Calling for a revival of the discipline of Philology

The Second Biennial Conference of the World Philology Union will take place at Uppsala University from the 4th to 6th December 2024. The president of the WPU, Professor Jens Braarvig (MAE) sees the mission of the WPU and the Uppsala Conference as nothing less than reviving the discipline of Philology. The conference in December is titled “Philology and the narrative heritage” and will take a close look at ancient texts from all over the globe.
President of the WPU, Professor Jens Braarvig (MAE).

President of the WPU, Professor Jens Braarvig (MAE).

– Today, academics who are experts in Philology, see their discipline being scaled down or disappearing in universities. We have set up the World Philology Union organisation to show the importance of the philological disciplines, says Jens Braarvig, a major driving force behind the WPU.

He sees the study of historical languages as fundamental to other disciplines also, such as the study of History. Furthermore, he sees much of the fantasy fiction of today as allegories over the ancient stories. Braarvig is eager to see the discipline of philology revived so that the modern versions of the ancient stories are not the only curation of the ancient texts available to the public.

– If we don’t have any experts capable of reading the historical languages, you do not have access to the sources, Braarvig says.

– Stories are everywhere. There are stories in the discipline of law, there are stories in politics and also in science. Narratives are part of our heritage. This immaterial heritage is as important as our material heritage, and a major reason why we should study the ancient languages at the universities, he adds.

Still, looking at the programme for the Uppsala conference, the field of philology seems very vibrant with experts spanning a variety of traditions, making sure that the conference programme spans the study of texts from all over the world, from the Old Norse stories to the Vedas.

Yes, the discipline is still attractive to experts, and they span many traditions, allowing both our conference and the WPU to have a truly global perspective. The problem is that experts in philology don’t have very good working conditions at the universities today.

Narrative heritage

– In the WPU, we see philology as a basic tool to access the narrative heritage, and of course this is a heritage we must curate academically. We seek to define and showcase the vital role that our discipline has played, and continues to play, in relation to the narrative heritage in its original languages, in analysing, interpreting and teaching stories preserved from all regions of the world, Braarvig says.

The Second Biennial Conference of the World Philology Union is headlined "Rhilology and the narrative heritage". Illustration: Sculpture of the norse god Odin at Gøteborg Stadsmuseum. Photo: Unsplashed

The Second Biennial Conference of the World Philology Union is headlined “Philology and the narrative heritage”. Illustration: Sculpture of the norse god Odin at Gøteborg Stadsmuseum. Photo: Unsplashed

The World Philology Union (WPU) was founded on the 2nd of December 2021 at the Norwegian Academy of Arts and Sciences in Oslo, as an international association which promotes the philological study of written cultural heritage from all regions of the world. It was established in coordination with the Union académique internationale (UAI), the umbrella organization of all academies of science worldwide, and the UNESCO-related Conseil international de la philosophie et des sciences humaines (CIPSH).

The Uppsala Conference (4th to 6th December 2024) is an open conference with no attendance fees.

Academia Europaea Bergen is a co-organizer of the Uppsala Conference.

Read or download the complete programme for The Uppsala Conference here. 

 

Interview with Kjersti Fløttum in AE Cardiff Spotlight Series

Kjersti Fløttum MAE is a Professor Emerita of French Linguistics at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen.

Kjersti Fløttum MAE is a Professor Emerita of French Linguistics at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen. Photo credit: Eivind Senneset

How do the general public experience climate change narratives? In recent studies, MAE and AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub Knowledge Hub steering group member Kjersti Fløttum sees that “the general public is more preoccupied by the tone that characterises climate narratives. They criticize the overwhelming negativity and gloom-and-doom perspectives and request a more positive approach”, our steering group member say. Read the complete interview made by the Academia Europaea Cardiff Hub.

 

About Kjersti Fløttum

Kjersti Fløttum MAE is a Professor Emerita of French Linguistics at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen. She has had an extensive academic career, serving as Vice-Rector for International Relations from 2005 to 2009 and as a member of the University Board from 2013 to 2021. From 2020 to 2023, she was the Chair of the Board of the Holberg Prize. Professor Fløttum has published extensively in international journals and is (co-)author/editor of several books.

