Back Video of webinar on Challenges and strategies for socially engaged scientists in academia

Video of webinar on Challenges and strategies for socially engaged scientists in academia

Webinar “Challenges and strategies for socially engaged scientists in Academia”

 

Wednesday 15th December took place the Webinar titled “Challenges and strategies for socially engaged scientists in Academia” with Amy Townsend-Small, Rafael Lajmanovich and Ignacio Chapela.  

 

We examined the pressures these scientists felt from university, from government institutions, from colleagues, from companies. We discussed where these pressures are coming from, where education and research is going when accepting money from these corporations, the importance of reversing the proof of harm - why do scientists have to go through so much pressures to prove a certain product is harming the environment when companies can sell products (like agrochemicals) with NO prove that they are harmless? 

 

So what are the take-away strategies, what lessons can we learn from their work? 

The most important lesson that all three speakers seemed to agree with was the importance of networks of support inside and outside academia. With the help of the attendees we also collected the names of some of these networks ( New Water Culture Foundation, USNAL and Ciencia DIgna in Latin America, Union of Concerned Scientists in the US, Science citoyyen in France, the European network for social and enviornmental responsability (ENSSR)). The importance of having a strong university union proved key in Amy’s case that was able to access tenure even though she was experiencing huge pressures from her university. 

 

One important lesson was the importance of having high standard publications in international scientific outputs as well as high scientific rigorosity. But this is not enough as the case of Rafael Carrasco, explained by Rafael showed. 

 

The importance of publishing your research in non-scientific outputs was deemed important to reach local affected groups. There was a discussion about the importance of publicity with your engaged work with/for local groups. Whilst it can help you to achieve a public status and protect you from attacks it can also give undesired visibility and create pressures on the researcher.

 

We invite you to listen to the recording (1.30min) where we touch on these and other issues. 

 

All three panelists are indeed inspiring cases of 'scientists for the people and for the environment' - to borrow one of Ignacio's sentences.

03.12.2020

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