From suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org Sat Sep 6 12:51:35 2025 From: suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org (Suchith Anand) Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2025 12:51:35 +0100 Subject: [Responsible-digital-futures] Open Letter on REF 2029 - Research Culture Message-ID: Call To Action: UK Government, The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UKRI, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, African Union, G20 South Africa Summit 2025 , Governments of Global South countries, Commonwealth Secretariat, Universities UK, Russell Group, Association of African Universities, Association of Commonwealth Universities, Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, Vice-chancellors, leaders of professional and scientific organisations, senior university leaders, university staff , EDI leads, Higher Education stakeholders Dear colleagues It is disappointing to learn about racism in some UK work environments. Racial discrimination is illegal as per the UK law. It is a sad fact that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students are suffering racial discrimination in silence for many years in many UK universities. There is a huge pressure to hide racial discrimination under the carpet and silence colleagues who raise these issues. More than 120,000 workers from minority ethnic backgrounds have quit their jobs because of racism, suggests a landmark study that has found workplace discrimination is sapping the confidence of a large part of the UK workforce. Details at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/01/more-than-120000-workers-quit-jobs-because-of-racism-uk-study-suggests UK universities are institutionally racist, says leading vice-chancellor https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/apr/28/uk-universities-are-institutionally-racist-says-leading-vice-chancellor Black scientists say UK research is institutionally racist https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58795079 Webinar discussion: Why are there so few Black professors, and what can we do about it? https://www.gatenbysanderson.com/news/webinar-discussion-why-are-there-so-few-black-professors-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/ Nature article published on ? How UK science is failing Black researchers ? in nine stark charts" https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-04386-w/index.html More details and link to Open Letter on ?Racism in UK Universities? at https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geoforall/2024-December/006552.html I request that the UK Government, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology , UKRI, Research Funders, Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate this as it is affecting thousands of Black and minority ethnic staff and students in the UK. I am an opponent of racism in science and academia. Racial discrimination is illegal as per the UK law. All colleagues raising concerns on racial discrimination in any UK university need to be protected. I had to suffer racial discrimination for over 10 years at a UK university during my early career. I decided to share my experience so that in future other colleagues don?t have to suffer racial discrimination in any UK university. I was denied even a single promotion continuously for 10 years. I was doing excellent research, published high quality journal papers, contributed to university teaching, brought in lots of research funding for the university, established new research labs in the university and globally , supervised Masters and PhD students, served as an external PhD examiner to other UK and European universities , gave invited keynote presentations at international scientific conferences, chaired international scientific committees but I still had to suffer racial discrimination in promotions continuously for 10 years. When I finally had the courage to raise this, then the university management were doing everything to silence me and cover up. This is clear evidence of the scale of racial discrimination happening in some UK universities. I am grateful to the International Science Council for giving me the courage to share about racial discrimination that I had to suffer over 10 years during my early career at a UK university. I decided to share my experience so that in future colleagues and students don?t suffer racism. Details at https://council.science/current/blog/no-problem-is-too-big-combating-discrimination-in-geospatial-science/ Following my interview with the International Science Council , I had many Black and minority ethnic colleagues from across various universities in UK contacting me and thanking me for showing the courage to speak out against Racism. It is so sad and disappointing to hear the scale of racial discrimination experiences from Black and minority ethnic colleagues in some UK universities. It is important to talk about research culture and the Research Excellence Framework 2029. I thank the UK university community and REF 2029 community for this focus on research culture for REF 2029. Let us all work to build a healthy and thriving research system that delivers the maximum benefits for society. It is imperative to implement the recommendations outlined in the report on Creating Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Higher Education by all UK universities. More details at https://www.henley.ac.uk/news/2024/action-needed-to-dismantle-systematic-barriers-faced-by-black-academics Together, let's drive meaningful change towards a more inclusive and equitable representation in the UK academic landscape. Let us support the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion, continuing to build communities where all voices are heard, and every individual thrives. ?Be the change that you wish to see in the world.? - Mahatma Gandhi Let?s build a world beyond racism and discrimination, where we all exercise our human rights. Be a human rights champion! Best wishes Suchith Professor Suchith Anand Professor of Practice in Science Policy | Senior Adviser to Governments and International Organisations | Scientist | Global Citizen | Science Diplomacy | SDG Volunteer and Advocate https://spspa.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?username=sa1131 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org Thu Sep 18 06:38:55 2025 From: suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org (Suchith Anand) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2025 06:38:55 +0100 Subject: [Responsible-digital-futures] Fwd: Global Data Ethics and Governance Symposium - Submit abstracts by 1 September 2025 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear colleagues, Information about the Symposium and final programme have been published on the CODATA Data Ethics Task Group ( DETG) webpage at https://codata.org/initiatives/task-groups/data-ethics/global-data-ethics-and-governance-symposium/ Best wishes Suchith ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Suchith Anand Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2025 at 20:06 Subject: Global Data Ethics and Governance Symposium - Submit abstracts by 1 September 2025 To: Dear colleagues, I will appreciate your kind help to share this important conference information with your colleagues and academic networks. Details below. The Committee on Data of the International Science Council (ISC) , CODATA helps realise ISC?s vision of advancing science as a global public good. CODATA?s vision is of a world in which science is empowered to address universal challenges through the transparent, trustworthy and equitable use of data and information. CODATA?s mission is to connect data and people to advance science and improve our world. The purpose of the Data Ethics Task Group (DETG) is to provide advice to CODATA, including the International Data Policy Committee, on current data ethics issues, in areas such as scientific integrity, protection of personal data, indigenous data sovereignty, computational uses of data including AI and machine learning, and equality, diversity and inclusion. More details at https://codata.org/initiatives/task-groups/data-ethics/ CODATA Data Ethics Task Group (DETG) is organising the Global Data Ethics and Governance Symposium on 18-19 September 2025 in Durban, South Africa. We invite individual paper abstracts and panel proposals under following sub-themes: 1. Data Ethics and Scientific Integrity 2. Data Privacy 3. Data Ethics and Structural Inequities in Science 4. Ethics of Indigenous Data Governance 5. Ethical Data Stewardship and Data Colonialism 6. Data Ethics and Artificial Intelligence 7. Data Sovereignty and Intellectual Property Protection Please submit abstracts by 1 September 2025 The symposium will also introduce and launch final versions of policy briefs developed by the DETG in response to the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. Details at https://codata.org/codata-data-ethics-working-group-policy-briefs-available-for-comment-and-feedback/ Selected papers from the proceedings of the symposium will be compiled and published in a special issue of an international journal. More details at https://codata.org/call-for-abstracts-codata-global-data-ethics-governance-symposium-18-19-sept-2025-durban-south-africa/#codata Best wishes Suchith Professor Suchith Anand Professor of Practice in Science Policy | Senior Adviser to Governments and International Organisations | Scientist | Global Citizen | Science Diplomacy | SDG Volunteer and Advocate https://spspa.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?username=sa1131 https://ethicaldatainitiative.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org Thu Sep 18 16:55:19 2025 From: suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org (Suchith Anand) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2025 16:55:19 +0100 Subject: [Responsible-digital-futures] Fwd: Open Letter on REF 2029 - Research Culture In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear colleagues, There is a strong link between research integrity, research culture, and research excellence. I welcome The UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO)?s statement on the decision to pause the development of REF 2029. *?At present, the REF remains one of the few sector-wide levers capable of encouraging organisations to adopt practices that improve research outcomes. Weakening the People, Culture and Environment (PCE) element could risk sending the message that research culture is unimportant, slowing progress on initiatives already underway, and limiting further scrutiny of well-documented, systemic issues in our research system. ?* *In this context, we welcome **Research England?s announcement* * that it will undertake a new work programme during the pause ??and particularly the commitment to explore the introduction of a baseline standard of performance in research culture as a condition of funding. This approach rightly acknowledges the essential role that research culture and integrity play in underpinning high-quality research, and we look forward to its development.?? * Details at https://ukrio.org/news/ukrios-issues-statement-on-the-decision-to-pause-the-development-of-ref-2029/ https://2029.ref.ac.uk/news/pause-to-ref-2029-criteria-setting-and-publication-of-final-guidance/ Best wishes Suchith From: Suchith Anand Date: Sat, 6 Sept 2025 at 12:51 Subject: Open Letter on REF 2029 - Research Culture Call To Action: UK Government, The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UKRI, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, African Union, G20 South Africa Summit 2025 , Governments of Global South countries, Commonwealth Secretariat, Universities UK, Russell Group, Association of African Universities, Association of Commonwealth Universities, Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, Vice-chancellors, leaders of professional and scientific organisations, senior university leaders, university staff , EDI leads, Higher Education stakeholders Dear colleagues It is disappointing to learn about racism in some UK work environments. Racial discrimination is illegal as per the UK law. It is a sad fact that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students are suffering racial discrimination in silence for many years in many UK universities. There is a huge pressure to hide racial discrimination under the carpet and silence colleagues who raise these issues. More than 120,000 workers from minority ethnic backgrounds have quit their jobs because of racism, suggests a landmark study that has found workplace discrimination is sapping the confidence of a large part of the UK workforce. Details at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/01/more-than-120000-workers-quit-jobs-because-of-racism-uk-study-suggests UK universities are institutionally racist, says leading vice-chancellor https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/apr/28/uk-universities-are-institutionally-racist-says-leading-vice-chancellor Black scientists say UK research is