Research Funding Transparency Webinar

Organized by the ISC’s Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science (CFRS), this webinar picks up on its recent position on Research Funding Transparency by examining this nuanced issue from different expert perspectives. Attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions, give feedback, and help CFRS in identifying priority concerns via a moderated Q&A session. 

Within the complex array of funding sources for scientific research — encompassing governments, industry, NGOs, and philanthropies, for example — hidden financial links can be used by actors with vested interests to distort scientific findings and suppress evidence. This manipulation of the scientific process misleads the public and damages trust in science. In this way, research funding sources and relationships which are hidden from public view present a serious threat to the integrity of science.

Speakers

• Moderator: Johannes Waldmüller – ISC Senior Science Officer and Executive Secretary of CFRS
• Craig Callender – Professor of Philosophy, University of California
• Roberta D’Alessandro – CFRS member and Professor & Chair of Linguistics, Utrecht University
• Niels Andersen – Treasurer of the International Union Geodesy and Geophysics; Senior Chief Consultant, Department of Space Research and Technology Geomagnetism and Geospace

More about the ISC’s position on Research Funding Transparency

The ISC’s recent position calls for full transparency in research funding as a simple, urgent, and effective first line of defence against the risk of funders seeking to influence research in the service of political, economic, ideological or other interests. Informed by the ISC’s Principles of Freedom and Responsibility in Science, the position emphasizes transparency as a shared responsibility, borne by all levels of the global science system, from individuals to institutes and organisations and, importantly,  governments. This reflects the connection between research funding transparency and human rights, as science which is manipulated by funders with vested interests denies the public access to reliable knowledge, which interferes with the effective exercise of the human right to participate in and benefit from science.

Register to attend on 18 March at 13:30–14:30 UTC.