(Press-News.org) This news release is available in German.
On 29 May 2013, the 2nd Annual Global Meeting of the Global Research Council (GRC) in Berlin has ended. Over three days, the heads of about 70 science and research councils from around the world as well as high-ranking guests from science and research, science administration and research policy attended the meeting. The topics of discussion and endorsement were an Action Plan towards Open Access, a high-level Statement of Principles for Research Integrity as well as new statutes for the GRC. Hosted jointly by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) of Brazil, the 2nd Annual Global Meeting was the largest of its kind so far and represented some 80 percent of the world's public, non-ministerial research potential.
The outcomes of the meeting's discussions as well as the endorsed documents were presented at a press conference on 29 May 2013 in the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin. DFG-President Professor Peter Strohschneider stressed the relevance of "Open Access" to publications as a main paradigm of scientific communication in the following years. The participants agreed that sharing research publications openly is a means to increase the quality of research communication and thus of research itself. The endorsed Action Plan includes activities by which GRC member organisations can foster the open exchange of research results with a high degree of flexibility. Therefore the plan specifies three basic principles: encouragement, awareness rising, and support for researchers that wish to provide their results in Open Access. The implementation requires engaging a number of stakeholders: in addition to scientists and scholars themselves, for instance, universities, science organisations, libraries, and publishers. The endorsed Principles for Research Integrity point out that researchers and institutions themselves remain ultimately responsible for undertaking research with integrity. On the other hand, research funding agencies have an obligation to ensure that supported research corresponds to the highest standards possible, as CNPq-President Professor Glaucius Oliva stated.
Both the Action Plan and the Principles for Research Integrity had been developed at a set of regional meetings held around the world since autumn 2012. "Research integrity and Open Access are two topics of high complexity and with ramifications for all funding agencies. In the light of that, the two agreements appear the more remarkable", DFG-President Strohschneider concluded.
Strohschneider also pointed out the presence of many international, high-level representatives as evidence of their work in support of enhanced collaboration across the international research community: "It has been our goal and a pleasure to bring together the world of research and research funding to Berlin." For the DFG, he said, the Annual Meeting 2013 was an opportunity to draw the world's attention to our own standards and the German model of research funding which is based solely on criteria of scientific and scholarly quality and free from political, economic, or other reasoning.
###
The Annual Global Meeting 2013 of the GRC comprised a meeting of the Governing Board and the International Steering Committee. The DFG-hosted conference dinner on 28 May at the Deutscher Bundestag was joined by Professor Johanna Wanka, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and Dr. Dorothee Stapelfeldt, Senator for Science and Research of Hamburg.
The Global Research Council is a voluntary, informal organisation of heads of research councils (HORCs) from around the world, pledged to find mutually acceptable paths to greater international research collaboration. Its goal is to represent most of the world's research potential by getting all interested key players in research and research funding worldwide involved. To ensure a globally consultative process and to improve communication and cooperation among research funding agencies, the GRC annually holds a set of regional meetings as well as an annual global meeting to gather input from the different world regions, address issues of mutual concern to research and research funding worldwide, and to agree on guidelines and principles by which multinational research collaboration can be enhanced. Thereby, the GRC shall also provide assistance to those research institutions and funding organisations wishing to build a world-class research landscape.
The Global Research Council was established in May 2012 at the "Global Summit on Merit Review" held in Washington, DC. On invitation of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) about 50 HORCs endorsed a high-level Statement of Principles for Scientific Merit Review. Former NSF-Director Dr. Subra Suresh and former DFG-President Professor Matthias Kleiner played key roles in launching the GRC and both were present at the Berlin meeting.
The Annual Global Meeting 2014 will take place in Beijing hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). At the press conference CAS-President Professor Bai Chunli and NSERC-Vice-President Dr. Isabelle Blain invited scientists, scholars, and research funders from all over the world to Beijing.
