Ecsite, a European network of science centres and museums, invites all organisations carrying out science and research engagement to sign an Open letter to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Carlos Moedas.
In this Open Letter, Ecsite urges the European Commission to meaningfully engage with citizen and be more ambitious on science engagement. To do so, the Commission should rely on cost-effective actions led by experienced and committed science engagement organisations, all over Europe. A statement from Ecsite:
Despite the mobilisation of the science engagement field in the past years, there is no equivalent of the current ‘Science with and for Society’ (SwafS) strand in the new framework programme, Horizon Europe. The involvement of citizens in the co-creation and co-design of the R&I agenda has nonetheless been made one of the objectives of the programme by the EU Commission. Ecsite strongly supports this co-creation initiative. However, we have identified critical gaps in the citizen involvement strategy as currently planned by the Commission, which is why we are inviting all science engagement organisations to sign an Open letter to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Carlos Moedas.
Through the gesture of signing, AURORA acknowledges the urgency and supports the initiative. This will allow citizens to participate in the Research and Innovation days taking place in fall this year, as well as to engage them in the full process of strategic planning and programming of Horizon Europe. This is in line with our previous statement of 5 December 2018
Find the Open letter below. Signing is possible till 27th of June 2019.