Conference documentation: Science and policy in times of multicrisis and dissent

by

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Science and policy in times of multicrisis and dissent:

Issues of framing, authority, evidence – and political-economic power

Welcome to the documentation page of the conference held in May 2025. On this webpage, you will find the ppt-presentations of the conference, the videos of the speeches and round tables, media coverage as well as a photo gallery of the event:

Date:
Thursday 15 May – Saturday 17 May 2025
Location:
Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece
Co-organisers:
European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility
Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences
Critical Scientists Switzerland
Funders:
Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer pour le progrès humain
Triodos Foundation
Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft – GLS Treuhand

PPT-presentations and video documentation

Thursday 15 May

Welcoming

  • Prof. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati, Medical School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, Chair of ENSSER and Secretary of the Board of Mariolopoulos Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences
  • Prof. Christos Zerefos, Secretary General of the Academy of Athens

Round Table: Science in a time of permacrisis – the roles of science in policy decision-making, and of policy in scientific decision-making

Moderation: Dr. Angelika Hilbeck, retired from Institute of Integrative Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

  • Prof. Larissa Bombardi, Department of Geography, University of São Paulo, Brazil (on leave) and Visiting Researcher at CESSMA (Centre d’études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques), Programme PAUSE, Université de Paris, France
  • Prof. Giuseppe Longo, Centre Cavaillès (République des Savoirs), CNRS and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
  • Prof. Ignacio Chapela, Dept. of Environmental Science, University of California Berkeley, USA
  • Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, EcoNexus, Oxford/Bristol, UK
  • Emeritus Prof. Vyvyan Howard, Professor of Bioimaging, Biomedical Sciences Institute, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland
  • Prof. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati, Medical School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, Chair of ENSSER and Secretary of the Board of Mariolopoulos Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences

Friday 16 May

Morning welcome and information

  • Prof. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati

Session 1: Science, Policy and Decision Making

Moderation: Diederick Sprangers, ENSSER Scientific Coordinator

How has science come to be recognised and institutionalised as a policy resource in the past 80 years?

  • Emeritus Prof. Brian Wynne, Professor of Science Studies, Lancaster University, UK (ppt-presentation)

Under what conditions can the interactions of scientific and political considerations in policy-making be both scientifically and democratically legitimate?

  • Emeritus Prof. Erik Millstone, Emeritus Professor of Science Policy in the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, UK (ppt-presentation)

What is the role of the economy in regulating the relationships between science and political decision-making?

  • Dr. Irina Castro, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal (ppt-presentation)

Discussion Round: Knowledge Transfer for Policy in times of crises – who selects knowledge and scientists, and when?

  • Speakers of session 1

Session 2: Illustrative examples of science – policy interactions

Moderation:

  • Dr. Irina Castro, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal and
  • Sanjay Kumar, communication scientist, Bielefeld, Germany

Three case studies:

  • Ignorant by design: Regulatory science, comitology and the agrochemical industry
    Dr. Barbara Berardi, Director of Research and Advocacy, Pollinis, France
  • Court ruling demands the South African government to apply the precautionary principle in GMO approval requests
    Dr. Angelika Hilbeck, Agroecologist, retired from Institute of Integrative Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland and Mariam Mayet, African Centre for Biodiversity, South Africa
  • How Governments and the Agroindustry Obstruct Critical Science: The Bonus Eventus Files
    Elena DeBre, investigative journalist, Lighthouse Reports, Athens, Greece

Long debate, little movement: the case of soil science and policy

  • Dr. Andrea Beste, Agricultural scientist, graduate geographer and soil expert, Institute for Soil Conservation & Sustainable Agriculture, Mainz, Germany

Disagreements and dissent: The case of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and New Genomic Techniques (NGTs)

Aspiring to consensus: The case of Climate Change
Moderator: Prof. Christos Zerefos, Secretary General of the Academy of Athens

  • Prof. James Skea, International Institute for Environment and Development (ppt-presentation)

Saturday 17 May

9:00 – 9:05 Morning welcome and information

  • Prof. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati

Session 3: Roads to follow for a more fruitful science-policy relationship

  • Moderation: Diederick Sprangers, Scientific Coordinator of ENSSER

Why we need policies ‘based on the best scientific knowledge available’ and not ‘science based’ policies

  • Christine von Weizsäcker, Advisory Board of the Federation of German Scientists and Scientific Committee of the German Society on Human Ecology, Germany (ppt-presentation)

Why ‘science’ as currently conceived is often part of the problem, and how it could become part of the solution

  • Dr. Ephraim Pörtner, Critical Scientists Switzerland, Affiliated Researcher, Political Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland (ppt-presentation)
  • Dr. Ulrich Loening, Centre for Human Ecology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland (ppt-presentation)

Reproducible and trustworthy science: challenges and solutions

  • Prof. John Ioannidis, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University, USA

Round Table: What roads can be followed?

Moderation:

  • Dr. Ephraim Pörtner, Critical Scientists Switzerland, Affiliated Researcher, Political Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • Dr. Irina Castro, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Panel:

  • Academician Emeritus Prof. George Chrousos, Professor of Pediatrics and Endocrinology and former chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Athens University
  • Dr. Petros Varelidis, General Secretary of Ministry of the Environment
  • Dr. Angelika Hilbeck, Agroecologist, retired from Institute of Integrative Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Dr. Andrea Beste, Agricultural scientist, graduate geographer and soil expert, Institute for Soil Conservation & Sustainable Agriculture, Mainz, Germany
  • Prof. John Ioannidis, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University, USA
  • David Gee, Centre for Pollution Research and Policy, Brunel University, London
  • Dr. Aude Lapprand, Physical chemist, Sciences Citoyennes, France
  • Dr. Edward Henry, National Ecologist with USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, USA

Closing

Prof. Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati