Alliance for
Responsible Science
www.responsiblescience.at
Memorandum of Understanding
between the
Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy
and
Partner Institutions from the Science, Research, Educational
and Practicing Sectors
on
the initiative
“In Dialog with Society - Responsible Science”
(Alliance for Responsible Science)
Preamble
The signatory institutions from the science, research, educational and practicing sectors
are core institutions and/or promotors of scientific knowledge acquisition, the advancement and development of the arts, teaching and knowledge transfer. They concern
themselves with the upcoming generation of scientists and artists, and educate graduates, stimulate social and technological innovations and contribute significantly to
Austria’s performance, competitive and collaborative capabilities with regard to science,
technology and the economy. They create sustainable solutions for the great challenges
of our time and give impetus to socio-cultural development in Austria and far beyond
its borders.
Scientific and/or artistic excellence and practical relevance form two extremes of a
range of areas in which these institutions for the scientific, research, educational and
practicing sectors can produce their manifold effects. Thanks to the highest scientific
performance standards, their openness towards society and their sense of responsibility – demonstrated by their activities as Responsible Universities and as Responsible
Research Performing & Research Funding Organisations – they prove to be invaluable
creative forces for a society with a future.
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In the last few years, the EU plan Responsible Research and Innovation has made
remarkable progress. For instance, it also became one of the key points for orientation in the European Union’s current research framework program Horizon 2020 and in
the strategic alignment of the European research arena. The Responsible Science plan
opens up new perspectives in science on the basis of the excellence principle, namely
for science politics, the research environment and education – not least because previously untapped potentials of knowledge and practical benefits are exploited through
the involvement of civil society in science, research and innovation, and because the
capacity for dialog between the scientific sector and society in general is improved over
the long term. As a result, Responsible Science will also help to increase the general
public’s appreciation for research and development as a basis for advancing our society
and promoting our prosperity.
The Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy as well as the undersigned
institutions from the scientific, educational and practicing sectors (referred to below as
“Partner Institutions”) have therefore taken the following upon themselves:
1.
The Partner Institutions recognize Responsible Science as an important concept for
future-oriented institutional activities in the context of scientific and artistic performance
requirements and social needs.
2.
The Partner Institutions will initiate a joint communication and development process
under the title of Alliance for Responsible Science, which will serve to strengthen,
critically reflect on and develop Responsible Science in the areas of research, teaching
and social involvement. The Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy will
financially assist with the establishment of a competence network “Responsible Science
– Science Cultures”, which will serve to promote responsible and/or accountable science,
create guidelines and initiate pioneering projects.
The Partner Institutions declare, while taking into consideration the respective institution’s sphere of activity, that they aim to achieve the following objectives:
-
Creating rooms for meetings, dialogs and interaction in academic and other social contexts, in which suggestions for science as well as the development
and exploitation of the arts can be formulated from a variety of systemic and real-world perspectives;
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- Translating social challenges and key concepts into scientific, scientific-artistic and institutional strategies, plans and projects; operationalizing the concept of “social relevance” (societal impact factor);
- Encouraging researchers to break through professional and institutional
narrow-mindedness, to explore the outer limits of science and to go down new, previously undiscovered paths;
- Creating working conditions and studying environments for (upcoming)
scientists which make it possible to combine activities in research and teaching with social involvement as scientists;
- Establishing lasting partnerships between research institutions and facilitating joint submissions to national and international funding agencies in order to
create strategic and financial synergies in the area of Responsible Science;
- Promoting excellent research and teaching by means of interdisciplinary,
transdisciplinary and participative approaches in the area of Responsible Science;
-
Reflecting upon and integrating relevant concepts, such as Citizen Science,
crowdsourcing and open innovation, in institutional key profile areas, in
research, the development and exploitation of the arts, in teaching and in
further training;
- Transferring and feeding back the acquired scientific and artistic knowledge
into politics and administration, into the economy, the media and civil society.
The undersigned institutions view themselves as the Alliance for Responsible Science.
As a next step, a cooperative competence network, known as “Responsible Science –
Science Cultures”, will commence with its work, while the Federal Ministry of Science,
Research and Economy will set up a coordination point for Citizen Science as a contact
address, consultancy and project center for interested citizens and scientists.
Signed in Vienna on June 17th, 2015.
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Signatories
On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BMWFW)
State Secretary Harald Mahrer
On behalf of Universities Austria (UNIKO)
President Sabine Seidler
On behalf of the Association of Austrian Universities of Applied Science (FHK)
President Helmut Holzinger
On behalf of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
President of the Philosophical-Historical Class Brigitte Mazohl
On behalf of the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG)
Deputy Secretary Helmut Miernicki
On behalf of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Vice President Christine Mannhalter
On behalf of the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Managing Director Wolfgang Knoll
On behalf of the Natural History Museum of Vienna (NHM)
Director General Christian Köberl
On behalf of the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation
in Education and Research (OeAD-GmbH)
CEO Hubert Dürrstein
On behalf of the Austrian Society for Innovative Computer Sciences (INNOC)
Dr. Roland Stelzer
Collaborating Institutions from Applied Fields
On behalf of the Federal Institute for Educating the Blind (BBI)
Director Susanne Alteneder
On behalf of the Austrian Red Cross
Deputy Secretary General Michael Opriesnig
On behalf of the Austrian League for Nature Conservation (naturschutzbund)
CEO Birgit Mair-Markart
Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy
1014 Vienna | Minoritenplatz 5 | www.en.bmwfw.gv.at