2011. nov 18.

The changing landscape of science: policy implications

írta: Janguli
The changing landscape of science: policy implications

World Science Forum 2011 - Day 2/1.

Friday 18 November 09:00 PLENARY SESSION IV. “The Changing Landscape of Science: Policy Implications and Drivers"

 

Roundtable

 

Moderated by: Sir Brian Heap, President of European Academies Science Advisory Council and former Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society

Professor Sir Brian Heap is the President of the European Academies Sciencce Advisory Council, chair of Trustee Boards of Academia Europaea, phg Foundation Cambridge, and the Cambridge Theological Foundation, co-Director of the Cambridge-Templeton Journalism Fellows programme, and formerly Master of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge and is President of the International Society of Science and Religion. As a biological scientist published extensively on endocrine physiology, reproductive biology and biotechnology, became Director of Research at the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research Cambridge and Edinburgh) and at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Swindon, and was Special Professor at the University of Nottingham. Formerly President of the Institute of Biology, UK Representative on the European Science Foundation, Strasbourg, and UK Representative on the NATO Science Committee, Brussels, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and held posts as Foreign Secretary, Vice-President, and editor of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B.
With the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the Department of Health’s Expert Group on Cloning, the President’s Advisory Group on Biotechnology, and Parliamentary Select Committee he has been engaged in public issues of biotechnology, population growth, sustainability and science policy working with the World Health Organisation, the UK-China Forum and the European Commission. He was scientific consultant for several international pharmaceutical companies and is Special Adviser for ZyGEM Co Ltd, New Zeland. 

Ruth Arnon, Wolf Prize Laureate, President Israel Academy of Sciences

Prof. Ruth Arnon, Formerly  Vice-President  of  the  Weizmann  Institute  of  Science (1988-1997), Prof.  Arnon is  a  noted  immunologist. Prof. Arnon has made significant contributions to the fields of vaccine development,  cancer  research  and  to  the  study  of  parasitic  diseases. Along with  Prof. Michael  Sela,  she  developed  Copaxone®  a  drug  for  the  treatment  of  multiple  sclerosis which was  approved  by  the  U.S.  Food  and  Drug  Administration,  and  is  presently marketed  in  the  USA,  Canada  the  EU,  Australia  and  many  other  countries  worldwide. 

Prof. Arnon has  served  as  President  of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) and  she  also served as the President of the Association of Academies of Sciences in Asia (AASA).

World Science Forum 2011 Abstract: 

Both worldwide, and in the state of Israel in particular, there is an increasing request, and even demand, that science become more "relevant" to the needs of the state and society at large. This is implemented by the availability of specific relevant earmarked grants and sometimes by government intervention. The role of the academies is to be a leader and a driver in maintaining academic freedom, and enabling the performance of basic research.
In 2009 the national expenditure on civilian R&D in Israel was 4.5% of the GDP, higher than in all developed industrialized countries that are members of the OECD, but most of the funding for R&D originates from the industry.
A comparison between the average government investment in R&D in Israel and other countries belonging to the OECD shows that while in these countries it reaches 29% of the national expenditure, in Israel it is only 16%. Furthermore, the share of the expenditure on basic research has gone down due to the cuts in the budget of higher education in the last ten years. The role of the Israel Academy along with the universities is on the one hand to be responsive to the needs of the country, but on the other to argue for the increase of government share in investment in R&D.
The Science Forum is a place of gathering forces and sharing experiences. Following are some examples of most recent developments in Israel promoted by the Academy: 

a)  A major increase in the budget of the Israel Science Foundation (ISF): about doubling in five years was approved by the government.
b)  Establishment of a new division for clinical and translational medical research in the ISF.
c)  Creating a "pool" of budgets (TELEM) universities and government agencies for supporting infrastructure.
d)  Creating a new unit at the Academy (YAHALOM) for science evaluation and counsel.
e)  Increase of international cooperation with the EU, the USA as well as selected individual academies. 

A perifériák felemelkedéséről, az izraeli döntéshozatalra gyakorolt hatásairól beszélt Ruth Arnon, az izraeli akadémia Wolf-díjas elnöke. Az izraeli akadémiában az a különleges, hogy magában foglalja a humán területeket is, ami nagyban hozzájárulhat a 21. század problémáinak kezeléséhez. Izrael a GDP 4,5 százalékát fordítja kutatásra és fejlesztésre, ami az OECD-tagállamok között a legmagasabb arány.