Professor Fløttum’s research interests encompass text and genre theory, narrative structure, semantics, pragmatics, linguistic polyphony, and discourse analysis. Since 2012, she has led the interdisciplinary research group LINGCLIM, which investigates the role of language in climate change discourse. From 2020 to 2023, she led the CLIMLIFE project, which explores motivations for lifestyle changes in the context of climate change, funded by the Research Council of Norway.

In recognition of her efforts in promoting bilateral relations between France and Norway, she was honoured with the French Ordre national du Mérite in 2023.

Read the interview

Your work emphasises the importance of language in shaping climate change discourse. How do you believe narrative structures influence public perception and policymaking on climate change?

“Stories’ are made up of narratives, which have different components, of which complication and reaction are the most important. The influence narratives may have is dependent on the focus given to the complication element (climate change itself and its causes) and/or to the reaction component (possible solutions to curb the consequences of climate change). A narrative in which the reaction component is prominent may have a motivating effect, by providing people with suggestions for measures that could be taken at individual, community or societal levels.Conversely, a complication-focused narrative may induce a sense of despondency and fatalism. In addition, narratives may contain different characters (explicitly or implicitly), such as hero, victim and villain, that may display different distributions of responsibility.”

The LINGCLIM project has explored the role of language in climate discourse since 2012. What are the most significant findings that have emerged from this research?

“We have shown that there is a great variety of climate change narratives, caused by the immensity and complexity of the issue and the interests involved. Climate change refers to a process which manifests itself at scales far beyond those of daily experience, and which can only be understood through knowledge from a broad range of scientific disciplines. If we add to this complexity the fact that climate change is a phenomenon that goes well beyond the geophysical domain, to encompass the social, political, ethical, cultural and communicational, then any discourse on climate change is a simplification.We have also found, through the approach of linguistic polyphony, that climate narratives are particularly multi-voiced, with both explicit and implicit voices. With different voices come different values and interests. It has been particularly interesting to reveal how hidden voices can adopt, refute or concede other narrative voices within the same text.”

How do you ensure communication about climate change is both scientifically accurate and accessible to a general audience?

“As linguistics researchers, we cannot ensure scientific accuracy, but our cross-disciplinary approach of including climate researchers helps to avoid inaccuracy. With regards to accessibility to the general public, we have to enter into a dialogue with different segments of the population. For example, in a study where we included students from upper-secondary school, they told us that they found the relation between global and local changes particularly difficult.However, what we see in our most recent studies is that the general public is more preoccupied by the tone that characterises climate narratives. They criticise the overwhelming negativity and gloom-and-doom perspectives and request a more positive approach, pointing at possible solutions and where they can contribute.”

What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for the next generation of researchers in climate linguistics?

“It will be important to focus on the importance of individual action and individual voices. There is increasing interest in who should act, as well as in what should be done to avoid or mitigate the most serious consequences. Clearly, international and national agents are needed to develop policies and implement changes, but individuals are also expected to contribute, especially through lifestyle change. A challenge will be to change the excuse of , “What I do will not have any effect” into an understanding that, “You matter more than you think”.We have seen a trend, both in psychological studies and public debates, that preferences are oriented towards more positive language, with an objection to negative and alarming language, which may demotivate people from engaging in climate action. This tendency should encourage communicators to strike a balance between alarming and encouraging people, when the aim is to motivate them towards climate action.As the consequences of climate change manifest globally, it’s also important to study its linguistic representations in relation to phenomena such as technological innovation, energy policies, armed conflicts, hunger, migration, as well as the destruction of nature and wildlife habitats.”

 

Academia Europaea Bergen wraps up an active season with ERC Board Meeting

Academic Director of AE-Bergen Hub, Eystein Jansen, at the ERC seminar in Bergen. Photo: Paul S. Amundsen/UIB

Academic Director of AE-Bergen Hub, Eystein Jansen, at the ERC seminar in Bergen. Photo: Paul S. Amundsen/UIB

For the University of Bergen (UiB) and for the Academia Europaea Bergen Hub, the seminar and ERC board meeting in Bergen on 26th-27th June marked both the end of the first half of 2024 and the beginning of summer. It also concluded a very active season for the AE Bergen Hub.

