all the best in this future role.

The success of the European Research Council (ERC) relies on its autonomy and on the impeccable management of its administrative wing, the Executive Agency (ERCEA). Pablo Amor, Director of the ERCEA, has stood as a staunch guarantor for both over the past eight years.

Science Europe is disappointed that the European Parliament did not sufficiently improve the far too restrictive proposal by the European Commission for text and data mining in Article 3 of the new Directive on Copyright, in today’s plenary vote.

Researchers and research funders have a collective duty of care for the science system as a whole. The current publication paywalls withhold a substantial amount of research results from a large fraction of the scientific community and from society as a whole.

Science Europe and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) launch an initiative for the voluntary international alignment of research data management policies.

Science Europe expresses its full support for the statement released by the European Research Council (ERC) Scientific Council on 15 May 2017, and joins the call to “consolidate the ERC’s success by ensuring its continuity, agility and scale-up in the next framework programme.”

Science Europe congratulates All European Academies (ALLEA) on the release of the revised ‘European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity’. Science Europe actively contributed to the stakeholder consultations organised as part of the revision process and many of the main messages we communicated have been taken up.