AnnaLee Saxenian, Dean, Berkeley School of Information: Brain or human circulation

AnnaLee Saxenian has made a career of studying regional economies and the conditions under which people, ideas, and geographies combine and connect into hubs of economic activity. Her latest book, The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy (Harvard University Press, 2006) explores how skilled immigrants from Silicon Valley have transferred the institutions of technology entrepreneurship to emerging regions in their home countries. The “brain drain,” she argues, has now become “brain circulation”— a powerful economic force for the development of formerly peripheral regions that is sparking profound transformations in the global economy.
Saxenian is professor and dean at the U.C. Berkeley School of Information and a professor in Berkeley’s department of city and regional planning. She is author of the acclaimed Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Harvard, 1994). Her other monographs include Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs (Public Policy Institute of California, 1999), and Local and Global Networks of Immigrant Professionals in Silicon Valley (PPIC, 2002). She holds a PhD in Political Science from MIT, a Master's in Regional Planning from U.C. Berkeley, and a BA in Economics from Williams College.

AnnaLee Saxenian (Berkeley Egyetem, Kalifornia) szerint a társadalomtudósoknak egyre nagyobb feladat jut olyan területeken, amelyek hagyományosan nem tartoztak hozzájuk. Ilyen például a vízhiány és a vízgazdálkodás ügye. Mivel a gondok egyre összetettebbek, több tudományterület közötti együttműködésre van szükség.

A tehetség és a tudás mobilitása kulcsfontosságú, de ma már nem agyelszívásról, hanem a tudás körforgásáról kell beszélni. Korábban a gazdag országok még gazdagabbá váltak, a fejlődők pedig a nyomukban "loholtak" - ma viszont a Nyugaton képzést szerzett szakemberek közül egyre többen térnek vissza hazájukba. Saxenian példaként említette Magyarországot, Brazíliát és Kínát. "Egyre több tudásközpont jön létre a perifériákon, Kínában vagy épp Brazíliában."

Jun Xia, Director, Director, Center for Water Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and President, International Water Resources Association

Jun Xia (China) is the Chair Professor on Hydrology & Water Resources, and Director, Center for Water Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Director, Key Lab. of Water Cycle & Related Land Surface Processes, CAS. He has ample experience in leading water research on climate change impact & adaptation for water security, water sustainable management and consulting jobs in China and international activities. He is now severed as the President of International Water Resources Association (IWRA), Board Governor of World Water Council (WWC), and also takes the leading role as Co-Chair, InterAcademy Council (IAC) for Water Programme (IAC-WP), Co-Director, Australia-China Center on Water Resources Research, Member of Scientific Steering Committee of Global Water System Project (GWSP-SSC) and so on.

World Science Forum 2011 - Abstract: Perspective on Water Governance to Changing Environment

This paper addresses new challenge on water governance under the condition of climate change and human activity. A screening process for climate impact on the water sector in China is introduced by four case studies that could provide useful information and answer the questions such as what the impact of climate change is on the project, options for how to manage the impact and whether to manage the impact. 

It is shown that water governance by adaptation could achieve a good economic result, and reduce related impacts of climate change on water resources. For the uncertainties from climate change on water resources, it gives some advice to strengthen the base research and practices on water governance in the future. 

Ricardo Hausmann, Director, Center for International Development, Harvard University

Ricardo Hausmann is Director of Harvard's Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government. Previously, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. Prof. Hausmann also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. He was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) (1985-1991) in Caracas, where he founded the Center for Public Policy. His research interests include issues of growth, macroeconomic stability, international finance, and the social dimensions of development. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

 

 

  

Wolfgang Burtscher, Deputy Director-General in charge of Policy and Management of the Framework Programme, DG for Research and Innovation, European Commission

Wolfgang Burtscher was appointed Deputy Director-General for Research and Innovation on 22 July 2009 and is responsible for the policy and management of the Research Framework Programme.In this capacity he is also closely involved in the elaboration of the future EU funding programmes for research and innovation.
An Austrian national, Mr Burtscher is 51 years old and acted before joining DG Research and Innovation as a Director in DG Agriculture of the European Commission since 2000. Before joining the Commission in 2000 Mr Burtscher was representative of the Länder at the Austrian Permanent Representation to the EU. From 1992 to 1996 he was Director of European Affairs in the Vorarlberg administration. Previously, from 1990 to 1992, he was a legal advisor at the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Geneva, at the time of negotiations on the European Economic Area (EEA). From 1993-1990 Wolfgang Burtscher was a researcher in the area of public international law and European integration at the University of Innsbruck. Wolfgang Burtscher holds a doctorate in law (Univeristy of Innsbruck) and also has a qualification from the Institut Européen des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Nice.

