In June, Ecsite invited all science engagement organisations to sign an Open letter to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Carlos Moedas.
In this Open Letter, Ecsite urged the European Commission to meaningfully engage with citizen and be more ambitious on science engagement in Horizon Europe.

Thank you to the 135 Ecsite members and other non-member organisations and networks that signed our Open letter in order to make the voice of science engagement heard in the next framework programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon Europe.

[ Update: Ecsite is meeting Moedas’ Cabinet on Thursday 1 August. More about this meeting here. ]

A wide endorsement

The letter has been endorsed by 135 organisations and networks from 28 European and associated countries. These organisations are science museums and centres, universities, living labs, science shops, research organisations as well as twelve international networks, all wishing to contribute to Horizon Europe by enabling a stronger involvement of citizens. A warm thank you to all.

Through this Open letter, we are sending a strong message to the Commission: by working with science engagement organisations, the EU Commission can increase the impact and relevance of European research and innovation.

Next steps

The whole science engagement community can now help push the letter for more impact. Ecsite sent the Open letter to the European Commission through its Commissioner for Research and Innovation Carlos Moedas and requested a meeting to discuss how to best:

• Enhance European citizen’s scientific culture
• Involve stakeholders and citizens in R&I priority setting
• Make the topics of the Missions the talk of Europe.

Whether you signed the letter or not, you can now help by:

• Re-tweeting, liking or commenting on this tweet that just came out, in which we are publicly addressing the Commissioner
• Relaying the letter’s contents in your own network(s).

We will keep you informed of the delivery of the Open letter as well as our next advocacy steps regarding Horizon Europe.

More on Ecsite’s advocacy campaign

To know more about Ecsite advocacy campaign for more science engagement in Horizon Europe, read Ecsite’s Position Paper and Ecsite President Herbert Münder's column in Spokes (January 2019 issue).