19. March 2007 16:15
Excellent science needs infrastructure, integrity & more, symposium told
At a European Science Foundation’s symposium event last week titled “Promoting Excellence in Science”, Pär Omling, the President of the Swedish Research Council, went beyond the typical rhetoric on excellence in science and offered concrete factors for consideration that are essentials to attain such goal.
“In some ways it (excellence) means high quality. We use it on science everywhere,” said Omling to an audience that was mostly made up by ESF’s Member Organisations and the ESF’s Standing Committees. “In some cases it really means high quality but in some others the word does not really mean anything.”
Omling cited scientists, the grouping of them, universities, research performing and funding organisations, infrastructure and political system as the key elements to achieve the goal of excellent science.
According to Omling “excellent” scientists should be well-trained and educated while possessing the qualities of being intelligent, creative and the ability to exercise good judgement. However, the mere fact of possessing excellent individual scientists is not enough to attain the goal of science excellence. He said collaboration is the only way that could ensure synergies and positive outcomes.
“(Previous) Data has shown that when international collaboration has taken place, the number of citations (in scientific journals) is much higher,” said Omling. “There must be an excellent group and they must have a very clear organisation with strong and clear leadership plus a clearly defined career system.”
Other than scientists, good quality universities and research performing organisations are also important. The university must be well funded and is under “strong” leadership with clear strategic goals and priorities. The school must also provide “transparent career track” for researcher as for example on matter such as: how does one become a professor. The university must also be appealing to the overseas population and has the knack to know how to obtain funding from its government. More importantly universities should make effort to reach out, not just to commercial companies, but on a wider scale, to society as well. That would ensure the bridging of science innovation, Omling offered.
As for research funding organisations, they need to exercise independent decisions, and are able to facilitate effective and reliable tools such as effective peer review process for evaluation, he noted.
Another element that Omling singled out as important for excellence in science is the need for infrastructure establishments.
“Infrastructure is a very easily forgotten element but it is extremely important,” commented Omling. He noted that Europe “hasn’t been very successful” when it comes to pan-European infrastructure due to the fragmented nature of its countries.
Since 2001 the ESF has facilitated and regarded the provision of high quality research infrastructures within Europe as a key factor in the development of the European Research Area (ERA), in an attempt to attract the best brains to Europe. (http://www.esf.org/activities/science-policy/research-infrastructure.html )
Omling was speaking at the one-day event that was to pay tribute to ESF’s Chief Executive Professor Bertil Andersson for his contribution to the organisation. Professor Andersson will leave the ESF to become the Rector at the Nangyang Technological University in Singapore after the end of March 2007.
Other speakers at the symposium included Dr. Martin Reddington, the Director of Scientific Affairs and Communications. International Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Organization, on the promotion of excellence through HFSP; Professor Francesco Fedi, President of the COST Committee of Senior Officials, on the topic of Reform of Cost: step towards excellence; Dr. Daniel Esteve, one of the vice-chairs of the European Research Council (ERC), on The ERC: individual excellence at European level; Professor Peter Schuster from the University of Vienna on Systems perspectives as motor for excellent new frontier research. Professor Frank Gannon, from European Molecular Biology Organisation, on EURYI as an instrument to promote young excellence; Jim Barber, Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at the Imperial College London, on Bertil Andersson’s personal contribution to excellent science. Fabienne Keller, the mayor of the city of Strasbourg, also attended and gave her farewell message and well wishes to Professor Andersson while Ian Halliday, the President of the ESF, was serving as the chair for the day.
Integrity
Also at the symposium event, Nick Steneck, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Michigan and a consultant at the Office of Research Integrity, pointed out that integrity in research could also be detrimental to the quality of science.
Professor Steneck had offered various possible interpretations of what integrity constitutes but had in the end narrowed down to four factors that could determine one’s integrity. They are honesty, impartiality, accuracy and efficiency.
He stated that there is a need for infrastructure to tackle the integrity issue in research. He suggested a research integrity assembly tool could be established to ensure the excellence in science. But above it all, he said a strong and effective leadership is most urgently needed if infrastructure priorities are to change
The ESF and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity (ORI) have announced plans to hold a World Conference on Research Integrity in Lisbon, Portugal on 16 to 19 September 2007.
The European Science Foundation (ESF), with offices in Strasbourg and Brussels, is the European association of 75 major national research funding and performing organisations and academies in 30 countries devoted to excellence in scientific research.
Notes to Editors:
Dr. John Marks, currently the Director of the Science and Strategy at the ESF, will take over the position of Chief Executive starting from April 1, 2007.
Media Enquiries
Thomas Lau
Communications Unit
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 76 21 58 direct
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 76 71 00 switchboard
<- Back to: Home OLD