World Science Forum 2011 - Abstract

The global R&D landscape is changing rapidly. Emerging economies account for fast growing shares of global R&D investment, scientific publications, patents and innovations. At the same time, science, technology and innovation are increasingly expected by citizens and governments to contribute to the resolution of long-standing and emerging global economic, social and environmental societal challenges. Global scientific and technological collaboration on the resolution of such societal challenges is therefore both increasingly feasible and increasingly desirable. The viability of such collaboration hinges however on all global players optimising their scientific, technological and innovation performance and developing useful global collaboration mechanisms. Horizon 2020, the EU's next-generation (2014-2020) research and innovation programme, is set up to meet this challenge. It does so by (1) shifting the programme focus from generic to targeted support, from input excellence to output, impact and value-for-money maximisation, and from a laisser-faire to a pro-active approach towards innovation; (2) building its support around 3 pillars, i.e. scientific excellence, industrial leadership and the resolution of societal challenges; and (3) developing a vigorous international cooperation policy.

Wolfgang Burtscher, az Európai Bizottság kutatással és innovációval foglalkozó szervezetének főigazgató-helyettese az Európai Unió Horizont 2020 nevű új generációs kutatási és innovációs programját mutatta be. Fontos lenne még több forrást fordítani a kutatásokra, fejlesztésekre és innovációra; az EU programja is azért jött létre, hogy megoldást találjon a kor legnagyobb kérdéseire és kihívásaira, mint például az éghajlatváltozásra.

Volker ter Meulen, Former President, Leopoldina

Prof. Volker ter Meulen qualified as MD in 1960. He received a training in virology in the USA. He specialised in paediatrics and in clinical virology. In 1975 he became Chairman of the Institute of Virology, Univ. Würzburg, and was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1998-2002. He has worked on pathogenic aspects of viral infections, in particular infections of the central nervous system. From 2003-2010, ter Meulen was President of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Under his leadership, the Leopoldina has strengthened its international commitments in different inter-academic councils and was appointed National Academy of Sciences in 2008. From 2007-2010, he was President of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC), an association of the National Academies of the European Union.

World Science Forum 2011 abstract - The ever-changing world of microbes


While there have been major advances during the last century in the treatment of infectious disease, assumptions that most pathogens had been conquered were too complacent. Human and animal populations are increasingly threatened by (re-)emerging infections, in particular by drug-resistant microbes (acquiring and exchanging key defensive functions), newly-emerging pathogens, often zoonoses that may have recently crossed the species barrier (for example SARS), new variants of the influenza virus (in part reflecting processes of reassortment and antigenic drift), as well as the resurgence in new forms of long-established threats such as TB. The abilities of microbes to evolve and adapt present many challenges in human and animal medicine. The public health burden is exacerbated by the increasing mobility of pathogens, their vectors and animal hosts, in consequence of environmental change.
The ever-changing world of microbes has implications for public policy across a broad front: (i) public health capacity, particularly the development of disease surveillance systems capitalising on new technologies from the molecular biosciences with the commitment to share data to provide early intelligence about new threats; (ii) fundamental research, for example to understand the determinants and consequences of microbial changes in pathogenicity, virulence and transmission across the species barrier; (iii) innovation, to develop and deploy novel diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, to prepare for and respond to current and future priorities; (iv) “one health”, to integrate human and animal health strategies and (v) public engagement, to ensure accurate and timely communication about the implications for health.
The ever-changing world of microbes inevitably leads to new uncertainties about the changing burden of disease. Tackling these challenges – to prepare for the unexpected - requires new collective efforts to capitalise on the changing landscape of science: to build new critical mass internationally, new public-private partnerships, new interdisciplinary and intersectoral linkages. There must also be new urgency to generate and use knowledge for the multiple purposes: to improve health service responsiveness and proactivity, to create the resource to support innovation and education and to deliver the evidence base to inform policy-making. Academies and their networks are well-placed to mobilise the necessary scientific skills and support the linkages to use that expertise. 

  COFFEE BREAK 

 

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