On November 23-24, High Level Workshop on ERA 2022 was held in Zurich co-organised by Science Europe, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI). At the invitation of organizers, the Executive Director of the NRFU Olga Polotska took part in it.
In complex, interdependent societies that face a wide variety of challenges, demands on research are increasing. The current crises (COVID-19, climate changes, international conflicts, and so on) put pressure on research systems and researchers. This year’s main topic ‘Research ethics and integrity in the context of public engagement’ was devoted to these challenges.
The 2022 edition of the High Level Workshop on the European Research Area took stock of the challenges and opportunities that arise where research integrity & ethics meet public engagement. It was focused on three related, but distinct types of interaction:
- The ethics of communicating to a broader audience.
- The ethics of public participation in research.
- The ethics of interactions with decision makers.
By bringing together different perspectives, the HLW became a platform to discuss how to foster more effective and efficient dialogue and collaboration between research, politics, and the public. The workshop outcomes not only support SE members in developing these missions individually, but also feed into the implementation of the ERA Policy agenda 2022–2024, and specifically the action ‘Bring science closer to citizens’.