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Providing a
global voice for research staff and postdoctoral scholars
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Welcome to the ICoRSA Newsletter
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INTRODUCING OUR PROJECTS
ICoRSA is project partner of 3 major EU-funded Horizon2020 projects.
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RESPONSIBLE
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION NETWORKED GLOBALLY
RRING is in its final year of project
implementation. ICoRSA is leading the RRING research network and is responsible for
implementing a trial of the network in 2020, which will include members
from research performing organizations, research funding organizations,
industry, policy, international organizations and NGOs, researchers and
research staff organizations as well as civil society organizations from 10
different countries.
Under the leadership of ICoRSA a global
survey was launched which was open from 1 October 2019 to 20 December 2019.
Variables
covered demographic Information such as: Age; Gender; Nationality; Native
Language; Level of Education & Subject of Schooling; Location of
Schooling & Professional Career; Time in current position of career.
Five RRING World Regions were included in the analysis (following UNESCO
regions of the world): European and North American States;
Latin-American and Caribbean States; Asian and Pacific States; African States;
Arab States.
The survey
resulted in 2198 responses with a completion rate of 70% or more; 539
responses with a completion rate of less than 70%. The average completion
rate of the survey was 97%. Respondents on average took 33 minutes to
complete the survey.
For more detailed information on the results
and statistics of the Global Survey on Familiarity with Sustainable
Development Goals - link
For more detailed information on the results
and statistics of the Global Survey on socially responsible
research/innovation - link
The following 5 country case studies to use
the RRING tools in monitoring their country for the UNESCO Recommendation on Science and
Scientific Researchers:
- US
- India
- South Africa
- Lithuania
- Ireland or Serbia
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AGM
ICoRSA participated in this year’s Annual General Meeting with all project
partners, the first virtual project AGM due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ICoRSA presented and co-presented the progress on WP3 – State of the Art on
RRI Action Plans and QH platforms and WP4 – Comparative analysis.
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Virtual Workshop
On 17 June
2020, RRING and PRIA India together organized a virtual workshop on
Responsible Research & Innovation: India and the World Today. Our
Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Eric Jensen, presented the RRING project and
core processes for defining RRI. If you missed the workshop, you can find
the recording of the whole session on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1VHMXsWLgA
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GROUNDING
RRI PRACTICES IN RESEARCH PERFORMING ORGANISATIONS
ICoRSA is actively participating in WP3 “Statement of the Art on RRI
Action Plans and quadruple helix dialogue platforms”, WP4 “Quadruple
Helix engagement” and WP5 “RPO & RFO Working Groups setup, and
audit and impact assessment of RRI maturity”. By the end of this year,
a draft of RRI action plans to enable institutional change will be
delivered.
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For more
various important topics on Recommendations on Science, information
on how to engage with the Quadruple Helix in steps and
more visit the project website www.grrip.eu
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MULTIPLE USE
OF SPACE FOR ISLAND CLEAN AUTONOMY
ICoRSA is in charge of developing the Quadruple Helix of stakeholders
for the island location and for the final report on Oinnousses public and QH engagement and RRI.
First Public
Engagement Workshop
with the island communities of Chios and Oinousses
(14 October 2020):
Together
with the assistance of ICoRSA, MUSICA project will organize the first
public engagement workshop on utilizing sea-based multiple-use platform
(MUP) and multiple-use of space (MUS) to reduce the frequency of blackouts
and electricity shortages, provide clean drinking water and fish farming on
Oinousses.
This event
will be first opportunity to share MUSICA’s aims and progress to
the public and inform islanders about how renewable energy, desalination and aquaculture can
work together on one multiple-use platform. At the same time, guided
activities will give participants a forum to discuss these topics, ask
questions from MUSICA leadership, present ideas and concerns.
Input from
community representatives in Chios and Oinousses -
along with local authority, industry and research institutions - is vital
to realizing MUSICA’s ambitions to demonstrate how the needs of small
islands everywhere (clean energy, freshwater, food
and employment) can be addressed through renewable technology using
local resources. The event’s key purpose is to build links between
different stakeholders and involve local people at an early stage in the
Project.
All results
will be shared on the project’s website where the discussion can continue.
Feedback will help create follow-on workshops that will bring these same
groups together to report on MUSICA progress and provide education and
training around its benefits.
For more
information and registration: link
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Our Emeritus
Chair, Dr. Gordon Dalton, project coordinator of MUSICA, presented a
project overview at the UNITED project webinar “Challenges, risks and
barriers for large scale commercial roll-out of multi-use“.
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Subscribe to the project newsletter and find
more information on the project website www.musica-project.eu
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Keep a look
out on the project website and and don't forget
to follow us on Twitter (@ICoRSA_News) to be up to date on all project
developments!