Our Academic Director Eystein Jansen, who is also the Vice-President for Physical Sciences and Engineering at the ERC, played a key role in bringing the ERC Board to our hometown of Bergen at the close of the spring semester.

“Frontier research is key to securing Europe’s role in the world, in terms of providing more innovations in society, solving global challenges and securing democratic processes. It has been said that that the creation of the ERC is the best European innovation of recent times, and I think I subscribe to that view.” Eystein Jansen said in his welcome speech at the meeting.

Science diplomacy during crises

In 2024, Academia Europaea Bergen has focused extensively on mapping the conditions for scientific cooperation and science diplomacy during geopolitical crises, with a special focus on Arctic relations. Our report The Future of Science Diplomacy in the Arctic, published in 2023, has led to the Rethinking Arctic collaboration project, funded by a 400 000 NOK grant from UArctic. The project team includes renowned scientists from Europe, Canada and the USA.

The Rethinking Arctic Collaboration project was presented at the Arctic Circle Berlin Forum, on 8th May providing an opportunity for team members to meet in person. The project’s aim is to engage with stakeholders and produce a comprehensive report. Outreach is important, and our proposal for an event at the 2024 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland, from 17th-19th October, was recently accepted amidst strong competition.

Rector Margareth Hagen, University of Bergen, Maria Leptin, President, European Research Council, and Oddmund Hoel, Minister of Research and Higher Education in Norway at the ERC seminar in Bergen.

Rector Margareth Hagen, University of Bergen, Maria Leptin, President, European Research Council, and Oddmund Hoel, Minister of Research and Higher Education in Norway at the ERC seminar in Bergen. Photo: Paul S. Amundsen/UIB

Academia Europaea Bergen is committed to expanding our work in Science Diplomacy and Arctic Relations. We have submitted a pre-application for a grant from Nordforsk to fund a 3-4 year project titled Arctic knowledge and knowledge systems in flux – threats and coping strategies for a sustainable Arctic. If awarded, this project will be a truly Nordic effort, with partners from Norway, Finland and Sweden, as well as Trans-Atlantic connections including experts from Canada and the US.

In addition to these major projects, spring 2024 saw Academia Europaea Bergen continue to co-organise a well-established meeting series (mainly held in Norwegian) together with the Bergen offices of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA Bergen) and The Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals (Tekna Bergen). Other collaborations included the Horizon Lectures series at UiB and the Arctic Frontiers Conference.

With this summary of our activities at Academia Europaea Bergen, we wish all Members, collaborators and friends a nice summer!

A new handbook provides tools for researchers in the science-policy interface

The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters has published a handbook for researchers on science-for-policy.

Pathways to Impact: Researcher’s Handbook on Science-for-Policy is a new handbook published by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. It provides strategic tools for strengthening the impact of research in policy-making. It answers questions such as: how is research knowledge transferred to policy-makers? And when is the right time to engage in a policy process?

The handbook can be downloaded from the Finnish Academy website.

“High-quality, multidisciplinary research knowledge is needed to support policy-makers in addressing interconnected societal challenges. Recognising that researchers already face a lot of pressures in their academic work, we wanted to produce a handbook that would make societal impact work more accessible and approachable for researchers. Indeed, we aim to encourage and motivate researchers to engage in societal impact work”, explains knowledge broker Linda Lammensalo.

“The handbook aims to assist researchers in different stages of their careers to excel in their impact work.”

The handbook, for example, outlines different stages of policy-making, with a focus on the Finnish national context. It also includes practical tips from the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office in responding to policy-makers’ knowledge requests. It contains interactive tools to practice and reflect on one’s own experiences and expertise, as well as concrete examples from other researchers who have already engaged in impact work.

According to Lammensalo, the handbook can give researchers a good starting point for their impact work.

