ESF Presentation to Nuclear Proliferation International History Project: Roma Are University and supported by the Historical Archives of the European Union.

1. Testimony on the history of scientific cooperation in Europe
through the lens of the European Science Foundation
MA Hynes
9 May 2019, Rome

2. But what sort of lens?
We must avoid a rose tint and chromatic aberration!
Perhaps the Very Large Telescope array, since this must surely be
a pinnacle for scientific cooperation.

3. P3
Scientific Cooperation
Can there be science without cooperation?
 Almost certainly, yes. But one cannot call inquiry
science without corroboration
 Reproducibility – the essential test. By implication,
there must always be some inefficiency in research
 To cooperate, one needs to communicate share
results– and increasingly data

4. Initiated by Materials Research Society (US), European MRS, and Chinese MRS in
2006. It is currently an IUMRS supported biennial event. The aim of the Summit is to
bring together industry, university, and government representatives to discuss global
issues and solutions.
The Sixth World Materials Summit on Materials Innovation for the Global Circular
Economy and Sustainable Society, November 20-21, 2017, Strasbourg, France
http://www.esf.org/newsroom/news-and-press-releases/article/vi-world-materials-summit-report-released/
WMS-V report | Event web page
The Fourth World Materials Summit, Materials: A Key Enabling Technology for
Secure Energy & Sustainable Development, October 12-15, 2013, Strasbourg, France

5. Prof. David J.C. MacKay
Sadly, now deceased
• Model for constrained choice;
consultation with civil society
• Nuclear must be part of the mix
• Sheer energy and leadership sadly
missed
• https://www.withouthotair.com
Chief Scientific Advisor of the UK Dept. of
Energy and Climate Change September
2009 In to October 2014
Succeeded by John Loughhead,
Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy

6. P6
The Grand Tour
Fascinating how many times a great expedition
sparked the fundamental discoveries.
1799 Alexander von Humboldt “Personal Narrative of a Journey to the
Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent”
Met President Jefferson in 1804, subsequently corresponded
Some influence on Corps of Discovery Expedition Lewis and Clark?
• 1839 Darwin’s ”Journal and Remarks”
• 1848 Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Bates voyage to Brazil aboard
the Mischief
• 1904 Wallace “Man's Place in the Universe”

8. Printing had been well established, but still expensive
Drawing was still a dominant means of communicating images.

9. P9
Age of Enlightenment
Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687)
French view 1715 to 1789, from Louis XV until the Revolution
Circulated ideas through meetings at scientific academies,
Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffeehouses and in print--
books, journals, and pamphlets.
Principles: almost an exact opposite to those described by Chris
Mooney in “The Republican Brain”!
Dynamic away from received religion towards scientific
thinking.
Despite separation of Church and State, natural Philosophers
seemed to thrive in my own small island.

11. P11
Natural Philosophers prospered
• Fr. Nicholas Callan 1799 –1864 of St. Patrick’s
College, Maynooth, who developed the Maynooth
battery, manufactured in London.
• Sir William Rowan Hamilton 1805-1865, fostered to
his uncle, Rev James Hamilton, a schoolmaster and
linguist in Trim.
• John Tyndall, 1820 –1893. Early education in
Ireland, finishing school in Marburg because of the
greater development of the natural sciences there.
• George Johnstone Stoney 1826-1911, NUI Galway.

12. Maynooth
Battery
Developed by priest scientist
Nicholas Callan. He had a novel
method for determining EMF—
Alleged to have demonstrated
induction coil before Faraday

13. P13
--whereas literature seemed to demand
mobility!
• Abraham "Bram" Stoker 1847 –1912. Played rugby
with Bective Rangers.
• Oscar Wilde 1854 –1900; penury Hôtel d'Alsace!
• George Bernard Shaw 1856 –1950 “Schools and
schoolmasters were prisons and turnkeys in which
children are kept to prevent them disturbing and
chaperoning their parents.” Social Media---
Shavian
• James Joyce 1882-1941: Dubliners-Trieste, Ulysses-
Paris
• Even in my time, Edna O’Brien (December 1930) was
pilloried for her social commentary “The Country
Girls” (1960).

14. P14
Publishing dynamics-
Fascinating experiments
 Late middle ages- illuminated manuscripts
 ~1460 Gutenberg press
 1888 Kodak- simple box camera
 Resisted local at RDS and Engineers Ireland
cOAlition S with major backing
Springer Nature and ResearchGate have announced that
“full-text articles published in select Nature journals
since November 2017 will be rolled out to researchers’

15. P15
Academies
Christopher Wren
 1660 Invisible College
 1663 'The Royal Society of London for Improving
Natural Knowledge’
 'Nullius in verba' 'take nobody's word for it’, an
expression of the determination of Fellows to
withstand the domination of authority and to verify all
statements by an appeal to facts determined by
experiment.

16. P16
ESF 40 Years
European Dimension
“We have sought the ‘European dimension’ and
although I cannot yet claim we know what that fine
phrase means, there have been good reasons for
considering all these matters in a European context,”
said ESF’s first president, Sir. Brian Flowers.
Beginning, major multi-national endeavours
Quickly moved into other domains- archaeology,
geology, mathematics, social sciences, genetics---
http://40years.esf.org

17. P17
“Imagine if you look back
to medieval times, the time when the oldest European universities were
founded. In those days the most natural thing in the world was to travel,
even if it was very difficult to travel within Europe. So we had a time in
the past
when it was common for the intellectual elite to move across the whole
range of the former Roman Empire.
Since then we have split up into many nations. We have to
overcome this division not by losing our cultural differences, but
by combining them.”
Hubert Markl,
president of the Max Planck Society, 2001

18. http://40years.esf.org

19. P19
SCIENTIFIC PLATFORMS ADMINISTRATION
Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies
European Space Sciences Committee
Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee
Europlanet Society
Composed of high-level independent researchers or research managers to
provide targeted expert advice in areas of science, policy, infrastructure,
environment and society in Europe
Benefit from effective secretariats, hosting platforms and
organisational structures
 http://www.esf.org/scientific-support/scientific-platforms-administration/

20. P20
ESF MEMBER ORGANISATIONS
ESF is an independent
non-profit Association of
10 Member Organisations
• Research funding organisations
• Research performing organisations
• Academies and learned societies
in 7 countries
France
Turkey
Belgium
Serbia
 http://www.esf.org/esf/membership/
Bulgaria
Romania
Hungary

21. P21
OUR PARTNERS & CLIENTS

22. P22
EUROPEAN PROJECT COORDINATION
Current coordinated/supported EU projects
Ideas
&
Partners
Call Topic
Consortia
Project
elaboration
ProposalBudget