institutionally racist https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58795079 Webinar discussion: Why are there so few Black professors, and what can we do about it? https://www.gatenbysanderson.com/news/webinar-discussion-why-are-there-so-few-black-professors-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/ Nature article published on ? How UK science is failing Black researchers ? in nine stark charts" https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-04386-w/index.html More details and link to Open Letter on ?Racism in UK Universities? at https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geoforall/2024-December/006552.html I request that the UK Government, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology , UKRI, Research Funders, Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate this as it is affecting thousands of Black and minority ethnic staff and students in the UK. I am an opponent of racism in science and academia. Racial discrimination is illegal as per the UK law. All colleagues raising concerns on racial discrimination in any UK university need to be protected. I had to suffer racial discrimination for over 10 years at a UK university during my early career. I decided to share my experience so that in future other colleagues don?t have to suffer racial discrimination in any UK university. I was denied even a single promotion continuously for 10 years. I was doing excellent research, published high quality journal papers, contributed to university teaching, brought in lots of research funding for the university, established new research labs in the university and globally , supervised Masters and PhD students, served as an external PhD examiner to other UK and European universities , gave invited keynote presentations at international scientific conferences, chaired international scientific committees but I still had to suffer racial discrimination in promotions continuously for 10 years. When I finally had the courage to raise this, then the university management were doing everything to silence me and cover up. This is clear evidence of the scale of racial discrimination happening in some UK universities. I am grateful to the International Science Council for giving me the courage to share about racial discrimination that I had to suffer over 10 years during my early career at a UK university. I decided to share my experience so that in future colleagues and students don?t suffer racism. Details at https://council.science/current/blog/no-problem-is-too-big-combating-discrimination-in-geospatial-science/ Following my interview with the International Science Council , I had many Black and minority ethnic colleagues from across various universities in UK contacting me and thanking me for showing the courage to speak out against Racism. It is so sad and disappointing to hear the scale of racial discrimination experiences from Black and minority ethnic colleagues in some UK universities. It is important to talk about research culture and the Research Excellence Framework 2029. I thank the UK university community and REF 2029 community for this focus on research culture for REF 2029. Let us all work to build a healthy and thriving research system that delivers the maximum benefits for society. It is imperative to implement the recommendations outlined in the report on Creating Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Higher Education by all UK universities. More details at https://www.henley.ac.uk/news/2024/action-needed-to-dismantle-systematic-barriers-faced-by-black-academics Together, let's drive meaningful change towards a more inclusive and equitable representation in the UK academic landscape. Let us support the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion, continuing to build communities where all voices are heard, and every individual thrives. ?Be the change that you wish to see in the world.? - Mahatma Gandhi Let?s build a world beyond racism and discrimination, where we all exercise our human rights. Be a human rights champion! Best wishes Suchith Professor Suchith Anand Professor of Practice in Science Policy | Senior Adviser to Governments and International Organisations | Scientist | Global Citizen | Science Diplomacy | SDG Volunteer and Advocate https://spspa.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?username=sa1131 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org Sun Sep 28 21:01:40 2025 From: suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org (Suchith Anand) Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2025 21:01:40 +0100 Subject: [Responsible-digital-futures] Inside the Tony Blair Institute Message-ID: Dear colleagues This article ?Inside the Tony Blair Institute? published in The New Statesman might be of interest. Details at https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/09/inside-the-tony-blair-institute In 2023, I wrote an *Open Letter on the need for UK AI Laws to protect UK citizens.* Details at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=ind2401&L=GIS-UK&O=D&P=21642 The UK Government must regulate the Big Tech to protect democracy, protect human rights and prevent corruption. Best wishes Suchith Professor Suchith Anand Professor of Practice in Science Policy | Senior Adviser to Governments and International Organisations | Scientist | Global Citizen | Science Diplomacy | SDG Volunteer and Advocate https://spspa.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?username=sa1131 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org Mon Sep 29 21:50:58 2025 From: suchith.anand at ethicaldatainitiative.org (Suchith Anand) Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2025 21:50:58 +0100 Subject: [Responsible-digital-futures] Fwd: CfP: FOR 2026 - The Future of Open Research In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear colleagues, This CfP might be of interest. Details below. Best wishes Suchith Professor Suchith Anand Professor of Practice in Science Policy | Senior Adviser to Governments and International Organisations | Scientist | Global Citizen | Science Diplomacy | SDG Volunteer and Advocate https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/43268-suchith-anand https://ethicaldatainitiative.org ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Sabina Leonelli Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 at 10:51 Subject: CfP: FOR 2026 - The Future of Open Research To: professorships.sts at sot.tum.de *Call for Papers - FOR 2026 Conference: The Future of Open Research: Reliable, Responsible, Equitable* *4-6 May 2026, Institute for Advanced Studies, Technical University of Munich* Conference URL with preliminary information and submission guidelines: https://opensciencestudies.eu/for-2026-conference/ The future of open research is uncertain. On the one hand, decades of activism and institutional support have placed the value and significance of intelligent strategies and formats for open research (and its dissemination) beyond doubt. Openness is central to the development of trustworthy, accountable, collaborative and socially engaged knowledge. On the other hand, open research measures need to be tailored to diverse research conditions around the globe and across domains, which in turn requires substantial investment, local engagement, responsiveness to the ethical and social dimensions of inquiry, and attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion. While the implementation of open science principles is certainly facilitated by ever more accessible digital technologies and training programmes, for many researchers around the world acquiring the expertise and skills to engage in open research practices remains elusive. Exposure to open research initiatives often happens as an end-user rather than as an active contributor. This is because well-resourced environments produce the tools, set the research goals, define the standards and methods, which leads to them benefitting disproportionally from the opportunities. This makes even the best-intentioned projects into opportunities for the best resourced environments (which are often in charge of producing open science tools) to impose their own understanding of research goals, standards and methods on everybody else. Therefore, without domain- and location-specific input, the risk is that open research amplifies existing inequities and discrimination in the production, use and evaluation of knowledge, thereby inflicting damage to the research system instead of the promised improvements. And this is not to mention the ongoing debates over how politically unpalatable open science may be, the extent to which open research has been appropriated by commercial entities such as large publishing companies and digital platforms, the fraught intersection between open science and artificial intelligence, and the ongoing difficulties in supporting and maintaining open research activities and tools in the long term. This conference brings together scholars, activists and policymakers to consider this challenging landscape and discuss the future of open research. Our goal is to facilitate the development of open research practices explicitly geared to serve the public interest, which involves interrogating what may constitute that ?public interest? to different audiences and in different locations around the world. A central element for our discussions will be the development of a *Munich Manifesto for Equitable Open Research*, detailing ways to utilise open research to foster reliable, responsible, and equitable forms of inquiry. A draft text of the manifesto will be circulated two weeks before the conference to all participants, and one session of the conference will be dedicated to discussing and finalising the declaration and its possible signatories. We call for contributions by researchers across all fields of knowledge including the arts and humanities, policy-makers interested in research and development, representatives of scholarly and commercial institutions involved in research, and civil society associations engaged in knowledge production. Themes may include, but not be limited to: - Historical, philosophical and social studies of open research and its implementation - Ethics and research integrity in the context of open research - Bibliometric and other data-intensive investigations of open research - The use of AI in support of socially responsive and responsible forms of open research - Legal perspectives on open research implementations across different settings - Training and capacity building for responsive and responsible open research - Infrastructures and tools supporting responsive and responsible open research - Policy-making initiatives and recommendations for equitable open research - Contributions from the arts and humanities to represent open research in alternative formats *Contributions formats* Contributions may consist of abstracts for individual papers (including by large groups of co-authors where appropriate) and posters. The conference will be single stream so we will not have the opportunity to welcome panel proposals; we ask research groups and projects to please bring together their perspective and experiences within one talk, delivered jointly by a maximum of three individuals. *Abstracts* for both papers and posters are expected to be a *maximum of* *500 words* and should be accompanied by a *description of the authors? background* of *maximum 500 words* length. When submitting your proposal, you can choose whether you wish to be considered for a talk, a poster or both. The conference language is English. Session presenters of accepted proposals are expected to register for the conference (in-person attendance). Presentations will be recorded for posting online after the conference. *Submission* *We use OxfordAbstracts as a submission system. Please submit your contributions through the link provided on the conference website by 30 September 2025 (**https://opensciencestudies.eu/for-2026-conference/* *) * *Important dates* - *Abstract submission deadline:* September 30, 2025 - *Notification of acceptance/rejection:* October 31, 2025 - *Deadline for early bird registration fees*: 31 January 2026 - *Conference date:* May 4-6, 2026, Munich, Germany *Accessibility of materials* It is expected that authors publish materials such as posters and presentation slides as well as session outcomes at least licensed as CC-BY 4.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0 on Zenodo (you may reserve a DOI before) and make it available to the Future of Open Research Community (coming soon!). Sabina Leonelli Professor of Philosophy and History of Science and Technology, Technical University of Munich Director of Ethical Data Initiative Honorary Professor of Philosophy and History of Science, University of Exeter President-Elect of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology Open Science Studies *Mail address:* School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Arcisstra?e 21, 80333 Munich, Germany -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: