MAKING SCIENCE EUROPEAN

MAKING SCIENCE EUROPEAN

A PARL IAMENT MAGAZINE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

in assoc ia t ion w i th

2 PARLIAMENTMAGAZINE October 2012

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October 2012 PARLIAMENTMAGAZINE 3

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Contents

Part of the union?

What is Euroscience and ESOF?ESOF 2012 in picturesProcuring innovationThe insider viewPassing the torchESOF 2014 – Science building bridgesESOF 2014 – key priorities

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T he EU, or at least the eurozone, should be a banking union. That is the talk of the town these days. The eurozone should perhaps also be a budgetary union. If you believe the European commission, as well as the rhetoric of the European council, the EU is already an innovation union. Now, there is

a difference. A banking union is about creating a European regulatory mechanism for all European banks. A budgetary union will require member states to no longer set budgets in full autonomy. An innovation union, in contrast, is nothing but a metaphor. No European institution or mechanism supersedes national ones. Nor should they, as there is no reason why innovation is on the whole better served by European mechanisms.

But a full-fledged science union is what Europe has to be. Science is better off with continental approaches. Look at the USA. States are eager to challenge the federal government in almost all areas, witness what happened with US president Barack Obama’s healthcare legislation. No such challenge ever emerged on the funding of research: the federal government funds 60 per cent of all university research and more of large laboratories outside the private sector. Why have European governments and the European commission caught each other in a double bind by institutionalising a vague principle of subsidiarity? With all its merits, Horizon 2020 reflects this same denial of what science needs.

But Europe is moving forward. Euroscience organises a grassroots movement of European scientists across disciplines, countries, ages and public or private sectors, and involving all others with a stake in science. The Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) has now established itself as the place where science across disciplines reaches out to the scientific community itself, to policy, society or business. This is crucial for the European science union.

Dr. Peter Tindemans isSecretary General of Euroscience


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E uroscience is a pan-European association of individuals interested in constructing a scientific Europe “from the bottom-up”. Euroscience represents European scientists of all disciplines (natural sciences, mathematics, medical sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities and the

arts), institutions of the public sector, universities, research institutes, as well as the business and industry sector. Euroscience is a grassroots organisation open to research professionals, science administrators, policymakers, teachers, PhD students, post-docs, engineers, industrialists, and generally to any citizen interested in science and technology and its links with society. Euroscience works through meetings, working groups, local sections, position papers and the Euroscientist.

E SOF – the Euroscience Open Forum – is the biennial, pan-European meeting dedicated to scientific research and innovation. At ESOF meetings, leading scientists, researchers, young researchers, business people, entrepreneurs and innovators, policymakers, science and technology

communicators and the general public from all over Europe discuss new discoveries. It is a unique forum for a dialogue on science, society and policy and the general public’s engagement with science. Young or aspiring researchers find valuable career advice. The Science to Business programme helps reduce the barriers towards industry. ESOF is unique in that it is both international and multidisciplinary. ESOF takes place every two years, in a major European city (Stockholm, Munich, Barcelona, Torino, Dublin, and next Copenhagen) and covers the whole of science, including technology, social sciences, arts and humanities through lectures, workshops, and lunches. ESOF is the place where science reaches out to society, politics, business and the public at large. It contributes to the development of a European scientific identity.

What is Euroscience?

What is ESOF?

“There is a common understanding that well trained scientists and science are some of the most important resources in a modern knowledge society. European science is second to none. Euroscience is working to

create a strengthened bridge between science and society, and to create forums in which scientists, policymakers and the public may engage in informed discussions about the societal challenges we all face. Thus Euroscience plays an important role as the voice of all European scientists. We are constantly working to improve the framework conditions for them and for raising awareness among policy makers of the important contribution science makes to society.” Prof. Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen is president of Euroscience

T o ensure continuity from one event to the next, the ESOF hub was recently created within the Euroscience headquarters in Strasbourg. This has been possible thanks to the partnership between five European foundations: Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione Cariplo, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Robert

Bosch Stiftung GmbH, Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and Euroscience.

What is the ESOF hub?

“In times when politicians are struggling with the idea of Europe it was a pleasant change to witness 5000 young and established scientists, science journalists, science policy makers and others from all over Europe and other parts

of the world, discussing science and its implications. It became clear, that unlike among politicians, there is a growing sense of corporate identity of a European scientific community. This has not always been the case. In the past scientists worked on a national and on an international level, but only after the past decade or so the focus on European collaboration has increased.There have been several catalysts, but in my view ERC and ESOF have been among the strongest.” Dr. Ingrid Wünning Tschol Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH


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Procuring innovation

E very year, European governments spend about €2.3 trillion on procurement. So what would happen if a bigger share of that money were focused on buying new technologies and services? The result would be a big boost for innovation and growth in Europe,

argues Malcolm Harbour, chair of the European parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee. “Procurement should be part of the mix in innovation policy to help build the economy,” he said.

Harbour’s committee has been pushing the commission and member states to use their procurement power to stimulate innovation. MEPs point to the success of similar efforts in the US in stimulating small companies to develop innovative new products for the government. A study this year, led by the university of Manchester, recommended a comparable EU effort at between €396m-€540m; a major increase from the amount currently allocated.

Procurement of innovation could turn out to be an important new funding source for small, innovative start-ups. It addresses what Harbour called “a market failure” in the EU: the difficulty that small firms face when raising cash to grow. “A financing gap has been identified,” he said. In Europe, venture capital is scarce and, on average, unprofitable. There is also a scarcity of wealthy individuals willing to

Malcolm Harbour is calling for more investment in innovation, writes Richard L. Hudson

Richard L. Hudson is CEO of Science|Business

put their personal cash on the line for a start-up, with bank financing all but impossible for a little company. That leaves customers as the only realistic source of cash, and the US experience suggests that a government contract can be a big source of both money and prestige. With a government contract in hand, a small company has greater credibility with investors, and can get more private funding.

About 99 per cent of enterprises in the EU are what the commission calls small or medium, and one fifth of them depend at least partly on intellectual property, according to EU industry and entrepreneurship commissioner Antonio Tajani, who said, “[SMEs] need better access to public markets – in particular for innovative products.” However, it’s riskier for government contractors to work this way than with established suppliers and products. It involves buying research or new technology from a new company, meaning there are more opportunities for failure. Procurers also have to be sure their contracts couldn’t be viewed as illegal state subsidies under EU rules. But mostly, commission officials say, it’s a problem of awareness and experience among procurement agencies.

However, a long-running effort in Brussels to expand innovative procurement has been gathering momentum. The commission has published revised procurement regulations intended to simplify rules and remove some legal uncertainties. Harbour was delighted that a new procurement tool, an ‘innovation partnership’, has been included. The commission also included new plans to encourage public customers to work with innovators in its proposed €80bn Horizon 2020 programme. Indeed, it initially proposed that the EU and member states collectively find €10bn for this purpose; though since then, budget hawks have forced a retreat from that number.

For a small company, “the public contribution is so important,” Harbour said. “With the public sector in a strong procurement role, an SME can make an investment proposition more attractive” to private capital and grow faster.

Parliament’s interest in the issue reflects the broadening of political support over the past few years for policies seen as generally encouraging innovation. “There’s a lot more attention to it,” Harbour said. “People have realised that this is a key policy area. And they know that, with the constraint on member state budgets, EU programmes are proportionately more important.”

“The unique feature of ESOF is that it brings together researchers, policymakers, business, the media and the public in a single place, enabling lively discussions at the interface between science and society. In so doing, ESOF

showcases the very best of European research. If you want to live the spirit of European science, ESOF is the place you have to be.” Prof. Anne Glover

is the European commission’schief scientific advisor


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Hein Meijers is director of Meijers Communicatie

A mong the many EU officials attending ESOF 2012 in Dublin, we met MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho, fresh with jet-lag from her trip to the US. However, this did not stop her discussing budget matters,

one of her specialties, at a presentation of the European parliament’s science and technology options assessment.

Carvalho boasts a brilliant career both in the academic and political world. She has been a full professor in Lisbon in the area of energy and climate change and is a fellow to many renowned institutes, such as the American institute of aeronautics and astronautics and the American association for the advancement of science. She has also been minister of science, higher education and innovation in Portugal, and at the moment is an active MEP and principal advisor to commission president José Manuel Barroso in the area of energy and climate.

What brought you to ESOF 2012?Maria da Graça Carvalho: “There are many science conferences, but this one puts many stakeholders together. It’s a very lively and efficient event. In a short time you get involved in a lot of high level discussions. That’s why I love to come.”

Why not have ESOF every year?MGC: “Each two years seems ok. A conference with this dimension takes quite a time to prepare. There is also a budget side. A conference like this is a costly affair and it’s not the policy of the EU to yearly pay for these types of events. Besides, it’s also very good that conferences like this are organised from member state to member state.”

What attention does Horizon 2020 pay to science and society?

MGC: “In Horizon 2020 you will find proposals to raise awareness in science via the media, schools, and science museums. I must confess that public awareness does not have a high priority in Horizon 2020, but I do agree that science and scientific awareness are very important for our population. To start with we should try to do something on role models. Scientists in films and TV are mostly men. That should change and would alter the situation without many costs. It worked in Portugal.”

