The objective of Science with and for Society (SwafS) is “to build effective cooperation between science and society, to recruit new talent for science, and to pair scientific excellence with social awareness and responsibility“.
It focuses on eight areas: scientific careers, gender, the integration of society in science and innovation, formal and informal science education, the accessibility and use of research results, governance for the advancement of RRI (including ethics), due and proportional precaution, and improvement of knowledge on science communication.
The European Commission, through its DG Research & Innovation, launched an open public online consultation in April 2016 for 12 weeks to collect opinions on the strategy, scope, objectives and expected impacts of the SwafS Work Programme 2018-2020.
A total of 104 contributions were received; 90 contributions were analysed after removing duplicates and those that were received in confidence. Views representing more than 6500 organisations from a wide range of stakeholder groups (e.g. industry, academia, civil society) were thereby taken into account.
The exercise yielded a rich body of rich qualitative data, which were analysed according to the five open questions.
The European Platform of Women Scientists participated and was evaluated in this Open Consultation.