Science diplomacy as a tool for impact

In an interesting article in Science Business, Jean-Claude Burgelman (former coordinator of the open science policy at the EC and now lecturer at the Free University of Brussels) and Luk Van Langenhove, advocated the extension of the concept of science diplomacy published in the landmark report by the UK Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science published in 2010, in which they established the distinctions between three varieties of science diplomacy:

• Science for diplomacy, where science is used as a soft power tool.
• Science in diplomacy, where scientists advise ministries of foreign affairs.
• Diplomacy for science, where diplomacy supports international scientific collaborations.

Their goal is to include “open knowledge diplomacy” as a tool used by scientists to better address today’s societal grand challenges. This means scientists advocating and building upon “knowledge commons” in a specific knowledge domain, geared towards specific societal challenges. The key issue here is that there are many hurdles along the way and the main one is the coupling of research careers to outdated metrics of career progression. “Now it is quasi exclusively focused on producing science (the impact factor) but it should include other impacts as well. If my science contributes to a clean battery, without necessarily resulting in a top ranked publication, the former should be rated as high as the latter.”. Read more here.

European Institute of Innovation and Technology launches initiative to help universities become regional innovation engines

The Innovation Capacity Building for Higher Education pilot call is looking for universities to put forward plans to strengthen their links to business and research organisations; develop services to support translation and commercialisation of academic research; enhance the quality of entrepreneurial education they provide; and generate relevant knowledge and expertise. The scope of the call is broad, allowing different needs to be accommodated, said Martin Kern, director of EIT.

Consortia of up to three universities and one other organisation are invited to apply. Twenty three selected projects will have six months to draft initial plans and begin implementation. For this phase, the projects will receive up to €400,000. If they are successful, they can move to the next phase and secure another €800,000. Applications are accepted until 25 May, and the six-month phase one starts in July. In their applications, consortia must demonstrate that they can make a meaningful contribution to the work of least two of EIT’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), and commit to predefined objectives, for example, supporting a minimum of two start-up or scale-up companies, training a minimum 130 students in innovation and entrepreneurship, or training a minimum 12 academic staff.

Commission awards 2,885 researchers seal of excellence certificates

The European Commission has awarded 2,885 researchers, who applied for the 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) individual grants, the Seal of Excellence Certificate, a consolation prize for proposals that scored high but could not be financed due to a lack of sufficient funds.

The seal of excellence is meant to help researchers secure funding from alternative sources, such as EU regional funds and national programmes. The seal does not guarantee funding, but twelve EU countries have special schemes to support the awardees.

Energy integration event

Euractiv will host today at 2.30 CEST the virtual conference “Sector Integration: What will energy system integration look like in different EU Member States?”. The discussion will be focused on how the integration of energy systems will be instrumental to reach the EU 2050 climate targets. Intervening in the debate, will be representatives of the Commission’s DG ENER, the EP, the think tank E3G, the non-for-profit association Euroheat & Power, and the multinational Danfoss Climate Solutions. Registration is still open and available here.

EU matchmaking event to expand the production of COVID-19 vaccines

The European Commission has hosted yesterday the first pan-European matchmaking event to ramp-up vaccine production and distribution. The event saw the participation of over 300 companies from 25 EU member states, including contract development and manufacturing organisations, fill and finish, equipment producers. The matchmaking event is organised by the European Cluster Collaboration Platform in partnership with the Council of European BioRegions (CEBR) and the European Cluster Alliance (ECA), which also supported the Commission in analysing and identifying EU capacities for COVID-19 vaccines production, on the basis of which companies were invited to participate in the matchmaking.