ERA Symposium in Vienna – Further development of the European Research Area

Under the motto ‘Towards Europe's Fifth Freedom’, the full-day event offered insights into current developments surrounding the European ‘ERA Act’, which is intended to introduce legally binding measures to strengthen the European Research Area for the first time. In addition, the priorities of the upcoming Austrian ERA Action Plan 2026–2028 were presented.

Special attention was paid to the thematic workshops, which addressed key areas of action for the coming years, from AI in science to the further development of research ethics.

The OeAD was represented by Petra Siegele in the session ‘Strengthening Trust in Science: Ways to enhance public participation’, in which she contributed ideas from the OeAD programmes on participatory research and science communication. 

The session focused on how to strengthen trust in scientific processes and how to actively involve citizens in research.

Participants discussed participatory formats, new methods of dialogue and ways to increase transparency and accessibility in research. The aim was to develop concrete approaches on how institutions and stakeholders can work together to contribute to open, dialogue-oriented and democratically anchored science.

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