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.
In this lecture Professor Yadvinder Malhi examines human influence on the natural world through the concept of metabolism: how much energy flows through human societies compared to how much flows through the biosphere. The lecture was held at the University of Bergen on April 25th, to mark the Darwin Day. In this lecture, prof. Yadvinder Malhi looks at the biological metabolism of the planet, how it is measured and how it is distributed over the Earth.
Emeritus Professor Olav Eldholm, passed away April 18 2022 at the age of 80. Eldholm was elected member of Academia Europaea since 1990 (and a prominent person in the international geoscience community. He was also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and a number of national and international academies. Eldholm studied geophysics at the University of Bergen, and spent formative years as research scientist at Columbia University´s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York before returning to Norway for a professorship at the University of Oslo in 1974.
The annual report of the AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub is now available to download. The report shows a very active year for our Hub despite the many covid restrictions. For the AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub 2021 has been an important year as Academia Europaea (AE) and the University of Bergen (UiB) in May 2021 renewed their agreement stating that UiB will host and provide facilities and personnel for the running of our Hub for the next four years.
Professor of medical virology and head of the Influenza Centre in Bergen, Rebecca Cox, was recently awarded the Meltzer 2022 Award for excellent science communication. Rebecca Cox has been remarkably visible during the pandemic and during the vaccine rollout, with more than 130 interviews in newspapers and TV during 2020. However, as the Meltzer jury points out, she also contributed to 140 scientific publications, 53 of them the last five years.
The Academia Europaea strongly supports the European Union member states, Switzerland, The United Kingdom and the EEA countries’ action against Russia’s belligerent attack on Ukraine, which is in violation of international law. We are following the positions of our partner Academies across Europe. We are especially pleased to see and wish to thank unreservedly, those organisations with the capabilities, that are putting into place schemes to provide safe havens and funds for Ukrainian researchers. We applaud your efforts.
Gunhild Bødtker is a working group member and an author on the SAPEA report Biodegradability of plastics in the open environment. Following the publication of the report, Dr Bødtker set up an experiment at the Bergen Aquarium. In a tank at the aquarium, she is studying how long it takes for some specific kinds of biodegradable plastics to break down fully in a marine environment similar to the sea near Bergen in Norway. Midway through the experiment, important and surprising discoveries are already coming to light.
– 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.