“We hope that the handbook will inspire researchers to discover new pathways for increasing the impact of their research.”

New perspectives in “Rethinking Arctic Collaboration”-project emerge at Berlin session

 

Panel discussion at Arctic Circle Berlin

Panel discussion at Arctic Circle Berlin Frode Nilssen, Melody Brown Burkins, Rolf Rødven, moderator Volker Rachold, Clara Ganslandt, Eystein Jansen and Ole Øvretveit.

Working group members, as well as external keynotes and commentators, offered new perspectives to the “Rethinking Arctic Collaboration”-project from Academia Europaea Bergen, when the project was presented at a session at Arctic Circle Berlin, May 8th. The panel discussion also added new context.

The first keynote of the session was from Melody Brown Burkins, Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies at the John Sloan Dickey Center, Dartmouth.

– What you’ll hear today during our session is that, even in our group, we are not all defining science diplomacy and cooperation challenges in the same way, but we all want to see a future with shared Arctic science diplomacy goals. We want to see if we can learn what paths to future Arctic science cooperation will work. And we want to see Arctic science done with just, ethical, and inclusive Arctic governance, Melody Brown Burkins said in her introduction.

She highlighted that an ethical and equitable future for Arctic science diplomacy would have to include Arctic Indigenous Peoples in both knowledge creation and diplomatic decision-making.

Two objectives

She described the foremost challenges of future models of Arctic science diplomacy to be ensuring primarily two objectives:

Keynote from Melody Brown Burkins.

Keynote from Melody Brown Burkins.

– The practice of science consistently, ethically, and equitably includes the engagement of diverse knowledge systems – most specifically Arctic Indigenous Knowledge systems – to inform Arctic policy, and:

– The practice of diplomacy consistently, ethically, and equitably supporting governance models where leaders of recognized Arctic Indigenous Peoples organizations wield decision-making power alongside leaders of Arctic Nations.

– This is a goal for Arctic science diplomacy we can address now, regardless of full Arctic Council cooperation, Melody Brown Burkins said.

On the situation resulting from missing Russians climate data following the current sanctions, she said:

– I do not think more climate data is the sole answer to the existential threat we are facing of a warming earth, eroding coastlines, permafrost thaw, sea level rise, the loss of sea ice, and the rise of powerful storms across the globe. Because we know what the science is telling us. We have known what the science has been telling us since the 1950s. We need to move to low-carbon, net zero economies as soon as humanly possible.

The second keynote of the session was Frode Nilssen, professor at Nord University Business School and research professor at Fridtjof Nansens Institute.

– The current change in the geopolitical situation affecting Arctic collaboration have been taking place gradually over the last two decades. This is not a new situation, even as it has been amplified by the terrible, Russian aggression in Ukraine, thus creating an entirely new situation, particularly in the European Arctic, Nilssen emphasized.

Nilssen drew a parallel between science diplomacy and another, continuing collaboration between Norway and Russia, namely the joint fisheries commission, deciding on the annual quotas of the fish stock.

– This collaboration rests on scientific advice drawn from solid research over time and has also been able to continue during the current sanction regime, Nilssen said.   

Identify both mechanism and motivation

The final keynote was Rolf Rødven, Executive Secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, AMAP.

Rolf Rødven, Executive Secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.

Rolf Rødven, Executive Secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.

– In the internal talks at AMAP, the discussions about continued scientific collaboration with Russia boiled down to defining scientific integrity as our most important asset. Whatever we wanted to do, we needed to make sure that our scientific integrity was maintained. For instance, we would resist any pressure to exclude Russian co-authors from scientific papers, as that would constitute scientific misconduct, Rødven said.

– If we would like to resume a full pan-Arctic cooperation including Russia, and the need to understand the impacts of rapidly warming Arctic is the reason for doing so, we would need to identify both the mechanism and the motivation. The legally binding Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation provides such a mechanism, and to join efforts towards the International Polar Year in 2032 in meeting the most important challenge for our Arctic future may be such a motivation, Rødven added.

