Archive of the Annual Meetings of the Global Research Council
2018 Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council
2017 Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council
2016 Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council in New Delhi, India
The 5th annual meeting of the Global Research Council (GRC) was held from 25 to 27 May 2016 in New Delhi at the invitation of the Science and Engineering Research Board of India (SERB) and Research Councils UK (RCUK). Once again, more than 60 senior representatives of research funding and research organisations from all over the world came together at the annual gathering.
This year’s meeting focused on the significance of interdisciplinary research and the principles relating to its funding. In their final declaration, the Heads of Research Councils (HORCs) emphasised that interdisciplinarity is not an end in itself but a means of achieving excellence in research. Funding organisations are called on to work together to create the necessary frameworks for this.
The meeting also adopted a Statement of Principles and Actions on the promotion of equal opportunity for women in research. This linked in to last year’s declaration, which contained an appeal to “recruit and retain the best research talents in all their diversity” – an appeal which was already implicit in the final declaration of the 2014 meeting in Beijing on the best way to support the next generation of researchers. With regard to equal opportunity for women in research, the participants adopted a set of concrete recommendations, the implementation of which will be monitored. With this already in mind, the GRC annual meeting was also accompanied by a workshop on ‘Exploring Practical Approaches to Applying the Gender Lens in STI in Africa’, hosted by the National Research Foundation of South Africa.
Dr. Ramasamy Brakaspathy, secretary of the Science and Engineering Research Board, expressed his delight that so many heads of research councils had accepted the invitation to New Delhi. He noted that both topics are of the utmost importance worldwide, but in very concrete terms in India, where the SERB and other research organisations are expressly working to promote interdisciplinarity and equal opportunity in research.
Professor Philip Nelson, Chair of RCUK, commended the joint adoption of the two statements of principles as a basis for closer collaboration between research councils worldwide, founded on shared standards and principles, and as a call to establish greater capacities for this purpose across all funding organisations. He also noted that the agreement on uniform standards and principles clearly demonstrates the enormous value of the GRC as a forum for sharing best practices.
At the conclusion of the GRC annual meeting in New Delhi, Dr. Rainer Gruhlich (DFG) accepted the office of Executive Secretary. The Governing Board had unanimously elected him back in March 2016 as the successor to Dr. Graham Harrison (National Science Foundation). Dr. Gruhlich will hold this office until the 2017 annual meeting in Ottawa, Canada.
The following new members were also elected to the Governing Board:
- Professor Michael Matlosz, President, Science Europe (re-elected)
- Dr. Molapo Qhobela, CEO, National Research Foundation of South Africa
- Professor Zakri Abdul Hamid, Secretary, National Science Council of Malaysia
- ex officio: Gisella Orjeda, President, CONCYTEC (Peru)
The 4th Annual Global Meeting of the Global Research Council (GRC) took place from 26 - 28 May 2015 in Tokyo. The meeting, which was organised by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF), was attended by senior representatives of more than 70 research funding and research organisations from all over the globe, including a notable number from sub-Saharan Africa.
In his welcome address, the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, stressed one of the key concerns of the GRC: on the basis of a shared understanding of research and its most important tasks, to construct uniform standards that support new and developing research and funding organisations to develop their structures and processes, and thus improve the basis for international cooperation.
This lent significance to the declarations of the participants, who acknowledged the value of free, knowledge-driven research as an essential foundation for social and economic prosperity, and the need and political responsibility to provide the necessary capacities and take concrete measures to achieve this. This consensus had been prepared at GRC regional conferences around the world, but this made it no less impressive as a unanimous global commitment.
At a symposium preceding the GRC meeting, DFG President Peter Strohschneider called once again for basic research free from specified aims and topics. In a much-praised address at the meeting, he outlined a number of issues which he considers central, paradigmatic problems and then described the resulting potential for international cooperation.
Open access was also a focus of attention at the GRC's 3rd Annual Global Meeting in May 2014 in Beijing. In addition to a report on global progress on open access, senior representatives of more than 60 research and funding organisations discussed ways of finding a common basis for the support of early career researchers.
The meeting was organised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Germany was represented by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and its President, Professor Dr. Peter Strohschneider, who had also chaired the Governing Board since 2013. During the final session at the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC), which was opened by the DFG and its partner organisation NSFC in 2000, since which time it has played an important role in the expansion of scientific cooperation between the two countries, Strohschneider underlined the importance of science and research to social development and business innovation. "In order to achieve their full potential, science and research need space and scope in addition to as much funding as possible. The GRC can make a significant contribution in this respect. Concerned with important overarching themes such as the principles of multilateral collaboration on research, good scientific practice, early career support and open access, it facilitates processes through which international agreement can be achieved and make a considerable contribution to such principles," said Strohschneider.
The 2nd Annual Global Meeting of the GRC took place on 27 - 29 May 2013 in Berlin and was hosted by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in cooperation with the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). The meeting was attended by the heads of around 70 research and funding organisations from all over the world. The focal point of the meeting was the adoption of a joint paper on the principles of good scientific practice and an action plan for progress towards open access to scientific publications. Both documents had been prepared at GRC regional conferences around the world prior to the meeting. The statutes of the Global Research Council were also approved in Berlin.