Danish universities stop cooperation with Russia and Belarus
Ukraine
In a joint statement, Danish universities condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and warn of a halt to research collaboration.
Brussels (Khrono): The Danish government does as the German and asks universities and colleges to stop cooperating with institutions in Russia and Belarus, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It emerges from a press release from the Minister of Education and Research Jesper Petersen.
– It will be a clear signal that aggression leads to isolation in the international community. The government condemns the actions of Russia and Belarus and supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, it is said in a statement from Petersen.
It is estimated that the call is specifically linked to institutions affiliated with the official Russia and Belarus.
This is how the universities respond
The eight universities in Denmark responded to a request to send out one joint press release in which they state that they are setting up “bilateral institutional cooperation on research, education and innovation with state actors in Russia and Belarus”.
All exchanges of students and academic staff,
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– The Danish universities condemn the Russian state’s invasion of Ukraine. It is about an unprovoked attack on a Western democracy and the fundamental values that are the foundation of modern European states, says the press release, which is signed by the eight university rectors.
Transfer Science report says Anders Bjarklev, who heads the Rector’s College and is himself the rector of the Technical University of Denmark, that they stop cooperation «with immediate effect». At the same time, he emphasizes that they have nothing outstanding with Russian and Belarusian students and employees in Denmark.
– I am happy with the order that has happened in. As universities, we are state institutions, therefore we basically follow the guidelines the politicians in the Folketing decide, he says to the newspaper.
Resolution adopted by the European Parliament
Denmark thus does as Germany. Even before the weekend, the German government asked the universities to freeze all cooperation with Russian universities.
An alliance of ten German research organizations, led by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), followed up with a statement stating that they see the invasion as an “attack on the fundamental values of freedom, democracy and self-determination, such as academic freedom and opportunities for academic cooperation. based on”.
Also in Lithuania The Minister of Education has announced that cooperation with Russian and Belarusian universities will be stopped.
In other European countries, there is an ongoing discussion about the possible consequences of the Russian invasion for education and research cooperation.
The discussion is also ongoing within the EU, where Christian Ehler from the German CDU, who is the spokesperson for the Horizon Europe framework program, has asked the EU Commission and the EU Council to cut all research links to Russia and stop payments to Russian researchers through the Horizon programs. Transfer Science report several Danish EU parliamentarians also say that they want to stop European research cooperation with Russia.
I then resolution adopted by the European Parliament on Tuesday evening, they call for “funding of all research and innovation cooperation programs with Russia supported by EU funds to be immediately blocked or withdrawn, and interregional programs suspended”.
Agreement to break cooperation
At the same time, there is disagreement about whether it is right to collaborate with Russian researchers. One of those who has questioned this is Secretary General Kurt Deketelaere of the university alliance LERU, with among others British Cambridge and Oxford, French Sorbonne, Swedish Lund University and Belgian KU Leuven as members.
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– Many of them have condemned the actions of the Russian government and president, so why should we punish them now, people and institutions who have no this conflict and do and are probably one of the last bridges we can build to Russian society and the people. , he wrote in one email to Khrono on Tuesday.
Deketeleare say they «strongly believe in research diplomacy».