2018 Academic Freedom and Responsibility Toward Society – Who Decides What Science We Do? Proceedings of the 12th Forum on the Internationalization of Sciences and Humanities November 11–12, 2018 • Berlin CONTENTS Academic Freedom and Contributions Responsibility Toward Society – Who Decides What Science We Do? 6 Restoring Trust in the Media, a Vital Task | by Pierre Haski Proceedings of the 12th Forum on the Internationalization of Sciences and 10 Academic Freedom in the Age of Humanities the Anthropocene November 11–12, 2018 • Berlin | by Catharine R. Stimpson 12 Assessing Academic Freedom Infringements and Their Severity 23 Allocating Resources in the Race 3 Preface | by Katrin Kinzelbach for Scientific Dominance: Research | by Hans-Christian Pape and Funding and Academic Freedom Katharina Boele-Woelki 14 Rethinking Academic Freedom in a | by Christopher Tremewan Changing Academic Landscape | by Sijbolt Noorda 26 Science and Democracy: A Dialectical Central Points of Discussion Relation 16 Competing Narratives of Academic | by Michael Quante Displacement 4 12th Forum on the Internationalization | by Yudit Namer of Sciences and Humanities 28 Does Opening Up Science Ensure Academic Freedom? Three Views on 19 Funding Research, Funding Freedom Opening Up Science | by João Rangel de Almeida | by Ayelet Baram-Tsabari 21 Priority Setting in EU Research and 30 “Chai and Why?” – 10 Years of Innovation Programmes Spreading Excitement about Science | by Alan Cross | by Arnab Bhattacharya Contributors 33 Speakers at the 12th Forum on the Internationalization of Sciences and Humanities The IAB 37 The International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 38 An Independent Expert Group 43 Forum on the Internationalization of Sciences and Humanities Imprint PREFACE | 3 Preface Dear Reader, Academic freedom is a necessary precondition for science and research to thrive. With the rise of illiberal and autocratic governments in sev- eral countries around the world, academic freedom is increasingly un- der threat. The consistently high demand for fellowships in the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, a programme which the Humboldt Foundation Hans-Christian Pape launched in 2015 with the support of the Federal Foreign Office to pro- President of the vide temporary shelter for at-risk academics, is sad testimony to this. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation But academic freedom involves more than the absence of censorship, forced dismissals and imprisonment of academics. Worrying trends such as growing dependence on third-party funding, increasing pressure to produce publication output or being expected to demonstrate immedi- ate impacts may also restrict the freedom of researchers. At the same time, taxpayers have a legitimate right to demand accountability from scientists and scholars whose research they ultimately fund. In November 2018, the International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation convened the 12th Forum on the Interna- tionalization of Sciences and Humanities under the title “Academic Free- dom and Responsibility Toward Society – Who Decides What Science We Do?”. The Forum discussed various aspects of academic freedom in a wider sense. Leading scholars, science managers and representatives of funding organizations from across the globe gave their input to these Katharina Boele-Woelki questions. Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation This special supplement documents the proceedings of the Forum and makes them available to a wider audience in Germany and beyond. We hope that the contributions in this publication spark further debate within the global academic community. Sincerely, Hans-Christian Pape Katharina Boele-Woelki President of the Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 4 | CENTRAL POINTS OF DISCUSSION 12th Forum on the Internationalization of Sciences and Humanities “Academic Freedom and Responsibility Toward Society – Who Decides What Science We Do?” 12 TH FORUM ON THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES | 5 Central Points of Discussion 1. Academic freedom is essential in order for scholars and scientists to pursue their societal mission – but society has a legitimate right to see its interests taken into account. The primary responsibility of scientists and scholars is to provide society with the best possible knowledge. Researchers can only fulfil this responsibility to the best of their ability if they are al- lowed to go about their research as freely as possible. But that does not mean that they should be totally unaccountable to citizens or the democratically legitimated actors who represent them. output, or funders requiring the demonstration of immediate im- 2. The harm that infringements of academic freedom cause pacts. When these developments are discussed in other contexts, extends beyond the individual scientists and scholars their effects on academic freedom should be considered as well. whose academic freedom is infringed, or the individual institutions whose institutional autonomy is violated. 5. Academia has to become more acknowledging of its embeddedness in democratic structures – including all When the academic freedom of individual scholars and scientists the participatory aspects characteristic of democratic is infringed, or when individual institutions are under attack, the processes. academic community – including funding organizations – must protest and do their utmost to help the affected individuals and Scientists and scholars must enter into a dialogue with society, institutions. In addition, the wider implications of such severe in- remain open-minded to justified challenges, even from non-spe- fringements of academic freedom must not be forgotten. Aca- cialists, and keep debating the role science and research should demic freedom is a measure of general freedom, and its infringe- play within societies. This is necessary in order to secure academic ment causes harm to all members of society, be they students or freedom in the long run. Simply showing research results to the citizens benefitting from the knowledge created by researchers. public or trying to educate the public on how science works will not suffice, even though of course it remains important to foster 3. Self-censorship within academia is probably more scientific thinking within society (especially in children). widespread than the censorship visible to outsiders. Increasingly, scholars are ‘at moral risk’. 6. Academic freedom is a prerequisite for science and scholar- ship to thrive. International outrage at infringements of academic freedom is of- ten concentrated on a small number of high-profile cases when This holds true despite differing definitions across societies of academics are fired or imprisoned. This leads to underestima- what academic freedom should entail. tion of the global threat to academic freedom. There are justified reasons to assume that scholars and scientists in countries with 7. In the short run, one of the best ways to secure academic authoritarian governments increasingly resort to self-censorship freedom may lie in fostering international networks of in order to avoid sanctioning. But also in non-autocratic societies, scientists and scholars. researchers are ‘at moral risk’ when they choose the path of least resistance. Networks can lend protection and empowerment to individual researchers whose academic freedom is infringed. The cross- 4. Threats to academic freedom do not just emanate from border nature of international networks can grant freedom from authoritarian governments. encroachment by national regulation, and can enable individuals by spreading resources, such as data or technical equipment, that There are worrying developments within the global science sys- may otherwise not be accessible to them. tem which limit individual researchers’ freedom to decide what to research and how to go about it. Examples of such developments The International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt are growing dependence on third-party funding, the pressure Foundation will continue to explore the power of academic net- to succumb to the logic of quantitative measures of publication works. 6 | PIERRE HASKI Restoring Trust in the Media, a Vital Task Pierre Haski President Reporters Without Borders Paris, France The worlds of science and academia on one hand and of the media on the other have various points in common, despite obvious differences. One of these is the issue of trust, without which we could not function in our respec- tive spheres. “I was always assured, as a journalist, that establishing the truth […] was enough to close a debate. Interpretation remained free, but facts were facts. This has no longer been the case” I have been a journalist for more than four decades, working in differ- ent parts of the world, in contexts where the ground was never secure, where, as we know, truth is the first casualty of war. I have been based in the parallel universe of apartheid South Africa, in the Middle East with its deeply rooted conflicting mythology, as well as in booming China, where the truth is what the propaganda department has decided. Com- Is that period over? Have we entered what has been called the “post- pared with what we now face, these were predictable and easy obsta- truth” era – a concept that is not new but made its way into dictionar- cles to navigate. It didn’t feel like it at the time, but overcoming these ies and our