Further Information and Media Contact
Media Contact:
Marco Finetti, Head of Press- and Public Relations, German Research Foundation (DFG), phone: +49 228 885-2230, Marco.Finetti@dfg.de
Additional Point of Contact for International Media Enquiries:
Dr. Paulo Sérgio Lacerda Beirão, CNPq, phone: +55 61 3211-9933, beirao@cnpq.br
Dana Topousis, National Science Foundation (NSF), phone: +1 703 292-7750, dtopousi@nsf.gov
More detailed information on the Global Research Council as well as its Annual Meeting in Berlin can be found at http://www.globalresearchcouncil.org and at http://www.dfg.de/grc2013. On this website a live recording of the press conference as well as the endorsed documents will be available.
Results of the 'Global Research Council' in Berlin announced
Heads of 70 research funding organizations from around the world met on May 27-29, 2013, in Berlin; endorsed statements concerning 'open access' and 'research integrity'
2013-05-29
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
NRL geochemistry survey at Chatham Rise reveals absence of modern day greenhouse gas emissions
2013-05-29
WASHINGTON--Geochemistry analysis conducted by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory of fossil sediment injection structures off the New Zealand coast in February and March, reveal no presence of modern day expulsions of methane gas, a potential contributor to global 'greenhouse effect' warming.
The main focus of this most recent expedition was to investigate the geological origin of seafloor anomalies discovered during a 2007 marine-life survey on the Chatham Rise.
During the 2007 survey scientists discovered several large sea floor craters, or pockmarks, including a ...
Coupled particles cross energy wall
2013-05-29
For the first time, a new kind of so-called Klein tunnelling—representing the quantum equivalent of crossing an energy wall— has been presented in a model of two interacting particles. This work by Stefano Longhi and Giuseppe Della Valle from the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology in Milan, Italy, is about to be published in EPJ B.
Klein tunnelling is a quantum phenomenon referring to the fact that a high-potential barrier can be transparent to a particle moving at a speed nearing that of light, referred to as relativistic. Most of the previous Klein tunnelling ...
Walking or bicycling to work influenced by others
2013-05-29
People who walk or bike to work are likely to influence their co-workers and partners to do the same, according to health researchers.
"Social influences are important, specifically interpersonal influences, such as spouses and co-workers," said Melissa Bopp, assistant professor of kinesiology, Penn State. She emphasized that community and employers also significantly influence whether people choose to actively commute.
More than 80 percent of American adults do not meet the guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities, according to Healthy People 2020, ...
Nanomedicines' impact on patients under the microscope
2013-05-29
A pioneering imaging technique to track the effects of next-generation nanomedicines on patients has been harnessed by a University of Strathclyde academic.
Professor Dr. M. N. V. Ravi Kumar and Dr. Dimitrios Lamprou, of the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, believe an advanced form of atomic force microscopy, known as PeakForce QNM, could boost developments in the field of nanomedicines, the encapsulation of potent drugs in tiny particles measuring billionths of a meter in diameter. They described how this detailed imaging approach may also help ...
Want to move up at work? Be a true believer
2013-05-29
New research is tweaking an old adage about how to get ahead in a competitive workplace: It's not just who you know, but what you believe in.
A recently published BYU business study finds that employees who are "true believers" in the mission of their organization are more likely to increase in status and influence than non-believers.
"Many organizations today have a well-defined mission with enduring principles that matter, not only to employees, but to other stakeholders," said John Bingham, BYU professor of organizational leadership and strategy. "It's a shift from ...
A molecular chain reaction in Alzheimer's disease
2013-05-29
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have identified the molecular mechanism behind the transformation of one of the components in Alzheimer's disease. They identified the crucial step leading to formations that kill brain cells.
Alzheimer's disease is associated with memory a loss and personality changes. It is still not known what causes the onset of the disease, but once started it cannot be stopped. The accumulation of plaques in the brain is widely considered a hallmark of the disease. The key discovery identified the chemical reaction that causes the plaques ...
Childhood abuse linked with food addiction in adult women
2013-05-29
Women who experienced severe physical or sexual abuse during childhood are much more likely to have a food addiction as adults than women who did not experience such abuse, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity. The study's findings provide valuable new information regarding potential causes and treatments for food addiction and obesity.
National surveys indicate that more than a third of American women experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse before they reached 18 years of age. Also, research shows that such childhood abuse has consequences ...
The value of randomized clinical trials in radiation oncology clinical practice
2013-05-29
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Cancer patients, physicians and insurers want to be sure that whatever therapy is recommended and provided to patients is based on evidence, preferably results from randomized clinical trials. But are there enough clinical trials data to provide this level of confidence?
A University of North Carolina School of Medicine study says not necessarily. Radiation oncologists evaluated how often patients were seen in their clinic with medical decisions to be made that were not specifically addressed by randomized controlled trials.
They determined that ...
Re-creating the original colors of treasured ivory carvings from the ancient past
2013-05-29
The fabled ivory carvings from the ancient Phoenician city of Arslan Tash — literally meaning "Stone Lion" — may appear a dull monochrome in museums today, but they glittered with brilliant blue, red, gold and other colors 2,800 years ago, a new study has confirmed after decades of speculation. It appears in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.
Ina Reiche and colleagues explain that these carvings are rare, housed in museums like the Louvre, and art experts regard them as the most beautiful ivory carvings of the era. Experts long believed that the lion heads, amulets ...
Nordic diet lowers cholesterol, study finds
2013-05-29
A healthy Nordic diet lowers cholesterol levels, and therefore the risk of cardiovascular disease, a pan-Nordic study where Lund University participated has found. There was also decreased inflammation associated with pre-diabetes.
- The subjects who ate a Nordic diet had lower levels of harmful LDL cholesterol and higher levels of "good" HDL cholesterol. The amount of harmful fat particles in the blood also declined, says Lieselotte Cloetens, a biomedical nutrition researcher at Lund University.
The 'healthy Nordic diet' used in the study contains local produce such ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
New strategies to enhance chiral optical signals unveiled
Cambridge research uncovers powerful virtual reality treatment for speech anxiety
2025 Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit to spotlight groundbreaking research
International survey finds that support for climate interventions is tied to being hopeful and worried about climate change
Cambridge scientist launches free VR platform that eliminates the fear of public speaking
Open-Source AI matches top proprietary model in solving tough medical cases
Good fences make good neighbors (with carnivores)
NRG Oncology trial supports radiotherapy alone following radical hysterectomy should remain the standard of care for early-stage, intermediate-risk cervical cancer
Introducing our new cohort of AGA Future Leaders
Sharks are dying at alarming rates, mostly due to fishing. Retention bans may help
Engineering excellence: Engineers with ONR ties elected to renowned scientific academy
New CRISPR-based diagnostic test detects pathogens in blood without amplification
Immunotherapy may boost KRAS-targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer
Growing solar: Optimizing agrivoltaic systems for crops and clean energy
Scientists discover how to reactivate cancer’s molecular “kill switch”
YouTube influencers: gaming’s best friend or worst enemy?
uOttawa scientists use light to unlock secret of atoms
NJIT mathematician to help map Earth's last frontier with Navy grant
NASA atmospheric wave-studying mission releases data from first 3,000 orbits
‘Microlightning’ in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth
Smoke from wildland-urban interface fires more deadly than remote wildfires
What’s your body really worth? New AI model reveals your true biological age from 5 drops of blood
Protein accidentally lassos itself, helping explain unusual refolding behavior
With bird flu in raw milk, many in U.S. still do not know risks of consuming it
University of Minnesota research team awarded $3.8 million grant to develop cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease
UConn uncovers new clue on what is leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS
Resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – it’s how quickly it is done, rather than who does it
A closer look at biomolecular ‘silly putty’
Oxytocin system of breastfeeding affected in mothers with postnatal depression
Liquid metal-enabled synergetic cooling and charging: a leap forward for electric vehicles
[Press-News.org] Results of the 'Global Research Council' in Berlin announcedHeads of 70 research funding organizations from around the world met on May 27-29, 2013, in Berlin; endorsed statements concerning 'open access' and 'research integrity'