After the election on June 2024, the new European Parliament is facing several unresolved problems related to European research policy. In September 2024 an important Conference was held in Brussels on the future of the European Research Area: the ERA Conference 2024 on European Research Area: Fostering Greater Integration. Advancing Competitiveness. Between the several discussed themes I would like to highlight some topics on which the actions of a transnational European organization, such as EuChemS can play an important role:
In August 2024 the Zero Tolerance Code of Conduct was launched by the European Commission. It aims to address incidents of gender-based violence in research and higher education environments by setting out a common approach, definitions, and a list of principles to create a European Research and Innovation environment free from all forms of gender-based violence, based on the values of gender equality and inclusiveness, respect, dignity and safety. In this sense, it refers to the entire research and innovation ecosystem, which includes European and national authorities, research funding organisations, stakeholder associations, and umbrella organizations, such as EuChemS, at European and national levels.
The second topic is related to a flagship initiative from the European Commission, based on the Letta report, advocating for a “5th Freedom” within the single market, aimed at enhancing research, innovation, and education. The fifth freedom framework aligns with a vision of scientific advancement driven by curiosity-based, bottom-up idea generation, industry-based and policy-driven research. The fifth freedom champions open science, ensuring the accessibility of research and seamless collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and borders. Furthermore, it advocates safeguarding the autonomy of researchers, protecting their right to pursue curiosity-driven inquiries free from undue political or commercial pressures.
In this framework EuChemS, jointly with the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the German Universities Chemistry Department Consortium (KFC), has contributed to the development of the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) initiative by providing feedback on the SSbD’s pilot to the European Commission (You can access it here). SSbD is an approach aimed at ensuring that chemical products are designed with safety and sustainability at their core from the onset. While welcoming the SSbD initiative, in their feedback, EuChemS, GDCh and KFC emphasized the importance of chemical education and basic research in connection to SSbD, advised against blanket bans on chemicals used in chemical education, and called for a balanced approach. Furthermore, they highlighted the vast resources of learned chemical societies, and recommended policymakers to rely on this network when strengthening Europe’s knowledge-based society. I strongly hope they will follow this advice!
