AERA Executive Director Levine Addresses the Politics of Science Funding at the EuroScience Open Forum


July 2018

L to R: Felice J. Levine, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon,
Paul Rübig, April Tash, Paul Holm, Gabi Lombardo

On July 13 in Toulouse, France, AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine participated in a panel at the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), the largest interdisciplinary science meeting in Europe. Created in 2004 by EuroScience, the ESOF is dedicated to scientific research and innovation and offers a unique framework for interaction and debate for scientists, innovators, policymakers, business people, and the general public. The ESOF is a biennial event that typically draws over 4,000 attendees from all over the world to discuss breakthroughs in science.

The panel, organized by the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH), focused on the topic “The Politics of Science: Funding Social Sciences and Humanities around the World?” The objective of the session was “to create engaged discussion and exchange on the ‘Politics of Science’ and the position of and possibilities for the social sciences and humanities.” The interactive session, chaired by Gabi Lombardo, director of EASSH, included brief opening remarks from each of the presenters. In her opening remarks, Levine introduced thematic points that included emphasizing the unity and connectedness of the sciences; the importance of working with funders to invest in cumulative programs of research and in the tools and data to make the sciences vital; and the need to fully embrace communication with diverse publics.

Levine was joined by an international panel that included Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, president of the European Research Council; Jack Harrington, portfolio manager at Wellcome Trust; Paul Holm, EASSH president; Paul Rübig, member of the European Parliament and chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee for Science and Technology Option Assessment; and April Tash, program specialist, UNESCO Sector for Social and Human Sciences.