Academic director of Academia Europaea Bergen, Eystein Jansen, and project manager Ole Øvretveit, at the panel discussion.

Academic director of Academia Europaea Bergen, Eystein Jansen, and project manager Ole Øvretveit, at the panel discussion. Foto: Bundesfoto/Bernd Lammel

In her introductory comments to the panel, Clara Ganslandt, Special Envoy for Arctic Matters, European External Action Service, said:

– This session has been enlightening on the complexities of the current geopolitical situation, when also intersecting with the global threat of climate change.

Academic director of Academia Europaea Bergen, Eystein Jansen, also had introductory comments to the panel:

– It is easy to become pessimistic about the role of science diplomacy today and whether the concept has any meaning at all. Taking part in conversations here at Arctic Circle Berlin, I’m convinced that there still is a role for science diplomacy. Continuing to do scientific research the way it should be done, will create a space for science diplomacy, Jansen said.

Additional avenues

– Also important to consider, is that there are more avenues for science diplomacy than just collaboration with Russia. Organizations like IPY, IPPC, AMAP or the UN system still operates and some of these may be able to provide avenues for cooperation with Russia further down the line.

In the following panel discussion, Clara Ganslandt pointed out several organisations where science diplomacy is still happening and functioning:

– In my view, projects like the All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance, the EU Polar Cluster, The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership and also the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative are examples of science diplomacy that is ongoing and working, Ganslandt said as part of the panel discussion during the session.

More on the “Rethinking Arctic Collaboration”-project from Academia Europaea Bergen.

What are the consequences of the current lack of science diplomacy in the Arctic?

Arctic seas

What are the scenarios for Arctic climate and environmental research in the longer run?

Currently, Arctic climate research does not have access to critical climate data from 45% of the Arctic area. This is because climate data from the Russian Arctic areas is largely no longer available to the global research community, as a by-product of the Russia sanctions. We’ll look into the consequences of this at our session at the Arctic Circle Berlin Forum “Arctic Scientific Cooperation in Flux”, on May 8th, 11:30– 12:30.

The above is one of the findings in the report “The Future of Arctic Science and Science Diplomacy”, initiated by Academia Europaea Bergen, the Nordic hub for the pan-European science academy Academia Europaea.

The absence of complete and comprehensive observations for the actual climate development of the Arctic is potentially dramatic, as the Arctic is seen as a “temperature gauge” for global warming and processes of global impact occurs there. In the Arctic, temperatures are rising three times faster than the global mean. A related situation demanding attention in the Arctic is the thawing of the permafrost and the methane emissions and other climate feedbacks resulting from this. A complete picture of this situation will also require complete data from all Arctic areas including the Russian ones.

This lack of complete data sets is a by-product of the sanctions following the Russian war in Ukraine, sanctions that also affect cooperation with Russian scientists, within a broad portfolio of scientific topics and science-based management. We ask what consequences the lack of science diplomacy has had and will have on the sharing of climate data and international scientific collaboration in general and particularly with respect to the collection and distribution of data? And what are the scenarios for Arctic climate and environmental research in the longer run?

For our session at the Arctic Circle Berlin Forum, May 8th, 11:30– 12:30, panelists will be Clara Ganslandt, Rolf Rødven, Eystein Jansen,  Melody B. Burkins and Frode Nilssen. Moderator will be Volker Rachold. Bios on all below. 

Organisers

Academia Europaea Bergen, University of Bergen, Nord University Business School, Institute of Arctic Studies in Dartmouth, Alfred Wegener Institute (all partners of the Rethinking Arctic Project (2023-2025), funded by UArctic, UiB and Academia Europaea Bergen).

Moderator and panelists:

Volker Rachold

Volker Rachold is head of the German Arctic Office at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), which serves as an information and cooperation platform among German stakeholders from science, politics, and industry. Before moving to the German Arctic Office in 2017, he had served as the executive secretary of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) in Stockholm and Potsdam since 2006. Rachold graduated as a geochemist from Göttingen University, where he also obtained his PhD in 1994. Since then, he has worked with the AWI. His research focused on land-ocean interactions in the Siberian Arctic, and he led several land- and ship-based Russian-German expeditions.

