Marseille Declaration - international cooperation in research and innovation

EU ministers for higher education, research and innovation supported coordinated approach in international cooperation.

On 8 March 2022, a conference of the EU ministers for higher education, research and innovation was held in Marseille under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The aim of the conference was to ensure a coordinated approach regarding international cooperation in these fields.

The French Presidency presented the Marseille Declaration on international cooperation in research and innovation which sets out nine values and principles shared by the Member States and the European Commission such as the freedom of scientific research, ethics and integrity and open science. It provides a framework for the future for fair, open, inclusive, participatory science that works for the common good, which will form the basis for dialogue with non-EU countries.

The delegations supported this initiative and highlighted the importance of having a basis of shared values and principles to ensure international cooperation in research, innovation and higher education that is open and founded on trust and reciprocity. In this context, they unequivocally condemned the Russian illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine as an attack on the elementary values of freedom, democracy, sovereignty and respect for international order, on which academic and scientific freedom and cooperation are based.

More information is available in the official press release.