European Molecular Biology Organization
EMBO
EMBO is an organization of more than 2000 leading researchers that promotes excellence in the life sciences.
ID: 934120120822-04
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Irene Norstedt (Director Research and Innovation) and
24 Apr 2025 · Exchange of views on the Life Science Strategy
Response to Communication on the future of research and innovation and the European Research Area
3 Aug 2020
EMBO is an international organization of more than 1800 leading researchers that promotes excellence in the life sciences in Europe and beyond. Our major goals are to support talented researchers at all stages of their careers, stimulate the exchange of scientific information, and help build a research environment where scientists can achieve their best work. EMBO helps young scientists to advance their research, promote their international reputations and ensure their mobility. Much of our work is funded by 30 countries, mostly within Europe. Given our alignment with the goals for the European Research Area, EMBO welcomes the further development and implementation of approaches to achieve the ambitions of the ERA.
EMBO cares deeply about the possibility for research to be spread widely throughout Europe, with inclusiveness to be achieved through many mechanisms. This will require a geographic dimension of course, but more relevantly can be achieved in part by extending how important foci of research are defined.
Deciding on areas of focus for research needs always to be discussed freely. Perhaps even more crucial is to maintain the ongoing discussion of how such research should be organized. Research initiated and carried out by individuals or consortia, hypothesis-driven or discovery-oriented, and blue-skies or focused on outcomes all have a place in the ERA. Finding an ideal distribution of these will require more sounding out of all interested parties but must in all instances include the researchers themselves.
The two areas that must receive additional focus in facilitating the ERA are open science, and research integrity. Open science has clearly been recognized as necessary for the ERA (and for research in general), and while we hope that the adoption of open science approaches becomes much more widely spread, this will require active support from all parties interested in achieving the ERA.
If research is to be conducted in such a way that open science becomes the default, it is important not only that researchers come to open science being able to trust that the previous research that they draw from was done as stated, but that all stakeholders, including the public and its representatives, can rely on it having been done to the highest standards of research integrity.
At EMBO we have come to recognize that an important underlying cause of problems in research integrity is simple lack of knowledge on the part of researchers as to what constitutes responsible conduct of research. For a European Research Area to be truly effective, we would find it to be critical to include not only training in research integrity but a commitment of researchers within the ERA to promulgate good practices in responsible conduct of research.
There needs to be core, common understandings amongst researchers and institutes as to what constitutes responsible research. These shared values must also move beyond simply preventing fraud. Rather, responsible conduct of research encompasses the priorities of the ERA itself: cooperation, sharing, opening research to those who may have been previously excluded, and creating welcoming atmospheres for all researchers. Beyond these common values and as with approaches to research, the practices of research integrity do not need to be identical between countries or regions, and in fact this is an area that itself will require innovation both at the European level, and locally.
By focusing on open science and research integrity, we believe the ERA will be sustainable and adaptable to any challenge; that is, resilient. Ongoing challenges, such as the green transition, and acute crises, as the current pandemic, while requiring different levels of immediate and ongoing commitment should all be attended to in a well-structured ERA. We look forward to contributing to achieving the paramount goal of the European Research Area.
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