Hein Meijers talks to Maria da Graça Carvalho at ESOF 2012

The insider view

Dr. Carl Johan Sundberg is senior university lecturer at the Karolinska institutet

E ver since the first Euroscience Open Forum in Stockholm in 2004, numerous Nobel Prize winners have actively taken part in ESOF. At ESOF2012 in Dublin, Jules A. Hoffmann who received

the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011 addressed a fully packed large auditorium on his distinctively European scientific journey.

Jules Hoffmann was born in Luxembourg where his father was an insect-collecting high school teacher in biology. Clearly, this greatly influenced young Jules. His journey continued with university studies and a PhD in Strasbourg, where he came to discover that grasshoppers were remarkably resistant to infections after having undergone experimental surgery. This was a determining moment for his scientific life, where it was decided that he would study the underlying mechanisms of this resistance.

His continued studies brought Hoffmann to Marburg, Stockholm, Edinburgh and to the US east coast universities of Yale and Harvard. Through a series of interdisciplinary collaborations, and by using various methods and different animal models, Hoffmann was able to demonstrate that the innate immune system, the first line of defence against infections, is activated by a specific molecule: the Toll-receptor.

In his speech, Hoffmann emphasised the importance of understanding-driven research. This type of research cannot, and should not, be overly planned in an industrial manner. He also praised the establishment of the European research council and underlined his hopes that it would expand.

Hoffmann ended his presentation by expressing his envy of all the young people entering sciences today and wished them success.

Taken together, this keynote talk reflected the enormous value of cross-border collaborations and mobility in the European research area. This was a very important message, well in line with the European spirit at ESOF 2012 in Dublin.

Jules Hoffmann on a distinctively European scientific journey


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Passing the torch Klaus Bock has been Chairman of the Danish National Research Foundation since 2004. Between 2009 and 2011, he was President of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences and he was Vice-President

and Research Director of Carlsberg A/S from 2004 to 2007. Also, he was employed as associate professor in organic chemistry at the Technical University of Denmark from 1970 to 1988 and he was appointed Professor and Head of the Chemistry Department of the Carlsberg Laboratory from 1988. He holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Technical University of Denmark (1970).

Patrick Cunningham is Professor of Animal Genetics at Trinity College, Dublin. He was Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland between January 2007 and August 2012. He obtained his

PhD in Animal Genetics from Cornell University in the USA in 1962. He pioneered methods of genetic evaluation, introduction and assessment of new breeds and strains, and the economic evaluation of breeding options and strategies. István Palugyai is senior science editor of the

daily paper Népszabadság

What was the main lesson learnt from ESOF 2012 for you and for Euroscience?

For us here in Ireland, it strengthened the belief that public investment in education and science is the way forward. However, we have to concentrate our efforts here in Europe, as we look at the contrast with China and America, and how much more effective they are.

What was the largest difficulty in organising ESOF?We had strong support from our former and current government, but when we made the bid we didn’t have this very severe financial crisis. That brought us the biggest difficulty.

What would you advise for the next champion?Euroscience is important for Europe. 15 years ago, this organisation began and it is now established, with the biennial ESOF the main forum for public discussion and updates on science in Europe. Therefore, I think its primary mission the next time round has to be to strengthen that, in order to maintain the quality, scale and commitment. In Dublin, we had great dedication from the city and government, and early discussions with both would also help in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen will be the host of the next ESOF in 2014. Why did you make your bid?

Denmark previously applied in 2006, but lost the bid. After four years, we reconsidered our position and reapplied with a very strong backing from the Danish government.

Will you do something different from the Irish organisers or should ESOF stay on a traditional track?

I think we will try to focus more on young people who find the conference extremely exciting. We will develop a new initiative, the ESOF academy, attracting young people during the year to prepare them for ESOF 2014. But 70-80 per cent of ESOF should stay on the same track. Particularly, we want to have frontier scientists with a good sense of communication in the programme who will tell us how they see their field. It should be a dialogue between scientists and society. That is why our ESOF main slogan is “Science building bridges”.

ESOF 2012 champion Patrick Cunningham on the lessons learned from Dublin’s stint as host

ESOF 2014 champion Klaus Bock on Copenhagen’s plans for keeping ESOF exciting


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I t will be a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you to Copenhagen in 2014. The Danish government is committed to ESOF 2014 and, together with outstanding support from Danish institutions and universities, I am confident

that we will deliver an excellent event that meets the expectations of the global science community.

