The Bergen Knowledge Hub aims to:
- Be a catalyst for collaboration, for knowledge exchange, and for exchange of ideas.
- Engage research and scholarship with policymaking in Europe and in the Nordic and Baltic Regions, on behalf of Academia Europaea and in close collaboration with national academies of the region.
- Promote excellent research from and about the Nordic and Baltic Region, its surrounding seas and the Arctic with emphasis on marine and maritime research, sustainability and the Nordic social model, through scholarly workshops and public events.
- Demonstrate the importance of scientific scholarship and maximise engagement with our members, policymakers, private and public entities and the wider public.
- Stimulate scientists to accomplish stringent and unequivocal communication with decision makers, media, and the public.
The Academia Europaea is the pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as the functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry.
– The Academy’s community, with its network of Regional Knowledge Hubs, has the authority, credibility, and pan-European breadth to deliver independent and unbiased collective expertise and advice for policymakers. Academia Europaea, together with SAPEA and the Young Academies, is indeed excellently placed to continue to play a fundamental role in delivering science advice at a European level, says the new President of Academia Europaea, Professor Marja Makarow.
As AE-president prof. Sierd Cloetingh ends his tenure as president for our Academy we would like to express our sincere gratitude for his strong presidency. In many ways, his presidency have moved Academia Europaea forward to a central position on the European scene, in particular its presence in many regions of the continent, and in Science Advice for policy. AE has during his tenure become an even stronger advocate for the importance of research excellence as a basis for the development of our societies in complex times.
I wish to express my best greetings to all members of Academia Europaea, hoping that 2022 will be a year of increased normality, allowing many of us to meet and interact in more personal ways, Hub Director Eystein Jansen writes in this Christmas greeting. He sums up a very productive year, where The Hub has organised and been partner to several events, mainly online, but also some physical meetings when the pandemic allowed for this.
Academia Europaea has recently established a Task Force on Environment, Climate, and Sustainability issues. A recently issued survey, sent to all members, is intended to map members expertise and engagement in these fields. The Bergen Hub is responsible for organising this activity on behalf of Academia Europaea. The survey serves the double purpose of gaining information and enabling communication. If you have expertise and/or engagement in environment, climate, and sustainability issues, we hope that you will respond to the survey.
Norway is in a position to become a leader in the exploration for deep-sea minerals. The race has started, rich in challenges, opportunities, and dilemmas. This is the subject of a side event co-organized by the AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub and UiB, at the Arctic Frontiers 2022 Conference. We’re calling the event “Race to the (seabed) bottom – realities and sustainability dilemmas in the demand for minerals”.
The autumn of 2021 has seen the AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub strengthen its cooperation with Norwegian Science Academies. This has taken place in the form of joint meetings with all Norwegian Academies. In addition, we have been a partner with NTVA and Tekna on a local lecture series. The AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub looks forward to cooperating with Norwegian academies on several topics in the future, Eystein Jansen says.
What would you do if you invented a time machine? Would you travel back to the past, to alter history or fix mistakes? Or would you rather jump forward, to collect future knowledge and bring back advanced technologies? These and other challenging questions were asked of two of Europe’s top experts on climate change and energy: Professor Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Chief Scientific Advisor to the European Commission, and Professor Peter Lund, co-chair of the SAPEA working group on Europe’s energy transition, at an event co-hosted by SAPEA during Berlin Science Week.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 “for ground-breaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems”. Half of the Prize was jointly awarded to Professor Syukuro Manabe MAE of Princeton University and Professor Klaus Hasselmann MAE from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming”. The second half of the Prize was awarded to Professor Giorgio Parisi MAE of Sapienza University of Rome, “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales”.
Energy transition is not just about new technologies and innovation. Our current lifestyles are also contributing to energy and climate problems, and the move away from fossil fuels towards different energy systems will impact on everyone in society. Change has to be fair and inclusive. It requires public engagement and active participation across the whole of society. Addressing these issues is even more important given the context of the upcoming global climate conference, COP26.
Professor Lise Øvreås has been elected new president of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She will be the third woman to hold this top position. In her election speech, she mentioned sustainable change, scientific advice, and the promotion of free and independent research as some of her flagship issues for the Academy in the future.