On 24–25 June 2026, CESAER participated in the International Science & Policy Symposium 2026, held at Herrenhausen Palace (pictured above) in Hannover and organised by German U15, the Russell Group of Universities and the Volkswagen Foundation.
The symposium, held under the theme "Collaborate to innovate: advancing global research amid geopolitical challenges", brought together university leaders, researchers and policymakers to discuss how research-intensive universities can respond to geopolitical turbulence, security concerns, technological competition, pressure on public budgets and growing political scrutiny of internationalisation.
Mattias Björnmalm, Secretary General of CESAER, joined the session "Research for building a safer world: security, resilience and universities", alongside Christine Prokopf, Programme Coordinator, National Contact Point for European Security Research on behalf of BMFTR; Ursula Schröder, Director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg; and Marika Taylor, Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of Birmingham. The discussion was moderated by Geraint Rees, Vice-Provost for Research, Innovation and Global Engagement at University College London.
The panel explored how universities can contribute to security and resilience while preserving the openness, collaboration and circulation of knowledge that underpin scientific excellence.
The discussion reflected on how Europe has moved from an era of "open science, open innovation and open to the world", through "as open as possible, as closed as necessary", towards a more complex era of calibrated openness. The panel discussed that the key question for international collaboration is no longer simply whether risks exist, but rather what the risks are, where they arise and what safeguards are appropriate.
The panel explored how scientific excellence is not an abstract ideal but is created through specific excellence drivers, including the circulation of global talent, scientific knowledge, technologies, ideas and materials, enabled by international collaboration, advanced education and the ability to publish, compare, replicate and build on results. These excellence drivers enable universities to operate at the global frontier of science and technology while also providing part of the foundation for Europe's long-term security.
The discussion also recognised that defence-oriented activities operate differently by design. They require legitimate restrictions on access, information, technologies, publication, collaboration and, in some cases, people. Participants discussed the importance of ensuring that these defence logics do not unnecessarily migrate into the wider civilian research and innovation system.
The panel considered the case for maintaining a clear distinction between civilian and defence research and innovation as fundamentally an excellence argument. Weakening the mechanisms that produce scientific excellence would ultimately weaken Europe's long-term security, resilience and technological capabilities.
Björnmalm highlighted the experience of universities of science and technology that have worked across civil, dual-use and defence-oriented research and innovation for decades, and the discussion highlighted that the lesson is not to merge these domains but to strengthen each according to its purpose while building effective interfaces between them.
This requires proportionate governance across the full spectrum of research and innovation activities, from civil-focused research and innovation, through dual use, to defence-oriented activities.
The discussion reflected CESAER's spectrum principle, which calls for moving beyond binary labels and towards proportionate governance based on different degrees of defence proximity, as elaborated in the CESAER paper "Clarifying and optimising civil, dual-use and defence research and innovation in future EU funding programmes", with Björnmalm showcasing the infographic of the paper on stage during the panel discussion.
Looking ahead, the panel stressed that universities have a central role in helping Europe build a safer world. This role extends beyond defence capability to include cybersecurity, energy security, health security, climate resilience, critical technologies, democratic resilience, preparedness and crisis response.
The discussion concluded that a safer world depends on strong universities, scientific excellence and trusted international collaboration. The challenge for Europe is therefore not to choose between openness and security, but to govern them intelligently by strengthening civilian research, strengthening defence-oriented activities and building effective interfaces between them.
More information about the International Science & Policy Symposium 2026 and the programme is available from the organisers via the event website.
For more information, please contact the Secretariat.
We use both our own cookies and those of carefully selected partners we collaborate with.
Check out our detailed Cookie policy » and our Privacy policy » .