The All European Academies group is backing an appeal from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for scholars to help preserve peace and tranquillity in the region.
Published on 4 March, the academy addressed its appeal to scientists plus all citizens of Ukraine and Russia.
It calls on the nation’s scholars to unite in efforts to prevent further bloodshed and the country’s possible break-up. All Ukrainian scientists, regardless of their location within the Ukraine, should work for the goal of a peaceful, Ukrainian nation which respects its citizens rights and freedoms, the appeal states.
The Ukrainian academy also urges Russian scholar and members of the equivalent Russian Academy of Sciences, to “do everything possible for peaceful settlement of the situation”, and asks the “worldwide academic community to take all the necessary efforts to preserve [the] peace and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
The Ukrainian academy is a member of Allea, an alliance of European science and humanities academies, which on 6 March came out in support of the appeal, distributing it across its membership. Allea has encouraged academies throughout Europe to “undertake whatever seems feasible in support of academic freedom and autonomy in Ukraine”.
The Ukrainian appeal was signed by the academy’s president, Borys Paton, who is also an academician of the RAS. The document’s other signatories include three vice-presidents of NASU who are also RAS foreign members.
The European Commission stressed in an announcement on 6 March that over 4,000 Ukrainians are likely to participate in the latest round of the Erasmus+ student scheme, under which staff will also receive grants for training and teaching opportunities outside of the Ukraine. It emphasised that researchers in the country are eligible to apply for research grants through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions.