GYA member Egle Sumskiene (Vilnius University, Lithuania) represented the GYA at the Global Research Council (GRC) annual meeting earlier this month. Together with other partnering organizations she had an opportunity to present the work of the Global Young Academy to the heads of science and engineering funding agencies from all around the world. The GRC 8th Annual Meeting took place from 1 – 3 May 2019 in São Paulo, Brazil, hosted by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina (CONICET).
The goals and activities of the GYA are in line with the most important issues on the international high-level agenda. These include open science, women in science, the situation of young scholars, interdisciplinarity and inter-continental collaboration, as well as the integration of refugee scholars. An important topic of discussion at the meeting was the societal and economical impact of research.
140 participants attended the meeting, with 49 Heads of Research Councils participating from 45 countries to share good practices and discuss research funding policy issues. Participants endorsed the GRC 2019 Statement of Principles on Expectations of Societal and Economic Impact. The statement addresses impact expectations and how to assess and evaluate the impact of research from the perspective of funding organisations.
