Category: News

– 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.

Professor Marja Makarow’s term as AE President commenced on 1st January 2022.

Her first interview as President was conducted by the AE Cardiff Hub.

In the interview, you’ll find information about Makarows background, her reflections on science advice and supporting the next generation of researchers and scientists, as well as a recording of her talk at Academia Europaea’s annual conference in October 2021.

Click here for the complete interview.

Professor Pearl Dyskstra MAE and Professor Marja Makarow at the SAPEA symposium on science advice (Helsinki). Photo: Tomi Setälä / SAPEA

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.

Prof. Sierd Cloetingh signing the new 4-year agreement between the University of Bergen and AE on May 25th, 2021.

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.

Prof. Cloetingh has also been a key and trusted supporter of our Hub in Bergen, and has taken many initiatives which has developed the Hub to become an integral part of the functioning of the Academy with a number of promising activities in the next years. He recently signed the new 4-year agreement between the University of Bergen and AE, which ensures a good functioning of the Hub in the coming years.

Our sister-Hub in Cardiff has written a nice report on the farewell ceremonies celebrating prof. Cloetingh´s achievements, and we encourage our readers to read this.

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.

Christmas Greetings from the Hub Director, Eystein Jansen

Dear all,

Another year has almost come to an end, with a new year approaching, yet again influenced by the pandemic. While a few months back, there was hope for the vaccination effort to gradually lead to normalization and protection of our health and health services, it is now clear that many countries again need to restrict social interaction and mobility.

This is due to the combined effects of severely mutated and more contagious variants of the virus and lack of willingness to be vaccinated in parts of the population in some countries. The uneven global distribution of vaccines to the global south leaves the majority of the global population unvaccinated, thus providing perfect conditions for new mutations of the virus. This development was forecasted by scientists with expertise in the field. Among the lessons learned during the pandemic is the importance of basic research (which gave us vaccines), the key role of a just global distribution of vaccines and the importance of sharing scientific knowledge. These aspects are also at the heart of the mission of Academia Europaea and the Bergen Hub.

A very productive year for the hub

Despite constraints due to covid restrictions, 2021 has been a very productive year for the hub, reflected on our website. Amongst our activities we are especially proud of having produced a short film about Academia Europaea, the Bergen Hub and SAPEA. Academia Europaea has entered into a new contract with the University of Bergen providing a 4-year prolongation of the University hosting our Hub, thereby securing support for our Hub in the coming years. We have produced a new strategy plan for the Hub approved by our Steering group and our Nordic/Baltic advisory board. The Hub has organised and been partner to several events, mainly online, but also some physical meetings when the pandemic allowed for this.

AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub took active part in the Rosendal-week, a regional meeting place for industry, politics, and researchers on the green transition.

To highlight some of our activities: We have organized a side event of the Arctic Frontiers conference on sustainable transport in the Arctic, we took active part in the Rosendal-week, a regional meeting place for industry, politics, and researchers on the green transition, and we have co-organised an online gathering of polar researchers in Norway and Estonia in collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Sciences and the Norwegian Embassy in Tallin. We have also participated actively in dissemination activities for the SAPEA-report on Energy Transition in Europe and Plastic pollution in the ocean. Our Hub was also responsible for technical and administrative support of the (online) annual class meetings for the AE classes A1 and A2.

Our network has been extended by an agreement to co-organise seminars with the local branch of the Norwegian Academy for Technological sciences, and a meeting place for interactions between the various science academies in Norway has been established. We are very keen to arrange similar meeting points with Academies in the Nordic and Baltic countries in the future. We have expanded the Hub’s activities in Science Advice by becoming a partner in the new SAPEA project under Horizon Europe, seeking a more active role under the leadership of the Cardiff Hub, in organising activities and contributions to the production of evidence reports for the Science Advice Mechanism of the European Commission.

In 2021 Academia Europaea has established a Task Force to provide plans for extending its visibility in the areas of Environment, climate and sustainability under the leadership of Professor Verena Winiwarter from Vienna. The Bergen Hub organises this activity on behalf of Academia Europaea. This will be an important tool to better align Academia Europaea with some of the most pressing global challenges. As a member of the Task Force, I hope that we can engage a high number of eminent scholars from our membership to take part in future activities. I would encourage all members with expertise and engagement to respond to the ongoing member survey (deadline January 14^th). The outcome of the survey will give us a much-needed knowledge base to build upon in this important work.

