This statement is the product of a global dialogue and discussion process hosted by the Living Knowledge Network. It wants to be understood as a means to facilitate the embedding of Social Responsibility and Community Based Research into the Research and Higher Education System.

You are invited to join us in a webinar discussion on Science Shops on May 27th, 12:30-1:30pm (Newfoundland Time) or 5:00-6:00 pm (CEST, UTC+2).  It is hosted by Norbert Steinhaus in conjunction with the Community-based Research Capacity Building Network (established to build capacity up to CU Expo 2013 and beyond). Please see the poster below for more information. There is no fee for participation, however RSVP is required. You are welcome to circulate this throughout your networks.
This webinar will discuss both best practices and challenges of running Science Shops. Information will be given about the history of Science Shops and how they have found their place on the agenda of science policy-making; working with students in the curriculum; and researchers involvement with civil society organizations.

Please RSVP to Kim by May 24th
Email: kimberlyolson@gov.nl.ca
Phone: 709-649-4747

This session will be hosted online via Elluminate Live, allowing you to participate from your home or office. Information will be provided on how to join the meeting, following your RSVP.

Please enjoy the current Living Knowledge Magazine Nr 11 with the focus “Future options for responsible research and innovation”.

• Download LK Magazine Nr 11
• for the printed version, please send us an email to livingknowledge@wilabonn.de

The aim of this debate is to engage local communities, cooperatives, small businesses, municipalities and civil society organisations in setting a research agenda on local sustainable economic development. We invite your views to help us arrive at key questions that can be researched by members of the Living Knowledge network.  Some key issues that can be discussed as potential research questions are:

• How can local procurement be encouraged, in particular public procurement?
• How can local and regional wellbeing be measured?
• What are the models and frameworks for economic cooperation (such as cooperatives) in local economic development?
• How effective are financial instruments for sustainable local development (complementary currencies, municipal bonds and crowd funding, for example)?
• Which tools for impact assessment are useful (for example: local multiplier, Social Return on Investment)?
•  How do new initiatives relate to existing formal and informal institutions and organisations?
• How do new initiatives contribute to social learning? What is learned? And how is this knowledge put into practice?
• What roles can researchers play and how does their position influence the local processes?

Following the online discussion, we will generate a summary report on the topics discussed with recommendations for follow-up research, which will be offered to researchers participating in the debate as well as the wider Living Knowledge network. The debate site will be updated where possible with details relating to the progress of the associated research and results so far.

Living Knowledge partners believe that if wider civil society has more of a say in setting research questions, innovation is more likely to develop in ways that are responsive to societies’ needs. That’s our vision.

The debate will end in early June.

We are aiming to make this debate as multilingual as possible and to enable wide participation. Therefore we are looking for support in translation. If you want to forward this debate to your partners in your local language and help translate local requests and comments for the international debate platform, please contact the moderator Meira Hanson (meirahanson@gmail.com) for details.

• To the debate

Global Communique Debate ‘Grand Challenges & the Great Transformation’ Online from April 12 – May 12 at http://bit.ly/XMUrpz

Measure & optimize the value of Research for policy-making, business and research management.

The conference will take place on 25. April 2013 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Especially in times of economic recession, it is not only legitimate but also extremely relevant, to ask the question what investing in science is actually worth.Since our modern society has become more focused on achieving results in an effective and efficient way, academia is equally challenged by this shift in focus.
The value and involvement of scientific knowledge for society at large is growing and because of this more transparency from academia is required regarding their results and contributions to all involved stakeholders.
This international conference focuses on how to measure and optimize the value of research for its different stakeholders (e.g. policymakers, business and research managers).

The conference will be chaired by Douwe Breimer, Professor of Pharmacology and Past Rector Magnificus & President of Leiden University.

• More information 

Submission and contacts: Veronika Fabók (fabok.vera@essrg.hu)

Registration is now open for the international media conference held from June 17-19 in the World Conference Center Bonn, Germany. The 6th edition of the conference will center on “The Future of Growth – Economic Values and the Media.” Deutsche Welle expects around 2,000 attendees from all around the world. In 50 workshops and plenary sessions, participants will discuss the many questions arising from this year’s topic.

