Next week, the European science community will meet at the biannual EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in Manchester. This will be the first ESOF to be held in the UK, and the first in the context of a post-referendum Britain. With the uncertainty that Brexit has created both in Britain and Europe more generally, and for UK science in particular, there has never been a more important time for the European science community to commit to overcoming barriers.
Few in the world of science would quibble over the assertion that British science has benefited enormously from EU membership and vice versa. European initiatives have helped create working relationships that transcend boundaries whilst the UK science base has benefited tremendously from the free movement of scientists and innovators across national and organisational boundaries.
More generally, recent European history is defined by the breaking down of barriers, not least the knocking down of a wall that, for decades, divided a nation. At midnight on 9 November 1989, concrete and steel shattered and bent as segments of the Berlin Wall parted. This opened access to both sides of the city for the first time in nearly 30 years. The fall of the wall was the first step for Germany, towards reunification and new frontiers and boundaries on social, economic, architectural, and infrastructural levels.
Cut to almost twenty years later, and Europe is a changed place with a vibrant science base that has been fostered through collaboration and cross-working on a number of levels, which includes the role carried out by forums such as the Falling Walls Lab, which works to promote international collaboration and cross-disciplinary exchange. Our annual event encourages under-graduate and post-graduate innovators from all disciplines to present to us their ideas on which is the next wall to fall, and how they propose to help it fall. Previous entries having included breaking the ‘walls’ of gross income inequality to producing cleaner solar energy, and from combatting cardiovascular disease to introducing living robots.
As a world-wide event with national heats, and through encouraging entries from all academic disciplines, our work provides a platform for ideas that transcends boundaries, breaking down a barrier in itself.
We are conscious, however, that there is still a long way to go in truly overcoming the barriers to cross-boundary working. This covers a wide range of issues including funding availability and access, a lack of awareness of the benefits this type of working can bring, resourcing facilitators, and general logistics.
Taking into account recent political developments, a focus on building and maintaining bridges to keep the scientific community of Europe and the world connected and active has never been more important. That’s why we’re committed to supporting the sector in the UK by providing a platform for scientists to connect within Europe and the rest of the world.
What’s certain is that, in order to break down the barriers that still exist and ensure that new ones aren’t created or re-built, it will be essential to continue to promote an open dialogue within the European scientific community. What we have at our disposal are some of the greatest minds from across the world with a vested interest in making sure that this happens.
Naveed Syed is Project Manager for Falling Walls Lab. Falling Walls Lab Manchester is being hosted by the Manchester Enterprise Centre at Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Manchester) as part of ESOF 2016 on 27 July.
(Edited on 25 July to update the event information)
