- seminar dates
- FEAST Conference 2006: Research without borders
- Energy R&D in Europe: Fusion Energy and the ITER Project
- Multidisciplinary Research and International Co-operation: a Challenging Combination of Tasks
- Engaging with Europe through/in research
- Round Table Discussion with Mr. Giles Chichester
- The European Science Foundation & The European Social Survey
- European Researchers Night
- New Frameworks for IT Research in the EU
The European Science Foundation & The European Social Survey
Date: 3–4pm, Monday 27th March 2006
Venue: National Europe Centre, The Australian National University, 1 Liversidge Street, Building 67C
Chair: Prof. Adam Shoemaker, Dean of Arts at The Australian National University and Convenor of the National Institute of the Humanities
Henk Stronkhorst & Claus Nowotny
The European Science Foundation (ESF) is the European association of 78 national research organisations in 30 countries, devoted to scientific research. With offices in Strasbourg and Brussels, the ESF covers all scientific domains: physical and engineering sciences; life, earth and environmental sciences; medical sciences; humanities and social sciences. In bringing together leading scientists and scholars, funding agencies and research organisations, the mission of ESF is to provide a common platform for its Member Organisations in order to advance European research and explore new directions for research at the European level.
The European Social Survey (ESS) is carried out every two years in 27 nations. Initiated and seed-funded by the European Science Foundation, its three aims are:
- to measure and explain long-term value change within and between European nations
- to advance the rigour of cross-national survey methodology
- to develop national and European-wide social indicators
The achievements of the ESS team over the past four years have recently been recognised in two important ways. The team has been awarded the European Commission’s prestigious Descartes Prize (2005), an annual award for “excellence in scientific research”. Similarly the project has been selected to be awarded Infrastructure status by the European Commission — assuring it of large-scale support for the five years from 2006-2010.
Henk Stronkhorst is heading the Social Sciences Unit of the European Science Foundation. Since 2002, he is on secondment from his home institution, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), where he had been Director of the Social Science Research Council. By training a developmental sociologist and social statistician, he completed a PhD at the University of Arizona (USA) and has been assistant professor in various universities. For over ten years he worked in Statistics Netherlands, before moving to NWOO and ESF. He was involved in setting up the European Social Survey from the very beginning, in the mid 1990s.
Claus Nowotny is since one year working for the European Science Foundation as Director of Communication. Previously he had the same position at a new university in Sweden that expanded to have 20,000 students after five years. He has also been in charge of communication surrounding a highly politically sensitive fixed link between Denmark and Sweden. Journalist and anchorman in radio and TV, in charge of large editorial staff, has written books about journalism and has been visiting professor for Journalism. He later moved into communications. He has been an adviser to all major infrastructure projects in Sweden and other sensitive projects like atomic waste handling. He has also been an advisor to numerous communities.
