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.
We look forward to receiving suggestions and ideas that our members may have on events and themes that our Hub should engage in, Academic Director Eystein Jansen says in his summer greetings. Furthermore, he welcomes close to 50 new AE members from the Nordic and Baltic regions from this year´s nomination round, expressing hope that all will become active members.
The AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub held meetings with both the Advisory Board and Steering Group in June 2022. Both events provided an overview of recent and upcoming projects for the hub. For the Steering Group, which is based in Bergen, it was finally possible to have a physical meeting, after virtual meetings during the pandemic. For the Advisory Board, with members from the Nordic and Baltic region, there was a virtual meeting.
The AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub was honored to host László Lovász, the academic director of our sister hub in Budapest, for two days during his Norway visit this spring. Possible cooperation was discussed. László Lovász was awarded the Abel Prize for 2021. Because of Covid restrictions last year, he visited the Norwegian Acadamy of Science and Letters this year instead. His week in Norway included 2 days in Rosendal in western Norway, as well at 3 days in Bergen.
Does the Green Shift really need deep-sea minerals? Do deep-sea minerals have a potential for creating new industries? Is the technology advanced enough? Explore the recording of a UiB and Academia Europaea Bergen Knowledge Hub organized Side Event at this year’s Arctic Frontiers Conference – “Race to the (seabed) bottom – realities and sustainability dilemmas in the demand for minerals”.
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.