Half online, half on-site, the scientific event EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF 2020) was hosted in Trieste, the European City of Science 2020. The event took place from 2 to 6 September 2020. ESOF is a biennial, pan-European, general science conference dedicated to scientific R&I. For 5 days, hybrid conferences on the latest advancements and discoveries in the sciences, humanities and social sciences were held in the Northern Italian city and online.

During this event, researchers and university leaders expressed their concern regarding the budget allocated to Research and Development in the European Union and the potential brain exodus that could ensued. They called for governments and the EU to keep investing in R&D.

On a different note, MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho (ITRE Committee) warned the ESOF 2020 participants about the geographical imbalance in funding awards in Europe. She pointed out that the private sector participation remains an important problem for EU public-private research partnerships in the EU research and innovation framework programme, Horizon 2020: a high percentage of grants allocated to scientists and researchers are going to a small number of member states. In this regard, MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho called for geographical equality for the next research and innovation framework programme starting in 2021, Horizon Europe.

The EuroScience Open Forum 2022 will be hosted in Leiden/The Hague, Netherlands.

Sources:
– ESOF 2020: https://www.esof.eu/en/home.html
– Science Business:  https://sciencebusiness.net/framework-programmes/news/closed-clubs-eu-public-private-partnerships-need-more-geographical
– OggiScienza: https://oggiscienza.it/2020/09/01/trieste-esof-2020/