Jensen, E. A. (2020). The UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers will transform working conditions, rights and responsibilities of researchers globally. LSE Impact Blog.
While national science and innovation public policy is often in flux, truly global science policy initiatives are rare. Such a global initiative gained acceptance in November 2017 when 195 countries signed an accord at a UN conference, enshrining a long list of progressive principles for science systems globally. They re-affirmed legal commitments to guarantee scientific freedom, ensure public engagement with science, support the ‘human right to science’, establish equitable and sustainable workforces and pipelines and many other valuable standards and norms that are meant to guide science equally everywhere. They set out a scientists’ bill of rights, and agreed on scientists’ autonomy, responsibility, freedoms and minimum working conditions. These standards are now meant to apply to researchers everywhere, whether in public, private or higher education, and the expectation that science will deliver benefits to society is also prominent in the deal. The agreement includes a requirement of four-yearly checkups.
Flying largely beneath the radar until now, the UNESCO Recommendation for Science and Scientific Researchers (2017) is set to start influencing global science and innovation policy in earnest as the first round of monitoring of its implementation gets underway. If you work in research, you should read this set of principles to understand rights that have been set out on your behalf. The full 100% implementation of these principles will be a long-term work in progress in many countries, but you should understand the rights that have already been agreed.
