In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, dialogue between science and society is more important than ever. This year’s EuroScience Open Forum, a hybrid of in-person and online events held 2-6 September, provided a key international platform to discuss and share experiences on issues such as communicating scientific uncertainty and maintaining public trust in science. The ORION Open Science partners contributed to three online sessions during the week discussing Open Science, RRI and genomic medicine. Did you miss the event? Some sessions are now available on YouTube.
The first hybrid ESOF attracted some 2500 people; among these, more than 1000 participated in person and 1400 people connected remotely every day. On average each event was attended online by around 300 people, and the event saw 4300 overall virtual visits. ESOF2020 was in the global spotlight: online visitors came from 52 countries across 5 continents.
The ORION partners were involved in three sessions during ESOF 2020. Michela Bertero, Roderick Guigo and Marta Solis, CRG represented ORION in the session "Genomic medicine: novel ethics and society challenges" on 3 September. The session brought together leaders from research, health care, patient communities, and ethics. Discussions covered issues surrounding the translation of genomic into medicine and public health from different views. Participants were also invited to have their say on how to foster new international and inter-disciplinary collaborations and trust among researchers, clinicians, patients, regulatory agencies, hospitals, biobanks and the private sector.
Joining forces for a global 21st century Responsible Research and Innovation network on 4 September was a session initiated by the RRING EU project network to explore opportunities to develop a global RRI network that is both useful and sustainable. The session drew upon the collective insights of a number of European projects and initiatives, including the RRING project network, presented by Gordon Dalton, MaREI University College Cork, the New Horrizon network presented by Erich Griessler, University of Vienna, and the ORION project was presented by Maria Hagardt of VA. Participants were invited to share ideas by mentimeter on the benefits of developing a framework for RRI and how setting up a global network for RRI would make the most of existing RRI know-how, results and impacts. This was also commented on by the panel speakers John Crowley, UNESCO; Marion Boland, Science Foundation Ireland; Jessica Wyndham, AAAS; and Gail Cardew, Euroscience. The discussion on how to build a global RRI network will continue and interested stakeholders will have an opportunity to contribute via the online survey and sign up for a 6 month trial of a global RRI Network.
In the session EU-OSPP: Open Science from Recommendations to Practical implementation on 4 September, Michela Bertero, CRG presented the work being done within the European Open Science Policy Platform, EU-OSPP. The policy platform is a group of experts representing 25 stakeholder organizations across Open Science, who have been advising the EC on addressing the challenges to the implementation of Open Science in Europe. The session will summarised the progress across Europe on the uptake of the recommendations made and discussed with participants the future vision for Open Science in Europe by 2030. For more information about this session please see the ESOF programme and the recording from this session.
About ESOF
ESOF - EuroScience Open Forum is a biennial, pan-European, science conference dedicated to scientific research and innovation. It is the largest interdisciplinary science meeting in Europe where scientists, innovators, policy makers, business people and the general public discuss, debate and share knowledge. This year's theme is Sharing science: “Freedom for science, science for freedom". Did you miss the event? Some of the sessions are now available on YouTube!