With this wish I will 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.

Eystein Jansen

Academic Director Bergen Knowledge Hub

Academia Europaea has recently established a Task Force on Environment, Climate, and Sustainability issues. A recently issued survey, sent to all members and with a completion deadline of January 14th, is intended to map members expertise and engagement in these fields.

The Academia Europaea Task Force on Environment, Climate, and Sustainability issues.

In 2021 Academia Europaea (AE) has established a Task Force to provide plans for extending its engagement and visibility in the areas of environment, climate, and sustainability under the leadership of Professor Verena Winiwarter. This will be an important tool to better align Academia Europaea with some of the most pressing global challenges. The Bergen Hub is responsible for organising this activity on behalf of Academia Europaea.

In addition to Winiwarter, the Task Force of eight AE members consists of Carlo Carraro, Jane Hill, Patricia Holm. Poul Holm (Deputy Chair), Eystein Jansen, Nebojsa Nakicenuvic and Peter Wagner.

Mapping relevant knowledge within AE

The objective of the Task Force is to identify a range of critical questions relating to climate and environmental change research that carry a clearly significant societal and/or policy dimension and that can realistically be addressed with confidence by the application of AE expert knowledge from across the membership.

As a first step, the Task Force wishes to gain a better understanding of the range of relevant knowledge within AE as well as the availability of members for participation in AE initiatives on these. To get the best possible overview of the expert knowledge within the AE, a survey is provided and sent to all members. Deadline for responding to this survey is January 14th.

The survey serves the double purpose of gaining information and enabling communication. It should take less than 15 minutes to answer the basic questions of the survey.
If you have expertise and/or engagement in environment, climate, and sustainability issues, we hope that you will respond to the survey from this link.

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. 

Vast quantities of metal-rich mineral deposits have been found in areas of the deep sea including deep sea regions of the Arctic and sub-Arctic.

The green transition generates a need for critical minerals that is expected to be greater than the supply from the existing land-based mining industry and recycling. Vast quantities of metal-rich mineral deposits have been found in areas of the deep sea including deep sea regions of the Arctic and sub-Arctic.

This has catalysed the development of technologies to extract resources necessary for The Green Shift. While the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has granted exploration licenses in various locations, in particular in the Pacific Ocean, several countries are planning to initiate exploration within their own jurisdiction. Norway being one of them.

Sustainable enough to be justified?

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? Do we have the knowledge base needed to safely explore these resources without irreversible damage to surrounding ecosystems?

How is Norway preparing for its 1st licensing round for deep-sea minerals, and how will this influence the arctic regions? Is the Norwegian Act on Mineral Activities on the Continental Shelf (Seabed Minerals Act) a sufficient regulatory framework? And finally; can deep-sea mineral extraction be sustainable enough to be justified?

As you can see, this topic is brimming with interesting questions. We’re calling the event “Race to the (seabed) bottom – realities and sustainability dilemmas in the demand for minerals”. Several interesting panelists are already confirmed, such as Dr, Karen Hanghøj, Director of The British Geological Survey, and Pedro A. Ribeiro, a leading researcher in this field at UiB.

Arctic Frontiers 2022 Pathways will be a hybrid conference, and our side event is scheduled for Tuesday February 1th, at 11:00-12:15.

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 our participation in meetings with all Norwegian Academies. In addition, we have been a partner with NTVA on a local lecture series.

AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub collaborated with Tekna and NTVA on a local lecture series this autumn. Here Kjell Herfjord from Tekna and Jarl Giske from NTVA at one of the events.

The meeting with all Norwegian science academies resulted in a shared understanding of several areas of common interest. Several of the Norwegian academies work to advance science advice, and to establish a Science Advice Mechanism in Norway.

One other area where the academies discussed collaboration, is the possibility of joint opinions for national hearings. Most academies write their own statements for national hearings today, but these could have greater weight if Norwegian academies united behind them. Cooperation in communication efforts was also discussed.

Local lecture series

Another successful collaboration this autumn, has been our collaboration with NTVA (technical sciences) as partner for a local lecture series, with Tekna as another collaboration partner. Subjects have been future healthcare solutions, sustainable shipping, and technical challenges in building the world’s longest floating bridge.

AE-Bergen Hub’s academic director Eystein Jansen.