We have entitled ESOF 2014 “Science building bridges”. The bridge is a symbol of closing distances and enhancing dialogue. ESOF 2014 will build bridges between science and society; between private and public sector; between humanities and natural science; between science and media; and between Europe and the world. Knowing that science and technology is the key to the future of the European society, we need to enhance these bridges and let them evolve even further.

Bridges can be built with dialogue and especially the dialogue between science and society that is paramount. During the Danish EU council presidency, this was a key priority and the backdrop for hosting the conference “Science in dialogue” with the subheading “Towards a European model for responsible research and innovation”. The conference moved towards such a European model by discussing how the relationship between science and society can be strengthened and become more productive for the benefit of both spheres.

Society benefits from the dialogue, because dialogue leads to greater knowledge and trust in our researchers, and science benefits from engagement with society, as the probability of scientific results being relevant, robust and having a positive impact will increase if science is responsive to society’s concerns and desires.

ESOF is all about creating and enhancing dialogue and trust. In Denmark we have always enjoyed high ratings in our level of trust and it is time to incorporate this strength into a truly European model of science in society – let us make ESOF 2014 a step on the way.

Morten Østergaard outlines his hopes for ESOF 2014

ESOF 2014-Science building bridges

Morten Østergaard is Denmark’s science, innovation and higher education minister


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E SOF 2014 will be held in the Carlsberg city area, located approximately 10 minutes from Copenhagen city centre. The area was opened in 2009 when the Carlsberg group moved its production from Copenhagen.

Carlsberg has always played a very important role in Denmark’s science history and both Carlsberg founder J.C. Jacobsen and his son, Carl Jacobsen, were very focused on sharing results from Carlsberg laboratories. Examples include the pH scale that was invented at the Carlsberg laboratory in 1909 and spread from here to become the standard measurement for determining whether a solution is acid or alkali.

A special venue: the Carlsberg city area

esof 2014 key priorities:

Delivering a cutting-edge programme in all scientific •

areas from natural sciences to the social sciences

and the humanities

Engaging society at large by bridging the gap •

between users and producers of knowledge

Inviting the younger generation, including pre-•

university students, to participate

Improving catering and accommodation by •

including lunch in the price of the delegate passes

and delivering affordable accommodation to

ensure Europe-wide and global participation from

younger researchers.

Held every two years, the EUROSCIENCE OPEN FORUM (ESOF) meeting, organised by Euroscience, is a unique opportunity for leading scientists, researchers, young researchers, business people, entrepreneurs and innova-

tors, policy makers, science and technology communicators and the general public to discuss new discoveries and debate the direction that research is taking in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. Science policy issues, career develop-ment, science to business and Science in the City are other focal points.

As the largest European gathering of its kind, hosting the 7th Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF2016) will give you the opportunity to attract top level scientists, policymakers, business people; get a wide media coverage; be the European City of Science with a high profile for the city and its scientific institutions.

Typically, ESOF events are held within the city centre in order to give each meeting a unique cultural identity. Enriched by the multidisciplinary approach of the scientific programme combined with the science in the city programme, hosting ESOF will be a key tourism opportunity.

Host ESOF to join the select few cities in Europe that have suc-cessfully and uniquely put themselves on the map contributing to bridging the gap between science and society and forging a Scientific European Identity.

The first successful ESOF meeting took place in Stockholm in August 2004. Since then, there have been four further superb meet-ings, one in Munich in July 2006, one in Barcelona in July 2008, one in Torino in July 2010 and most recently the ESOF2012 edition in Dublin this past July. The next is in Copen-hagen in June 2014 (www.esof2014.org).

The selection will be done by the ESOF Supervisory Board. This

board comprises representatives from Euroscience, together with the Compagnia di San Paolo, Italy; Fondazione Cariplo, Italy; Riks-bankens Jubileumsfond, Sweden; Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH, Germany; Stifterver-band für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Germany. The deadline for bids is April 30, 2013.

The Call for ESOF 2016 is now open!

Further information: For more information, visit the ESOF website www.esof.eu or contact Dr. Peter Tindemans, Euroscience Secretary General on [email protected]

“It was a great honour for Barcelona to have been chosen to host ESOF2008. The strong scientific traditions of Barcelona were highlighted by this pan-European event. “

Enric Banda, ESOF2008 Champion

ESOF 2014 in Copenhagen offers an exciting five pillar programme with targeted sessions for everyone in the global science community. 1/Scientific Programme, 2/Science Policy Programme, 3/ESOF Academy, 4/Career Programme, 5/Science to Business.

Sign up for newsletter at www.ESOF2014.org

21—26JUNE 2014

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MAKING SCIENCE EUROPEAN