The Euroscience Open Forum 2012 took place at the Convention Centre Dublin and was officially opened by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. More than 500 speakers addressed over 150 science, careers and business-to-business sessions. The opening ceremony also featured the first keynote address of the conference by Nobel Laureate Jules Hoffmann entitled From Insects to Mammals, reflections on a European journey through basic research on immune defences. During the four days of the Forum, leading scientists, policy makers, business leaders and the general public from around the world came together to discuss new discoveries and debate the direction that scientific research is taking designed to strengthen the links between science and society. The conference covered all of the current major global scientific challenges, including health, food, genetics and climate change.
The National Technical Library in cooperation with the Czech Technical University and Instutute of Chemical Technology in Prague cosponsored the international conference Knowledge, Research and Education on September 8-9, 2011. Research metrics was the topic of this meeting. Organizers sought to draw attention to the often controversial mechanisms for evaluating the results of research and their subsequent impact on its continued financing and institutional support. The conference brought together university dignitaries, senior members of the faculties, library staff and representatives of the publishing industry for the purpose of facilitating discussion of research trends and policies that inform their respective fields of interest shared by all. One of the key lectures was given by the co-Director of CERGE-EI Štěpán Jurajda. He reviewed currend evidence of the productivity of Czech science (by field) based on bibliometric data, pointed to typical mistakes made in recent evaluation exercises and analyses, illustrated these by using examples typically drawn from social sciences, and offered a few tentative bibliometric facts. and Luděk Svoboda.
This issue includes an article on the 20th anniversary of Alexander von Humboldt Club of the Czech Republic. The mission of the club is to maintain contacts between scientific institutions and researchers in the Czech Republic and Germany and to provide information about the Humboldt scholarhip. Alexander von Huumboldt (1969-1859) was a German naturalist and explorer. His work on botanical geography was the foundation for the field of biogeography. After his death, his colleagues created the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to continue von Humboldt's support of young scientists. The foundation plays an important role in attracting foreign researchers to work in Germany and anables German researchers to work abroad for specific periods of time. and Ivan Pfeifer.