The Hub’s academic director Eystein Jansen comments:

– Science Academies have several common interests. We all do important work in science advice for policy and work to advance interdisciplinarity, as well as advancing the international orientation of science. The AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub looks forward to cooperating with Norwegian academies on these 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.

How did we get ourselves into such a mess with climate change? When and how did it all go wrong — and could we have done otherwise? What information about the future do we need to help guide our energy choices now? And how do today’s scientists model tomorrow’s world without the aid of a time machine?

The recorded event is available here.

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.

The Nobel Prize 2021 in in Physics was awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences “for ground-breaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems”, to three members of Academia Europaea.

Professor Syukuro Manabe MAE, Professor Klaus Hasselmann MAE, and Professor Giorgio Parisi MAE.

The membership of the AE is delighted to congratulate our longstanding members Professor Syukuro Manabe, who was elected to the Earth and Cosmic Sciences section in 1994, Professor Klaus Hasselmann, one of the founding members of the Academy and member since 1988, elected to the Earth and Cosmic Sciences section, and Professor Giorgio Parisi who was elected to the Physics and Engineering Sciences section in 2009.

Professor Paolo Papale, the Chair of the Earth and Cosmic Sciences section writes:

“Prof. Syukuro Manabe and Prof. Klaus Hasselmann, both members of the Earth and Cosmic Sciences section of the Academia Europaea, are co-winners of the Nobel Prize in physics for their “physical modelling of the Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.

The Academia Europaea expresses its most sincere congratulations to them, for such an achievement crowning extraordinary brilliant careers in science.”

Professor Pavel Exner, the Chair of the Physics and Engineering Sciences section writes:

“The AE Physics & Engineering Section is proud that its member, Professor Giorgio Parisi, was awarded today the Nobel Prize for Physics. The citation says that he was honoured “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales”. This brief description included a number of brilliant results in quantum field theory, statistical mechanics and dynamics complex systems concerning, for instance, QCD evolution equations for parton densities known by the names of Altarelli and Parisi, the exact solution of the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick model of spin glasses, or the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang equation describing dynamic scaling of growing interfaces. He also managed to explain effects both common and unusual, such as the whirling behaviour of starling flocks. Our sincere congratulations, Giorgio!”

This is the second time in two years that Academy members were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics: Roger Penrose and Reinhard Genzel in 2020, Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi in 2021.

On 11 October, an international audience of 150 people joined our panel of experts to discuss the impact that moving away from fossil fuels to new energy sources may have on our lives.

This online event was organised by SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) and Academia Europaea. You’ll find an overview of the webinar and key points from the speakers below..

Overview
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.

Our panel of experts

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, and Europe’s goal to meet net zero emission of greenhouse gases by 2050.

This webinar, chaired and moderated by Professor Ole Petersen MAE, Vice-President of Academia Europaea, saw our panel of experts discuss these critical issues and answer questions from the audience.

Speakers
Professor Nebojsa Nakicenovic MAE, Deputy Chair of the European Commission’s Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, provided the context for the webinar with an overview of the Scientific Opinion on ‘A systemic approach to the energy transition in Europe’ and highlighted its important message of “leaving no one behind”.

Our next two speakers were SAPEA Energy Working Group Members – Professor Diana Urge-Vorsatz MAE, Director of the Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy, Central European University; and Professor Benjamin Sovacool MAE, Professor of Energy Policy, University of Sussex. Using the SAPEA Evidence Review Report as a starting point, Professor Urge-Vorsatz discussed the inequalities in emissions across Europe and the value of avoided energy use. Professor Sovacool focused on the impact simple behaviour changes can have and the importance of balancing technological innovation and behaviour change for low-carbon transition.

Professor Nick Pidgeon, Professor of Environmental Psychology and Risk, Cardiff University, emphasised how involving the whole of society will be critical in the energy transition and that successful behaviour change approaches to reduce energy consumption will require elements such as good communications, infrastructure change and investment, and that regulation may also be needed.

Professor Eystein Jansen MAE, Professor of Earth Sciences / Paleoclimatology, University of Bergen and Member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council, referred to the recent IPCC report and the sense of urgency to act on climate change. He described the challenges he saw ahead, expressing his concern that by setting goals for net zero emission of greenhouse gases by 2050, we may postpone necessary short-term actions, given that emissions need go down now.