our history and mission

Context

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in issues surrounding slow science and academic activism. In 2012, a Slow Science workshop was organized at VUB, resulting in a yearly doctoral school course ‘What does it mean to be a researcher in 21st century academia?’ organized by several Flemish universities. The next year the ‘Actiegroep Hoger Onderwijs’ launched its website and a series of op-ed articles in mainstream newspapers. Since then, many other initiatives such as the Désexcellence group at ULB or the Women’s strike at Ugent have been established as well.

Aim

It is our aim to strengthen these existing networks as well as to establish new (Belgian and international) networks between people who would like to be involved in a number of initiatives related to slow science and activism, no matter if you work/study at a university or university college, or if you are a student, teacher, researcher or technical staff. We also want to collect all information on events, initiatives and developments on slow science in an interactive website and create email lists in order to involve as many interested people as possible.

Activities

At this moment, we focus on two main activities:

  • A yearly doctoral school course ‘What does it mean to be a researcher in 21st century academia?’: this is an initiative of various scholars, covering numerous fields and affiliated with the different Flemish universities. It aims at stimulating the debate on academia’s future among early career scholars. More information can be found here.
  • Building a platform where different members of the academic community can get in touch with each other. On our website, we aim to collect all information on events and initiatives related to slow science, we will keep you up to date about fresh publications and relevant activities, and we are creating email lists in order to involve as many interested people as possible. You can subscribe to the email lists of your choice here, or via our contact page.

With your help, we hope to further develop a slow science platform and network.