Registration fee for NGOs is 95,- Euro for all three days.

More Information at http://www.dw.de/global-media-forum/home/s-30956

The quarterly Living Knowledge Newsletter is now published and online.

Please have a look and enjoy.

• Download Newsletter

1-2 July 2013 in Budapest, Hungary

European funding allows the Living Knowledge Network to offer a free ‘Summer School’ to all those interested in how to potentially START to operate a Science Shop, or Community-Based Research Office. The Summer School will be in the form of interactive lectures and is facilitated by science shop coordinators with a long experience, from The Netherlands, Hungary and Romania. It will cover the basics and is not aimed at already experienced Science Shops.
Participation is free; however, you do need to cover your own travel and stay. Language: English.

• If you are interested to join, let us know before May 1st 2013 (please reply to h.a.j.mulder@rug.nl)

We are focusing this Summer School on participants from Central and Eastern Europe. For them, it is first come, first serve; places are limited, but we will set up a waiting list if necessary. You have to re-confirm your participation firmly before June 1st, because if for some reason you are not able to come (agenda change, no budget found, etc), we can give your place to the next on the waiting list. With ‘free’ events, the risk is always present that people book and then do not show up; we decided to keep it ‘free’, but clearly need your co-operation and fairness…

Participants from non-CE countries are welcome, but are placed on the waiting list first. They will be informed by May 1st regarding their participation.

Alternatives in other locations are:

• Science Shop Summer School, Copenhagen, April 7-8, 2014
• a 90 minute session and a chance to meet during breaks at the CUExpo, Corner Brook, Canada (http://cuexpo2013.ca), June 12-15, 2013.

Main organisers are:

• Dr. Henk Mulder, Science Shop, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, h.a.j.mulder@rug.nl
• Prof.dr.eng Rodica Stanescu, Intermediu Science Shop, Technical University of Bucharest, Romania, rodica_stanescu_ro@yahoo.com
• MA Bálint Balázs, ESSRG/Hungarian Science Shop, balazs.balint@essrg.

This Summer School receives funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 244264 (the PERARES project).

General information:

Science Shops provide independent, participatory research support in response to concerns expressed by civil society groups. In their interactive science communication, they cover all academic and engineering disciplines, so ‘science’ should be taken in its broadest meaning. They are also not ‘shops’ in the traditional sense of the word. Science Shops are thus small entities that carry out or mediate/facilitate research in a wide range of disciplines – usually free of charge – on behalf of (or with) citizens and civil society organisations. That Science Shops respond to civil society’s needs for expertise and knowledge is a key element that distinguishes them from other knowledge transfer mechanisms.
Science Shops are often linked to universities, so that students can conduct research as part of their curriculum with no additional costs to partners. Others, however, are not linked to a University and operate as independent entities.

The Summer School is relevant to those who would like to structure and embed community-university engagement more broadly in their local (or regional) context, or set up any form of co-operation in research with civil-society organisations. The workshop will be in the form of an interactive class. We will discuss operational options and good practices, but also challenges in running a Science Shop. We will talk about the history of Science Shops, about working with students in the curriculum, about working with researchers and working with civil society organisations. We will show how an office of a Science Shop can be organised (at university, faculty, or as independent organisation). We will elaborate on the 10 steps in the mediation process –the daily work at a Science Shop– and will explain and exercise with you how projects are set-up. We will also elaborate on funding options and partners to involve in setting up a Science Shop, and setting up national networks as part of the wider Living Knowledge Network.

There are many differences in the way science shops are organised and operate, as well as some important parallels. With the participants we will discuss the possibilities to best adapt good practices to their own local context. We will not present just one blueprint, because that does not exist. Thus, we hope for an active contribution of all participants. The Summer School addresses university leaders, research managers, professors/teachers, science policy makers, scientists, science communicators, community leaders, NGO representatives, graduate students, PhD students, and others who are interested in setting up a Science Shop or starting Community- Based Research projects.