Research
Beyond technology: How social sciences and humanities drive human-centric innovation
As the European Union (EU) prepares the groundwork for the next Horizon Europe Framework Programme, many experts have been calling for the human and social dimension of progress to be better integrated into the EU’s research and innovation agenda. The STOA workshop ‘Humanities and social sciences at the heart of Europe’s future’, organised on 3 ...
Gender equality in European research & innovation: interview with Dr Marcela Linková
Dr Marcela Linková, Head of the Centre for Gender and Science at the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, participated in the STOA workshop on 'Gender Equality in Research & Innovation' on 5 November 2025 at 15:00 CET. Her research and policy engagement have been instrumental for developing, implementing and assessing gender equality ...
Transparent and accessible global data critical for European researchers: Interview with Professor Thomas Hartung
The landscape of scientific research is shaped by global digital infrastructures, with critical databases in health, medicine, climate, and the social sciences. The dominance of foreign and commercial databases poses strategic vulnerabilities for academic freedom, innovation, and research continuity in Europe. What are the risks associated with this concentrated 'power' of some databases? And how ...
Research and Innovation Summit at European Parliament
On Wednesday 4 June from 18:30h until 20h CEST, the high-level STOA-G6 conference ‘Shaping Europe's Future: Research and innovation at the heart of European leadership’ took place in the European Parliament’s library room in Brussels. You can watch the recording online. The Summit, fully booked, brought together high-level representatives of the European Commission, the European ...
From forever chemicals to safer alternatives: coordinated efforts to improve chemical safety in Europe
The presence of harmful chemicals in the environment, such as PFAS, pesticides and harmful chemicals found in (micro) plastics, poses a challenge. Not only to our planet but also to our health. What can we do to minimise chemical risks? We spoke with Pascal Sanders, project coordinator of PARC (Partnership for the Assessment of Risks ...
Interview with Prof. Ferenc Hammer on academic freedom and supporting silenced scholars
Associate Professor Ferenc Hammer (Media and Communications Department at ELTE University in Budapest, Hungary) is concerned about silenced and repressed scholars in dozens of countries: “At-risk scholars try to live under the radar, but that’s how they become invisible. This doesn’t equate to academic freedom.” He launched an organisation to help them. Your research work ...
Paving the way towards responsible open science
Interview with researcher, project and programme manager Teodora Konach on research integrity and open science in Europe. According to experts, research integrity and open science, whereby research data and processes are freely available to re-use, are of the utmost importance for a high quality of science, including reproducibility of research results, and to ensure a ...
Nobel laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier: ‘Freedom of research and good infrastructure are important for scientists’
This is what Nobel Prize winner Prof. Dr Emmanuelle Charpentier said talking about academic freedom at the prestigious Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, in a conversation with seven journalists from four continents. The French scientist, together with Jennifer Doudna rewarded in 2020 for the development of the method for genome editing known as CRISPR, was ...