“Bridging the Gap between Science and Politics”
Third Session of the World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research
April 4-5-6, 2014
Rome – Chamber of Deputies / Capitoline Hill
under the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
the Ministry of Health and the City of Rome
Friday, April 4th
Chamber of Deputies
Opening Session
9.45am – 1pm
Chair: Roberto GIACHETTI, Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
Institutional greetings:
– Giorgio NAPOLITANO *, President of the Italian Republic
– Pietro GRASSO, President of the Senate of Italian Republic
– Ene ERGMA, President of the Estonian Parliament
– Luciano D’AMICO, Dean, University of Teramo (Italy)
Introduction:
– Charles SABINE, former war correspondent, NBC News, affected by Huntington’s disease
– Emma BONINO, former Minister for Foreign Affairs (Italy)
Presentation of the First Report on the state of freedom of research and care worldwide, in partnership with Bryant University and Bentley University (USA)
Andrea BOGGIO, Assistant Professor of Legal studies, Bryant university
Bridging the gap between science and politics.
Chair: Marco CAPPATO, World Congress Coordinator
Discussion with:
– Krista VARANTOLA, Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity, Council of Finnish Academies
– Roberto BERTOLLINI, Director, European Office, WHO
– Irina BOKOVA *, Directot-General, UNESCO
Thematic report:
– “Should We Have More Surveillance Than The USSR?”
Richard STALLMAN, software developer and software freedom activist
Afternoon Session
3pm – 7pm
DEFENDING RESEARCH FROM FUNDAMENTALIST THREATS
Chair: Giulio COSSU
Thematic reports:
– “Prohibition on drugs, prohibition on science”,
David NUTT, former advisor on drugs policy to the British Government
(Q&A on the impact of the drug prohibition on scientific research into the effects of drugs, on basic neuroscience research and on the development of new treatments for mental illnesses)
– Ann FUREDI, Director, British Pregnancy Advisory Service (about voluntary abortion)
The Courts’ way: the constitutional and supranational protection of the fundamental right to freedom of research.
Discussion with:
– “The status of the embryo at the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights”
Filomena GALLO, Secretary, Luca Coscioni Association
– María Eugenia VENEGAS, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica
– Ana Virginia CALZADA, former President, Constitutional Room of the Supreme Court of Justice (Costa Rica)
Human embryos for health and research
(session promoted by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, together with patients’ Associations)
Chair: Joep GERAEDTS, Professor of Genetics and Cell Biology, Maastricht University (Netherlands)
Discussion with:
– Luca GIANAROLI (Italy): Reproductive health and its risks
– Siladitya BHATTACHARYA (United Kingdom): The value of assisted reproduction
– Alan HANDYSIDE (United Kingdom): Why are human embryos needed for research?
– Karen SERMON (Belgium): Human embryonic stem cells and regenerative medicine
– Heidi MERTES (Belgium): The donation of human embryos for stem cell research
Saturday, April 5th
Capitoline Hill
Morning session
9.15am – 1.30pm
PROMOTING SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION OF THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS IN POLITICS
Institutional greeting:
– Ignazio MARINO, Mayor of Rome
“Contested evidence, perceptions of risk and decision-making”
Chair: Elena CATTANEO, scientist, Senator for Life (Italy)
– Catherine RHODES, Research Fellow in Science Ethics, University of Manchester
– Gilberto CORBELLINI, Professor of history of medicine, Sapienza University of Rome
– Claire DUNLOP, Senior Lecturer of Political Science, University of Exeter
– Claudio RADAELLI, Professor of Political Science, University of Bordeaux and Exeter
Thematic reports on the relationship between science and politics
Chair: Piergiorgio STRATA
– “Reforms of the Academy of Sciences and Universities in Russia: political and scientific challenges”
Askold IVANTCHIK, Research director, French National Centre for Scientific Research
– Klaus AMMANN, Professor emeritus, University of Bern (Switzerland) (about genetically modified organism)
– Jim MURRAY, Professor of Animal Science and VM:Population Health And Reproduction, University of California, Davis
– Andrea GRIGNOLIO “the influence of some relativist ideas on anti-scientific behaviours”
Proposals on how to fill the gap between science and politics
Chair: Gilberto CORBELLINI
Among those participating:
– Olivier OULLIER, Professor of Behavioural and Brain Sciences, Aix-Marseille University
– representative from the Royal Society *: presentation of the program on parliamentarians/scientists partnership
– Armando MASSARENTI *, journalist, Sole24Ore, presentation of the proposal for a Science Senate in Italy
– Fulco LANCHESTER, Director, Department of Political Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome
Afternoon Session
3pm – 7.30pm
FREE RESEARCH AND HEALTH
Thematic report:
– Oliver BRÜSTLE, Professor of Reconstructive Neurobiology, University of Bonn Medical Center
Freedom and regulation: the impact on health. Discussion with:
– Beatrice LORENZIN *, Minister of Health (Italy)
– “The new Directive on patient mobility, the European Commission’s (DG Health) actions on rare diseases”
Paola TESTORI COGGI, DG Health and Consumers, European Commission
– “Let Freedom Ring for Science: an American perspective”
Mary WOOLEY, president, Research!America
– Bernard SIEGEL, Executive Director, Genetics Policy Institute (USA)
– John COGGON, University of Southampton
– Andrea BALLABENI, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Natural and Applied sciences, Bentley University
Clinical trials: medicine’s promises and patients’ expectations: an explosive mix
Coordinated by Alison ABBOTT, Senior European Correspondent, Munich, Nature
Discussion with:
– Guido RASI – Director, European Medicines Agency
– Luca PANI, Director-General, Italian Medicines Agency
– Michele DE LUCA, Co-President, Luca Coscioni Association
– Giuseppe TESTA, Head, laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics, European Institute of Oncology
Presentation of the study on international regulation of patents
“Are patent claims really the evil for scientific research and patients’ interests?”
Amedeo SANTOSUOSSO, President, European Centre for Law, Science and New Technologies
and Carlo COLOMBO
7.30pm – 8.30pm
AN ARTISTIC REPRESENTATION OF THE BODY
Showing of the videos “An eye for an eye” and “Blindly”, by Artur ZMIJEWSKI (Poland)
Sunday, April 6th
Capitoline Hill
9.15am – 1.30pm
Chair: Marco PERDUCA, UN representative, Nonviolent Radical Party
Thematic reports:
– “The risk of a Vesuvius eruption: the certainty of it”
Giuseppe MASTROLORENZO, First Researcher, Vesuvius Observatory, National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Italy)
– “How Earth is warming and what are the consequences”
Thomas STOCKER, Co-Chair Working Group I, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
– “Home automation and digital technological revolution on disability, for the recovery of human faculties”
Christoph GUGER *
– “Neurosciences and Law”
Dennis PATTERSON, Professor of Legal Theory and Legal Philosophy, European University Institute
Science, religion, laïcité/secularism and nonviolence
– “Is there a science of morality?”
John HARRIS, Director, Institute for science, Ethics and Innovation, University of Manchester
– “Nonviolence as a tool for the promotion of Human Rights”
Ramin JAHANBEGLOO, philosopher and academic, Professor of political science, York University (Canada)
– Marco PANNELLA, Leader, Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty
– Betty WILLIAMS, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Closing debate: The road ahead
Chair: Marisa JACONI
The World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research is sponsored by the Luca Coscioni Association and the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty.
* TBC
