Latest News

For those who cannot join us in Bern, the ALLEA General Assembly will also be available on livestream on our website: www.alleageneralassembly.org. The video will be produced by an autonomous camera operator managed by Seervision, a spin-off from the Automatic Control Laboratory of ETH Zurich and winner of the Swiss Technology Award 2018.

The livestream will include the ALLEA 25^th anniversary keynotes and the Madame de Staël award ceremony on 8 May (18:00 – 20:00), and the scientific symposium ‘Science and Society in Present-day Europe’ on 9 May (10:30 – 17:30).

Seervision

The filming will be a good opportunity to see first-hand how digitalisation is taking part in our everyday life. Seervision allows an almost fully autonomous video production. Their intelligent camera system can track moving objects without the need for a hands-on camera operator, who would normally be adjusting the camera’s position. We are honoured to welcome a further beta test of the camera at our conference!

“There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres.” Following Pythagoras’ revelations on the interconnection between science and music, as quoted by Aristotle in his Metaphysics, music will feature prominently in the conference programme. Thanks to the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences participants will be able to discover and enjoy musical experimentations and performances by some of the most talented musicians in Switzerland.

Gardan Quartet

Jakub Przybycień, Jacek Świca, Dominik Klauser and Alessandro Sica, who attended Bern University of Applied Sciences, are the four talented musicians that form Gardan Quartet. In 2017, the string quartet won Orpheus – Swiss Chamber Music Competition. This success paved the way for them to perform at the Swiss Chamber Music Festival and also at the Festival Musikdorf Ernen. Their music will accompany the Madame de Staël Prize award ceremony on 8 May.

From Scientific Discovery to Music

Experience a musical intervention with a modern twist. Matthias Müller is a musician, a Professor for Clarinet at the Zurich University of the Arts and the founder of SABRe. In his performance, he innovatively combines the classical tone of acoustic music with the digital world, which allows the audience to experience a musical performance from a new perspective. He will be performing on 9 May as an interlude of the scientific symposium ‘Science and Society in Present-day Europe’.

The jury praised her novel thinking, challenging conventional wisdom in the understanding of the role of the state in public policy and innovation. The prize worth €20,000, with the support of Compagnia di San Paolo, is awarded annually by ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, to eminent scholars and intellectuals whose work represents a significant contribution to the identity and values of Europe.

Economist Mariana Mazzucato is the recipient of the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, honouring her wide-ranging and stimulating work in the field of political economy and particularly her ground-breaking contributions to understanding the role of the state in innovation. The jury valued her outstanding efforts in shaping new narratives for Europe and its economy through her scholarly work and public engagement.

The award further recognises Mazzucato’s commitment to connect academia with European policymaking, most visibly through her contributions to the EU’s research and innovation agenda, encouraging cross-disciplinary cooperation to achieve true innovation with societal relevance, both within and beyond Europe.

“Mariana Mazzucato’s scholarly work is rather exceptional in a way that it transcends academia. She is a brilliant and provocative economist who has challenged stories of value creation, innovation and growth. In an ingenious way, she has been able to create new economic narratives to understand contemporary realities in Europe and beyond. The jury honours her outstanding academic work and her engagement to bridge the gap between academia and policymaking”, said Antonio Loprieno, President of ALLEA and chairman of the Madame de Staël Prize jury.

ALLEA’s Madame de Staël Prize

Mariana Mazzucato will be the sixth scholar to receive the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, an initiative of ALLEA with the support of the foundation Compagnia di San Paolo.

The prize was established to commemorate a deep-rooted understanding of European culture as connected by an inherent diversity supported by a dynamic and vigorous intellectualism. The prize will be awarded during a ceremony in the context of the 25th Anniversary of ALLEA. The celebration will take place at the University of Bern and is hosted by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences in Bern on 8 May. Switzerland’s Federal Councillor for Economy, Education and Research Guy Parmelin will be opening the ceremony, and the President of the European Research Council Jean-Pierre Bourguignon will provide the laudatory speech.

About Mariana Mazzucato

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) holds the Chair in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), and she is Founder and Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). IIPP is dedicated to rethinking the role of public policy in shaping both the rate of growth and its direction—and training the next generation of civil servants with a focus on the dynamic organisational capabilities required for mission-oriented policies.

Professor Mazzucato advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led inclusive growth and is currently a member of the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisors; the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Leadership Council; and SITRA’s Advisory Panel in Finland. She is currently a Special Advisor for the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, and has recently authored the high impact EC report Mission-Oriented Research & Innovation in the European Union. She is also a Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, for the OECD’s New Growth Narrative.

Mazzucato has written several books, book chapters, journal articles and policy papers on issues related to economic and finance policy, innovation, sustainability and inclusive growth. Her highly-acclaimed book The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (Anthem 2013; Public Affairs, 2015) was on the 2013 Books of the Year list of the Financial Times. Her new book The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy was published in April 2018 in the UK (Penguin) and was launched in the USA in September 2018 (Public Affairs). It was shortlisted for this year’s Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize.

About Compagnia di San Paolo

The Compagnia di San Paolo, founded in 1563 as a charitable brotherhood, is today one of the largest private-law foundations in Europe. It pursues aims of public interest and social use, in order to foster the civil, cultural and economic development of the community in which it operates. The Compagnia is active in the sectors of Research and Health, Art, Cultural Heritage and Activities, Cultural Innovation, Social Policies, and Philanthropy.

You can now register to participate in the 2019 ALLEA General Assembly, which will be hosted by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences on 8-10 May in the city of Bern.

Please note that attendance to the General Assembly is free of charge, but registration is mandatory for all participants. If you wish to register, please refer to the registration page.

Join us to celebrate our 25th Anniversary!

In 2019, ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, will celebrate its 25^th Anniversary during its annual General Assembly, which on this occasion will be hosted by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.

The last quarter century has been a period of tremendous change in the field of science, which has affected both disciplinary discourses and patterns of institutional governance. European  scientific institutions have become motors of excellence and innovation with a high impact on the transformation of European societies in our digital age. Yet, public confidence in the guiding role of science in shaping our future seems to be increasingly called into question.

Does European science blossom, while European societies ache? Political discourse is frequently driven by algorithms of acceptance rather than by scientific or scholarly expertise. Our common cultural values, rooted in the curiosity and tolerance of the Enlightenment, are increasingly challenged. Different perceptions and narratives of Europe threaten to divide our societies, leaving a vacuum of haunting uncertainty about the future. What role can European academies play to provide a bridge between production and diffusion of knowledge to and with Society? How can they contribute their share to anchore the underlying values of the Enlightenment upon which scientific progress is based?

ALLEA and its Member Academies will delve into these questions during our annual General Assembly in Bern on 8-10 May 2019. The event includes the annual closed meeting of European academies of sciences and humanities, the award ceremony of the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values and the symposium “Science and Society in Present-Day Europe”.

At the closed business meeting on 8 May, ALLEA governance and policy matters are on the agenda and discussed by ALLEA Member Academies. In the evening, the opening of the conference will take place with a commemoration to the 25 years of ALLEA and the award ceremony of the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values.

The symposium will bring together European policymakers, scientists, scholars as well as the interested public to debate the most pressing issues faced by science and society on 9 May 2019. The one-day symposium will seek to debate the role of academies in present-day Europe and look at past achievements with the eyes of the present, in order to prepare a better future.

The event is completed with a cultural programme on 10 May 2019. The Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences will invite participants of the conferance to a day-trip to visit the scientific facilities of Basel.