Como seguimiento a la campaña 'No-Cuts-On-Research.EU', la Iniciativa para la Ciencia en Europa (ISE) presenta este boletín para mantener informado al investigador sobre los acontecimientos más importantes de la política científica en Europa. En estos enlaces puedes encontrar, además de pequeñas contribuciones de un gran número de investigadores, sugerencias sobre cómo puedes participar en las campañas de promoción científica.

Con más de 154.000 firmantes, con el apoyo de 50 Premios Nobel y medallas Fields y de la industria, y las reuniones con los tres presidentes de la UE, la campaña "No-Cuts-On-Research.EU" a finales de 2012 y 2013 ha sido la mayor campaña sobre un tema de ciencia en Europa hasta ahora. España es uno de los paises más activos con más de 19.000 firmantes.

Content:

• Campaign for a better EU Scientific Visa
• Research using personal data in health, social sciences and human interaction with technology is at risk
• Research assessment without the journal impact factor - call for good practice examples.
• The Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) 2014 and the Euroscientist magazine

Campaign for a better EU Scientific Visa

The EU Scientific Visa sought to establish a fast-track procedure for non-EU researchers to work in Europe. However, it has shortcomings that the European Parliament and the member states are now addressing.

Among the amendments proposed include a maximum time to decision, but will it be 30, 60, or even 90 days? On the table is also a provision to allow researchers and their families to remain in Europe after their initial contract, but for 18, 12, or only 6 months? We are preparing for autumn this year a campaign to prevent further dilution of the ambitious original proposal from the Commission.

How can you help? Please send your experiences with work visas and residence permits in Europe to ise@i-se.org.

Reports can be short but should name the key problems and how they affect research in Europe; on request we can also make your contribution anonymous. As part of the campaign, the collected stories will be handed over to decision-makers in a public meeting. We will also select some stories for the media, but will contact you for permission. The EU Scientific Visa is not applicable in the UK, Denmark and non-EU countries but we plan to coordinate work with interest groups in these countries.

Research using personal data in health, social sciences and human interaction with technology is at risk.

Recognising that research involving personal data provides essential benefits for society, the original proposal from the European Commission for a new EU General Data Protection Regulation sets out mechanisms for protecting privacy, while enabling research to continue.

But the European Parliament has voted for a position that would make the use of personal data in research at worst illegal and at best unworkable.

To intervene in the political negotiations, an initiative coordinated by the Wellcome Trust and supported by many research organisations has issued a statement with further information and examples. Currently, the EU member states develop their position.

A good way to get involved now therefore is to inform the debate in your country using the material provided by the Wellcome Trust. For any queries, you can contact Beth Thompson (B.Thompson@wellcome.ac.uk). Further activities will follow in autumn; we will keep you informed.

Research assessment without the journal impact factor - call for good practice examples.

In our last newsletter, we presented DORA (the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment), a global initiative to address the misuse of the journal impact factor for research assessment. Since its launch in May 2013, the declaration has attracted over 10 000 signatures from individuals and it is supported by major journals, funders and research organisations from all over the world. If you have not signed up yet, please consider doing so to keep the momentum for change.

One year on, it is time to go a step further. A collection of good practices and approaches to research assessment on the DORA webpage will provide inspiration and advice for research institutes, funders and journals to change their policies.

Can you help us? Do you know of any positive examples that showcase the use of diversified research assessment methods? Please let us know by email to sfdeclaration@ascb.org. The DORA committee will post selected examples with attribution from June 2014, and we hope for a good share of examples to come from Europe.

The Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) 2014 and the Euroscientist magazine

On June 21-26, Europe's largest interdisciplinary science meeting, ESOF 2014 will take place in Copenhagen, featuring sessions on general science topics, science communication, science -to-business and science policy. More than 4 500 participants are expected, including members of the European Parliament and five Nobel laureates; outreach activities in the city will involve 30 000 citizens. ISE will use the occasion for a session on 24 June on the outcomes of the ‘No-Cuts-On-Research.EU' campaign and the lessons learned.

The 'No-Cuts-On-Research.EU' newsletter features short news items and is selective as it appears a few times a year only. As a complement, we refer to the Euroscientist magazine, hosted by ISE-member Euroscience, for background, longer articles, opinion pieces and interviews on various general science topics, science policy and science communication. Researchers are encouraged to contribute to these debates by commenting directly below each article or by writing to the editor at editor@euroscience.org.

The ESOF 2014 special issue in June selects a series of themes from the event. This includes an article on whether European nations need to have a dedicated person to provide scientific advice to government and is complemented by an interview of Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Union. ‘One of the things I would really encourage is for scientists to get out and to communicate to people about the value of what we do,' she says. This approach matters even more when handling uncertainties and risks in our society, as outlined in another article exploring this key theme of the conference. Finally, an interview with Jean-Patrick Connerade, talks about an exciting session on Science meets Poetry.

Other topics recently covered by the Euroscientist include ‘Ethics, Values and Culture Driving Research' (April Special Issue) with an interview with the renowned research ethics expert Nicholas Steneck, University of Michigan and ‘Alternative Research Funding' (May Special Issue) which features, for example, an opinion from Thomas Sinkjær, Director of the Danish National Research Foundation, on how to implement a long term vision in research.