Blue Stockholm skies for ESOF

STOCKHOLM—The forecast was for rain, but a sunny morning greeted the first day of the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in Stockholm today, a welcome sight for the more than 1500 researchers, policymakers, and others who journeyed to Europe's cool north in the last few days of summer vacation time.The unexpectedly clement weather might also have been a good omen for the organizers of the inaugural meeting, who have set themselves the ambitious task of creating an interdisciplinary forum "for open dialogue, debate, and discussion on science and technology in society."ESOF was largely the brainchild of Carl Johan Sundberg, vice president of EuroScience. The original idea "was to create a platform where people in Europe could discuss science in a way that they don't usually do—with a European dimension, encountering people they rarely otherwise meet," he told The Scientist. "Basically to bring people together."That philosophy certainly matches the general mood in European science, where the trajectory has been toward greater international collaboration. At ESOF, some 300 speakers, representing 33 countries, are going to take part in about 100 sessions, workshops, and lectures over the next 4 days. Organizers said they expect the final attendance to be about 2000.But certain countries were notable for their absence in the program's sponsor pages. While the Swedish and German research councils offered funding to ESOF, none came from the United Kingdom, one of Europe's scientific powerhouses. "There's a different culture in different parts of Europe," EuroScience president Jean-Patrick Connerade told The Scientist. "In some parts of Europe, it's possible for research councils to put money into in events. In the UK, that's not part of the tradition, or at least it's not regarded as something that research councils should do. I'm not criticizing people who make such decisions, but pointing out that it is institutionally difficult."Even the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's biggest research funding charities, declined to support the meeting. "Wellcome Trust we approached, of course," Connerade said. "They initially told us that they did support events all over the world, but when it came down to it, it turned out that they couldn't really support this event because it was outside the UK." "That, perhaps, is very revealing of the kind of European spirit we need to develop in the UK," said Connerade, who works at Imperial College London.Much of the advance talk about the meeting has compared it to the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting (as highlighted by editorials in Nature and Science). The parallels between the conferences are obvious, but the focus on the political context here is stronger than at the American meeting in recent years. In some sense, ESOF is where AAAS was more than a decade ago. "Stepping back 15 or 20 years, AAAS and a few other large associations were very successful in pushing the science funding agenda," Sundberg said. "AAAS was very much part of lobbying activities that led to an unsurpassed increase of federal funding in the US. Maybe they are more science today because of their success, but the Bush administration is now in real terms reducing funding for nonmilitary basic research… so I think AAAS will step up their efforts to secure at least inflation-related funding increases."The magnitude of some of the political and economic challenges faced in Europe was highlighted in the opening session of the congress, when Connerade thanked the "brave" early sponsors who helped breathe life into an idea that had been kicking around for years. But intense lobbying for support by EuroScience didn't get a positive response from all quarters, he said, which was "something of a surprise."Developing a European spirit has been a particular goal of the European Union, especially since the European Research Commission devoted itself to nurturing a European Research Area, 4 or so years ago. The outgoing commissioner, Philippe Busquin, was not present at the conference, although he had been involved in its earlier stages. Brussels was represented instead by Rainer Gerold, director of Science and Society within the Directorate-General for Research. "I think what we need in Europe… is a real grassroots movement," he said. "My hope is that ESOF will be the nucleus of such a movement."That cheerful note was echoed by the Swedish minister for Education and Science, Thomas Östros, who said he thought the meeting could become an important piece in the puzzle of a more cooperative European science community. "This meeting manifests greater European scientific cooperation," he said. "European research can take a bright view of the future and face it with optimism." In the meantime, it can look forward to the next EuroScience Open Forum in Munich, in 2006.

Blue Stockholm skies for ESOF

First pan-European meeting on science and society opens with a hopeful eye to the future

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