 

Clara Ganslandt

Clara Ganslandt is Special Envoy for Arctic Matters at the European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Union’s diplomatic service. Ganslandt’s role is to drive forward the EU’s Arctic policy, enhance cooperation with partner countries and other interested parties, improve coordination between the different EU institutions, mainstream Arctic issues in policy-making, and promote and publicise the EU’s Arctic engagement externally. She entered the Swedish diplomatic service in 1990. Following Sweden’s accession to the EU in 1995, she joined the first structure set up in the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers of the EU to build the EU Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP); and she has since then worked in EU external relations in various functions. She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from the Lund University in Sweden, and also studied at the College of Europe in Bruges, and at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris.

Melody Brown Burkins

Melody Brown Burkins, PhD, is the Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies, Senior Associate Director in the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, and Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth. In January 2022, she was also named the UArctic Chair in Science Diplomacy and Inclusion. With over 30 years of experience as a polar scientist working in academia and governance, she is an advocate for policy-engaged scholarship, experiential education, and the support of science policy and diplomacy initiatives advancing sustainability, inclusion, and gender equality in the Arctic and around the world.

 

Frode Nilssen

Frode Nilssen is a professor at Nordland University Business School, High North Centre for Business and Governance. Most of his research has been on international trade and marketing within the frames of economic and governance issues, on food trade in particular. International Political Economy in the Arctic is a field of interest, particularly the blue economy and institutional frames, and on tensions between Economic Behaviour, Bilateral and Multilateral Governance and Politics in international food trade and exploitation of natural resources. Nilssen is also a research professor at the Fridjof Nansens Institute, head of the research department for marketing, strategy and management at the Bodø Graduate School of Business. He has served as a Special councillor at the Norwegian embassy in Moscow dealing with trade, fisheries and economic matters in the Norwegian-Russian relation.

Rolf Rødven

Rolf Rødven is the Executive Secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP). AMAP is mandated to monitor and assess the state of the Arctic region with respect to pollution and climate change issues, as well as their impacts on ecosystems and human health, and to provide policy recommendations to the Arctic Ministers. Rødven holds a PhD in Northern Populations and Ecosystems and an MBA in strategic leadership and finance from UiT – the Arctic University of Norway. He has been authoring several scientific papers on Arctic sosio-ecological systems. His previous positions include research director and director at the Norwegian Institute of Agricultural and Environmental research – Northern department, research director at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomic research, and head of research section at Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economy, as well as leading positions in environmental management.

Eystein Jansen

Eystein Jansen is professor of palaeoclimatology at the University of Bergen. Jansen was the founding director of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, which he led for 13 years. Jansen is Academic Director for the Academia Europaea Bergen Knowledge Hub and Vice President of the European Research Council (ERC) and a member of Academia Europaea, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, The Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences and the Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research. Jansen was in 2019 awarded the Brøgger prize and the Meltzer prize for excellence in research. His research has primarily dealt with the influence of changes in ocean circulation on climate and on natural climate changes.

Ole Øvretveit

Ole Øvretveit is currently Director of the Coastal Impact Hub in Kirkenes, Norway, which is a pilot project funded by the Norwegian government. In addition, he is the project manager at the Academia Europaea Bergen Hub for the UArctic funded project Rethinking Arctic Collaboration, holding a 10% researcher position at the host institution, the University of Bergen. Previously he has served as Director of Arctic Frontiers for eight years. Subsequently and as Director of Science to Policy for the Sustainable Development Goals at the University of Bergen. He has also provided leadership with Initiative West, a think tank on sustainable ocean economy, societal growth and the green transition from the west coast of Norway.

 

 

New report: Successful and timely uptake of artificial intelligence in science in the EU

SAM Evidence Review Report.

The EU must provide a competitive and attractive AI research environment by offering the opportunity to work on high-impact societal challenges and a stimulating work environment, in addition to a high quality of life.
These are some of the topics explored in the new SAM Evidence Review Report.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionise scientific discovery, accelerate research progress, boost innovation, and improve researchers’ productivity. The EU must take hold of the opportunities this brings, and in a timely way. This is among the conclusions in a new evidence review report from the Science Advice Mechanism to the European Commission.

The new Evidence Review Report, a Scoping Paper and a Scientific Opinion on the topic “Successful and timely uptake of artificial intelligence in science in the EU” is now available to download from the SAM website.

The Academia Europaea hub in Cardiff will organize a webinar on the topic “AI and academic publishing: What does the future hold for authors, readers and publishers?” on 13th May. Several people connected with the recent Evidence Review Report will be panelists, including the Chair of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, Professor Nicole Grobert.

The EU should prioritise AI-powered research in areas where large amounts of data are available but difficult to interpret, such as personalised health, social cohesion, and the green and digital transitions. This will bring the greatest benefits for EU citizens.

It is important to support new research into the greenest AI algorithms and infrastructure, to help manage the environmental impact of the technology.

AI-powered scientific research requires a vast amount of data. That data should be high quality, responsibly collected and well curated, with fair access for European researchers and innovators. So the EU should continue to work with the research community to ensure that data standards, guidelines and best practices can evolve as technology develops.

A geopolitical asset

AI has become a geopolitical asset. The availability of both human talent and computing power defines which parts of the world can make the most of AI, and which are falling behind. Currently, most AI infrastructure belongs to a small number of companies, largely in the US and China, and even public research labs depend on them for computing power. The opacity of the commercial AI sector makes it difficult to obtain the transparent, reproducible scientific results that are essential to robust science in an open society.

To rebalance the situation and boost public research across all disciplines and member states, we need to give universities and research institutes across Europe fair access to state-of-the-art AI facilities. A new European institute for AI in science would provide massive high-performing computational power, a sustainable cloud infrastructure, and AI training programmes for scientists. Alongside these services, a European AI in Science Council would provide dedicated funding for researchers in all disciplines to explore and adopt AI in their sciences. These would also ensure that AI in research aligns with EU core values.

The EU must provide a competitive and attractive AI research environment by offering the opportunity to work on high-impact societal challenges and a stimulating work environment, in addition to a high quality of life.

These are some of the topics explored in the new Evidence Review Report. The review document, a Scoping Paper and a Scientific Opinion, as well as an introduction video,  is available from the SAM website.

 

Trenger vi alternative pengesystemer? Se presentasjonene fra foredraget.

NTVA, Tekna Bergen og Academia Europaea Bergen arrangerte nylig foredrag og debatt om alternative pengesystemer med Svein Ølnes og Arne Krokan. Lenke til presentasjon fra foredraget er tilgjengalig fra NTVA nettsiden.

Foredrag og debatt om alternative pengesystemer med Svein Ølnes og Arne Krokan.

Norges Tekniske Vitenskapsakademi, Tekna Bergen og Academia Europaea Bergen arrangerte nylig foredrag og debatt om alternative pengesystemer med Svein Ølnes og Arne Krokan. Foto: Unsplash

Pengesystemene er kritisk infrastruktur i samfunnet. Selv om vi har verdens mest effektive systemer for pengeoverføring, er denne infrastrukturen også beheftet med sårbarhet. Det blir fort synlig når Vipps og BankId er ute av drift. Og hva hadde skjedd om selve oppgjørssentralen ble satt ut av drift for eksempel på grunn av manglende tilgang til elektrisitet?

Systemene har også andre sårbarheter fordi bankene jo ikke er i besittelse av alle pengene vi “har satt inn”. De er avhengige av vår tillit, at ikke alle sammen samtidig vil ønske å ta ut pengene sine, for at dagens system skal fungere etter intensjonen. Det var denne tilliten som knekte et par amerikanske banker sist år. Så hva er alternativene? Hva koster det å drive dem? Og er det fornuftig med tanke på fremtidig samfunnssikkerhet å holde oss med ett eller flere alternative pengesystemer?

Foredragsholdere på dette seminaret var Svein Ølnes og Arne Krokan. Svein Ølnes, tidligere forsker Vestlandsforskning, har over 20 års erfaring som prosjektleder for ulike IT-prosjekter. Han har fulgt Bitcoin og kryptovaluta siden 2011 og publisert en rekke artikler om emnet. Arne Krokan, professor emeritus i økonomi og ledelse ved NTNU, er også forfatter. Han har skrevet en rekke bøker om det digitale skiftet, den siste med tittelen HOMO APPIENS.

Les mer på NTVAs hjemmeside. Nederst i teksten finnes også lenke til presentasjonen fra foredraget. 

 

 

Michel Talagrand awarded the 2024 Abel Prize

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has decided to award the Abel Prize for 2024 to Michel Talagrand of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, France.

Michel Talagrand

Michel Talagrand receives the Abel Prize 2024 for his work in probability theory and stochastic processes. Photo: Peter Badge / Abel Prize 2024

Michel Talagrand receives the prize for his work in probability theory and stochastic processes. From the outset, the development of probability theory was motivated by problems that arose in the context of gambling or assessing risks. The common theme in Michel Talagrand’s groundbreaking discoveries is working with and understanding the random processes we see all around us. It has now become apparent that a thorough understanding of random phenomena is essential in today’s world. For example, random algorithms underpin our weather forecasting and large language models.

The modern world is a constant flow of random events, and understanding that randomness has impacts on everything from business logistics to condensed-matter physics. Much of Talagrand’s work involves understanding and utilising the “Gaussian distribution”, often better known as the “normal distribution” or – thanks to its shape – the “bell curve”. Our whole life is guided by the Gaussian distribution: the weight of babies at birth, the test results students get at school and the ages athletes retire at are all seemingly random events that neatly follow the Gaussian distribution.

Three specific areas

The Abel Prize is given for three specific areas of Talagrand’s work:

Suprema of stochastic processes – A stochastic process produces a sequence of random values, and the “supremum” is the largest value to be expected from a collection of those values. If the height of waves crashing on a beach is a stochastic process, it is useful to know what the largest wave to hit the beach next year is likely to be.

Concentration of measures – Counterintuitively, when a process depends on a range of different sources of randomness, instead of getting more complicated, it is possible for the different random factors to compensate for each other and produce more predictable results. Talagrand has given sharp quantitative estimates for this.

Spin glass – Leaving abstract probability theory behind, a “spin glass” is a special form of matter that atoms can arrange themselves in, much to the initial surprise of physicists. Talagrand used his knowledge of statistics and probability to prove limits on how spin glass matter can behave, and thereby completed the proof of Giorgio Parisi’s Nobel Prize winning work (2021).

“Talagrand is an exceptional mathematician, and a formidable problem solver. He has made profound contributions to our understanding of random, and in particular, Gaussian, processes. His work has reshaped several areas of probability theory. Furthermore, his proof of the celebrated Parisi formula for free energy of spin glasses is an amazing accomplishment,” says Professor Helge Holden, chair of the Abel Prize Committee.

The Abel Prize is awarded by The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Read more at the website of the academy. 

 

Recorded event: Eva Jablonka at Darwin Day 2024

Watch the video recording of “The evolution of learning and the origins of consciousness”, a lecture by professor Eva Jablonka. This was the Darwin Day and Horizon Lecture at University of Bergen on February 12th 2024.

In this lecture, Eva Jablonka explores the question of the origins of animal mentality, which Darwin avoided, and present an evolutionary approach for studying it, developed together with Simona Ginsburg. Jablonka explains the rationale and methodology underlying their approach and presents their proposal that the emergence of primary consciousness was driven by the evolution of a domain-general, representational form of associative learning, which they called unlimited associative learning (UAL).

The event on February 12th 2024 was a joint event organised by the Horizon Lecture Committee at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Darwin Day Committee at the Department of Biological Sciences, and Academia Europaea Bergen Knowledge Hub. The lecture received economic support from Selskapet til Vitenskapenes Fremme.

We apologize for the poor visuals of this recording. However, the audio quality is good, so we hope that you can still enjoy it.