Our Deputy Secretary General and Chair of Task Force on Key Technologies write in Research Europe on how emerging technologies demand action from universities, funders and governments.

Our association strongly condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and is alarmed and concerned by the suffering in Ukraine. We emphasise the urgent need for promoting peace and the rule of international law, and the importance of long-term bridge building.

Our association is working together with other university associations to advance the European Research Area (ERA) in the context of the ERA Forum.

Our Board on 4 February appointed Guillermo Cisneros as Chair of the Task Force Sustainability and adopted the terms of reference of seven task forces from 2022 to 2023.

We strongly support the initiative calling for quick agreement on full UK & Swiss association with European research and innovation programmes and call upon all three governments to quickly conclude these negotiations separate from wider political debates.

Gary Paterson joins the Secretariat from February 2022 supporting as our Communication & Outreach Officer, serving as a Member of Task Force Benchmark and advising all other bodies.

Lloyd Huitson started as our new Senior Advisor for Learning & Teaching at the Secretariat on 1 February 2022 and provides support to our Task Force Learning & Teaching and Task Force Benchmark.

At the Forum of Universities for the Future of Europe organised by the French Presidency of the Council of the EU on 25 and 26 January, our Director Roberto Zanino gave an invited contribution on the transition from servicing particular interests to ensuring science and technology benefit humanity and our planet

Our association has been invited by the European Commission to be a member of the core group of the coalition on reforming research assessment.

On 24 January, CESAER, COAR and LIBER published a joint statement to call upon the EU institutions to (i) acknowledge the unique position of the public research and education sectors in the provision of digital services and infrastructure directed towards the common good and (ii) provide for an overarching legal framework which reflects the unique context of the public research and education sectors and protects the objectives of scientific knowledge and technology generation, sharing and preservation.