ERC Annual Conference 2023: Research on Diversity & Diversity in Frontier Research

ERC Annual Conference 2023: Research on Diversity & Diversity in Frontier Research

28 November 2023, 08:30 - 18:00 CET (Online)

Language: English

Register here

There is growing awareness of the need to acknowledge and accommodate diversity in our societies and in science. To fully understand the world we live in and to foster inclusive and fair societies, we need to take into account the plurality of perspectives and life experiences that exist. In the same vein, for science to be excellent, research designs must be able to capture and represent the diversity of the phenomena that are studied. Research that overlooks these risks leading to partial, misrepresentative or inaccurate results and to the misapplication of its findings. Likewise, technological applications are likely to benefit greatly from the participation of people with different backgrounds and needs to ensure a broad and inclusive application and use of these.

8.30 – 9.00 | Registration

9.00 – 9.15 | Opening address by Commissioner (tbc)

9.15 – 9.25 | Introduction by Maria Leptin, ERC President

9.25 – 10.20 | Keynote: The Female Turn: How Evolutionary Science Shifted Perceptions About Females

• Malin Ah-King, Stockholm University, SE

10.20 – 10.40 | Coffee break 

10.40 – 12.10 | Session I: Diversity in Health Research

Moderator

• Geneviève Almouzni, ERC Scientific Council Member, Chair of the Gender & Diversity Issues Working Group

Rapporteur

• Philippe Cupers, Head of Unit Life Sciences, ERCEA

Speakers

• Social inequalities in health: an intersectional approach, Pierre-Yves Geoffard, CNRS, FR
• Molecular insights in “real-life” immunology, Maria Yazdanbakhsh, Leiden University, NL
• Hypertension in African migrants: Lessons learnt from the RODAM study, Charles Agyemang, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, NL
• ECAP: Genetic/epigenetic basis of ethnic differences in cancer predisposition, Gian-Paolo Dotto, University of Lausanne (UNIL) ,CH, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), CH, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, US
   

12.10 - 13.10 | Lunch

13.10 – 14.40 | Session 2: Diversity from a Technological and Legal Perspective

Moderator

• Tom Henzinger, Member of the ERC Scientific Council

Rapporteur

• Alejandro Martin Hobdey, Head of Unit Physical Sciences and Engineering, ERCEA

Speakers

• Diversity in the Machine Learning Age, Louise Amoore, Durham University, UK
• Improving Decision Making with Machine Learning, Fairly, Manuel Gomez Rodriguez, Max Planck Institute, DE
• Reflections on Doing Disability Inclusive Research – in the Context of the Accessibility of Streets, Anna Lawson, University of Leeds, UK
• Diversity in Body Representation for Neuroprosthetics, Giovanni Di Pino, University of Rome, IT
   

14.40 – 15.10 | Coffee break

15.10 – 16.40 | Session 3: Perceptions of Diversity

Moderator

• Harriet Bulkeley, Member of the ERC Scientific Council

Rapporteur

• Lino Paula, Head of Unit Social Sciences and Humanities, ERCEA

Speakers

• Tracing Queer Citizenship over Time: older LGBTI+ lived experiences in Southern Europe, Ana Cristina Santos, University of Coimbra, PT
• NEUROEPIGENETHICS: investigating neurodiversity in a neuromixed research group, Kristien Hens, University of Antwerp, BE
• CEC - The Cognitive-Ecological Challenge of Diversity, Hans Alves, University of Bochum, DE
• Coexistence and conflict in the age of complexity, Eeva Puumala, Tampere University, FI
   

16.40 – 17.45 | Session 4: Roundtable: The Importance of Diversity in Research

Moderator

• Angela Liberatore, Head of Scientific Management Department, ERCEA

Speakers

• Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
• Gian-Paolo Dotto, University of Lausanne (UNIL), CH, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), CH, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, US
• Emilia Gómez, Joint Research Centre (European Commission) & Pompeu Fabra University, ES
• Anna Lawson, University of Leeds, UK
• Marc Lemaitre, Director-General for Research & Innovation, European Commission
• Ana Cristina Santos, University of Coimbra, PT
   

17.45 – 18.00 | Concluding remarks

• Commissioner (tbc)
• Geneviève Almouzni, ERC Scientific Council Member, Chair of the Gender & Diversity Issues Working Group