
EGU statement on the inclusion of global research
- 22 April 2023
Europe’s largest geoscience union strongly supports the need for inclusive global research practices to combat scientific neocolonialism.
European Geosciences Union
www.egu.euEurope’s largest geoscience union strongly supports the need for inclusive global research practices to combat scientific neocolonialism.
The recent invasion of Ukraine is of grave concern to the European Geosciences Union and will impact the ability of researchers to access the collaborative global enterprise necessary for scientific advancement, which is dependent upon the open sharing of information, data and research across international boundaries.
The ongoing pandemic and intensifying effects of climate change demonstrate that Europe needs to invest in its scientists and research and innovation sector. Both are crucial for addressing future economic and societal challenges.
Europe’s largest geosciences union strongly encourages EU policymakers to adhere to the Paris Agreement timetable and to support the European Green Deal goals during the upcoming budget discussions to shift our economies towards carbon neutrality and create a healthier environment for all.
Europe’s largest geosciences union is committed to improving equality of opportunity, diversity and inclusion both within and beyond the geosciences and condemns racism or any other form of discrimination anywhere in the world.
The Earth, planetary and space science community affirms its commitment to support and promote scientific knowledge and research for the benefit of humanity.
The EGU is concerned that a diversion of funding away from the ERC, or changes to its bottom-up approach, could result in diminished scientific breakthroughs and less innovation in the future.
The EGU has issued an open letter to funding agencies and evaluation committees with information on the assessment of presentations given at its scientific meetings. The letter details the three presentation types given at the EGU General Assembly and states that the selection of the type of presentation is not based on any evaluation of the scientific value of the contribution. As highlighted in a previous EGU statement, the letter also emphasises that there is no distinction regarding the standing, quality or prestige of oral, poster, or PICO presentations.
EGU is committed to standing up for international cooperation in science and taking a leading role within the scientific community in order to reduce barriers to scientific collaboration and cooperation across Europe, let alone increase them, as these would be a tremendous loss to European nations, to the international scientific community and to humanity as a whole.
A scheduled re-organisation of the European Commission’s Research and Innovation Directorate General has raised concerns about its potential impact on the European Research Council (ERC). The EGU strongly supports the unique ability that the ERC currently has to respond directly and independently to the needs of the scientific community.
Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations scientific and intergovernmental body, published the summary for policymakers of its Global Warming of 1.5ºC (SR15) report. EGU representatives react to the findings.
EGU takes pride in aspiring to the highest ethical standards in everything we do. To this end, we have created, in partnership with AGU, a joint code of ethics. We encourage you to adopt its recommendations both for the meeting and your wider professional life.
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) stresses that all scientific presentations at its General Assembly have equal importance, independent of format. There is no distinction regarding the standing, quality or prestige of oral, poster, or PICO presentations. Our different presentation formats offer different ways to present research and obtain feedback. In all cases, a presenter is expected to deliver the main message of the research orally and discuss their results with other participants at the meeting.
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) strongly supports the teaching of evolution in schools and other educational fora. Evolution, a fundamental concept in biology and the Earth sciences, is the only theory supported by scientific evidence to describe how life on Earth has evolved.
On June 1st 2017, the President of the United States announced the country would be withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. The European Geosciences Union (EGU) strongly opposes this decision. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that climate is changing as a consequence of human activity, and that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is vital to limit global warming and lower the risk of dangerous climate impacts.
Building on the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities and on the progress that has been achieved so far, the signatories of Open Access 2020 are pursuing the large-scale implementation of free online access to, and largely unrestricted use and re-use of scholarly research articles.
This statement shall clarify the definition and standing of discussion papers published in the interactive open access journals of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). These journals pursue a two-stage process of publication and review, which is designed to foster and document scientific discussion and has proven to enhance the transparency, efficiency and self-regulation of scientific quality assurance.
Impacts of ocean acidification may be just as dramatic as those of global warming (resulting from anthropogenic activities on top of natural variability) and the combination of both are likely to exacerbate consequences, resulting in potentially profound changes throughout marine ecosystems and in the services that they provide to humankind.
The EGU Council at its meeting on 12 October 2007 in Lyon discussed the issue of whether the Union should accept sponsorship from individuals, the public sector and the private sector. This statement outlines the principles governing potential sponsorship of EGU activities.
The Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY) joins with the International Council for Science, the World Summit on the Information Society, and many other bodies in recognizing that knowledge is the common wealth of humanity.
The International Year of Planet Earth aims to capture people’s imagination with the exciting knowledge we possess about our planet, and to see that knowledge used to make the Earth a safer, healthier and wealthier place for our children and grandchildren International Year of Planet Earth 2007-2009.
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) Divisions of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences support the joint science academies’ statement on global response to climate change of June 2005. Moreover, we welcome the intention of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Chairman to explore the science of global warming and climate change as a basis for future political decisions.
Europe has made great strides towards agreeing on a genuine new mechanism to fund frontier research – the European Research Council (ERC). The EGU and other signatories of this letter agree that the ERC should receive a strong budget commitment and a statute guaranteeing its independence.
The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities of 22 October 2003 is one of the milestones of the Open Access movement. Signatory organisations declare their interest in strongly promoting the open access paradigm to gain the most benefit for science and society.
The European Geosciences Union (EGU), founded in 2002 as a merger of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) and the European Union of Geosciences (EUG), is a dynamic, innovative, and interdisciplinary learned association devoted to the promotion of: the sciences of the Earth and its environment and of planetary and space sciences, and cooperation between scientists.