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NEW PROJECT APPLICATION
ICoRSA has
actively participated in submitting the following project application under
topic H2020 FETPROACT-EIC-08-2020 “Environmental Intelligence” – subtopic
b: „radically novel approaches to resilient, reliable and environmentally
responsible in-situ monitoring“:
Intelli-Guard:
Intelli-Guard will allow a more efficient and
comprehensive approach to the observation of marine systems, to understand
their status and the impacts of their stressors. Intelli-Guard
aims to revolutionize the way the process of data acquisition is performed,
it will provide automated fit-for-purpose measurement of critical variables
for the earth observation communities and regulatory bodies, thus
supporting a sustainable and profitable Blue Growth. The automated
monitoring and real-time decision making Intelli-Guard
system for marine environment will steer one or more sensors on a platform,
static or mobile, following a phenomena, changing sampling frequency,
activating/deactivating sensors, and will be able to send an early warning
and trigger alarms in case of an undesired consequence while optimising the data acquisition process and, as a
biproduct, optimize the sensors’ battery efficient duration and
maintenance. All these features will be automatically provided by Intelli-Guard, without the need for active human
intervention, while the system itself will be designed as a human-centric
innovative AI technology. ICoRSA is supposed to lead WP5 – RRI: social impacts, stakeholders
engagement and establishing of a quadruple helix platform. The Norwegian
Research Centre AS (NORCE) is the project coordinator.
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UCCRSA
We are
excited to share the news that the University College of Cork – Research
Staff Association (UCCRSA) has become a paid member of ICoRSA! We will now
support them in updating and maintaining their website and social media
accounts, as well as provide them with administrative support.
If your
organization is interested to also become a paid member of ICoRSA and to be provided with administrative
services, you can contact us directly. We will gladly prepare a business
proposal in accordance with your organization’s needs.
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The UN
‘Supporting Women and Girls’ Science Education’ Conference supported by the
Royal Academy of Science International Trust (RASIT)
A Report by
Dr Rosarii Griffin, Acting Chair, ICORSA
Dr Rosarii Griffin
attended the UN, ‘International Conference of Women and Girls in Science’,
held in the UN Assembly Headquarters in New York City on the 11-12th of
February 2020 in her capacity as Director of ICORSA, based at UCC. The
Conference was supported by HRH Princess Nisreen
El-Hashemite and Prince Zain El-Hashemite. The main focus of the conference
was to focus on the policies and actions that can support and sustain
female participation and progress within the sciences, especially the STEM
subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as well as the
Natural Sciences (including environmental sciences) and the Social
Sciences.
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Dr Griffin also attended the UN conference:
‘The Drive for Five: A Global Call to Action for the Education of
Adolescent Girls’ and met keynote speakers including Lead Singer
of U2 and Philanthropist – Bono; Former President of Ireland & Former
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Mary Robinson; the Secretary General
of the UN, Antonio Guterres; and, the Irish Ambassador to the UN and now UN
Security Council, Her Excellency Geraldine Byrne Nason.
Dr Griffin also had meetings with Timothy Moynihan, the Chairperson of the
Global Virus Network (GVN), the Dr Robert Gallo’s foundation, the
co-discoverer of the HIV & Aids virus. Dr Griffin promoted ICORSA
within such fora, making interesting and strategic links there and
promoting the importance of the role of researchers at this UN-supported
event.
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Role Models of Women in STEM
and Entrepreneurship
Our Board
Member and MCAA GEDI WG and ITWIIN President, Dr. Gianna
Avellis organized an online workshop on Role
Models of Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship.
The Workshop
tackled the issue of the need of Role Models in entrepreneurship to give
examples of success stories to young women who want to start a spin-off or
a start up in their field. The importance of Role Models has been
underlined by Prof. Piero Formica especially in Entrepreneurship as good
way for experimenting and learning the entrepreneurship .We introduced in
this Workshop the Role Models from a variety of associations such as MCAA,
GEDI WG, CNR, and ITWIIN: they are Role Models of women who choose their
career in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) and
Entrepreneurship and express their passion for science and enterprise.
Examples of
role models from MCAA and ITWIIN have been highlighted from both research
and entrepreneurship, as well as the Role Models portal developed in the
framework of HUMBOLDT ALUMNI www.therolemodels.net ,
which provides access to Role Models e-books of MCAA and the Role Models
database for mentoring young women scientists and future generations.
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ICoRSA Directors and Executive Committee
Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi, ICoRSA Board Member for years and elected
Chair of ICoRSA (2019), had to resign from both positions due to personal
reasons. We would like to thank him for his time and hard work for ICoRSA as well as his effort in forwarding
the ICoRSA vision
and mission locally, nationally and internationally. We wish him the very
best for his future career!
Until our next AGM in autumn this year, Dr. Rosarii Griffin will be our acting interim Chair.
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Eric Jensen
Senior Research Fellow and Director of Policy Research Unit at ICoRSA
"Evidence-Based
Science Communication in the COVID-19 Era"
Frontiers in
Communication journal - link
„For science
communication to be effective it should be evidence based“
LSE impact blog - link
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ICoRSA
ICoRSA
stands for the International Consortium of Research Staff Associations.
ICoRSA is an umbrella organisation for
researchers and research staff associations, consisting and representing
the interests of a variety of associations and organisations
that in themselves represent the interests of their members.
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International
Consortium of Research Staff Associations, Library House, 18 Dyke Parade,
Mardyke, Cork City, Ireland, +353 21 480 6316
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