High-level speakers say academic freedom and faster decision making are key to Europe's research strength

High-level speakers at a science and research policy event have stressed the importance of defending the principle of academic freedom for ensuring continued European leadership in research performance.

Ekaterina Zahararieva, European Commissioner for startups, research and innovation, said that protecting academic freedom has been a priority for the Commission as it has been drafting a proposal on creating a European Research Area (ERA) Act.

Commenting on the proposal, which aims to create a fifth EU fundamental freedom, the freedom to carry out research across the Union’s 27 member states, Zaharieva said that the time had come to “enshrine freedom of research in European law”.

She said that the Commission was determined to protect academic freedom to extend the logic of the four freedoms to the knowledge economy. “If we want to keep scientists here [in Europe], we have to let them move freely [throughout the EU],” she said.

Zaharieva was speaking at an event "Towards the European Fifth Freedom and Global Competition: Voice from Science", organised by the European Research Council…