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SACRU Autumn School explores global right to scientific research

ACU’s Rome Campus welcomed fourteen doctoral students from nine Catholic universities around the world to explore the universal right to freedom of scientific research.

Following a successful Summer School in Portugal last year, the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (SACRU) hosted a second intensive course exclusively for PhD candidates.

The Rome Campus of Australian Catholic University, one of the founding partners of SACRU, welcomed students from seven universities in Australia, the United States of America, Portugal, Italy, Japan, Colombia, Chile and Spain for the Autumn School from 27 October to 2 November.

The unique educational experience coincided with the Jubilee of the World of Education. As part of the Jubilee celebrations, the students at the Autumn School participated in the Holy Father’s general audience on 31 October.

Co-organised by the scientific co-ordinators Dr Darren Sarisky from ACU’s Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, and Professor Paolo Gomarasca of Università Cattolica, students explored the universal right of scientists to investigate and publish scientific research without censorship or interference.

The human right to science, and the right to scientific research, is enshrined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations’ 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Scientific research is increasingly influenced by political, economic, and ethical constraints. Recent examples include the executive orders threatening the scientific freedom of American researchers.

Dr Sarisky said the students explored the meaning of freedom, the various obstacles to freedom of research that scholars encounter, and how to respond to these challenges.

ACU doctoral students Sam Weingott and Marcus de Courtenay were among the early career researchers who attended the Autumn School in Rome.

For her PhD research with ACU’s Peter Faber Business School, Sam has developed a model that integrates Artificial Intelligence into health communications, testing her theory on public health conversations around menopause.

“I chose to come to this Autumn School because freedom of research is so important in ensuring we can continue the voices of the underserved,” Sam said.

“If we allow ourselves to stop, then the power dynamics will continue to become the most prevalent in society and that is not always the best for all of society.

“We need to continue our freedom in research to enable us to explore how we can improve society ethically, in grounded and in co-designed ways.”

SACRU president Professor Isabel Capeloa Gil said the flagship study intensive continued SACRU’s commitment to train the next generation of researchers and scholars.

“We believe it is through the training of the next generation of researchers and scholars that higher education can truly bring and contribute to the flourishing of the common good in the world,” Professor Capeloa Gil said.

“Topics such as research integrity to freedom of research in a world that is highly polarised is crucial for the advancement of science, of evidence-based research, that will enable societies not to doubt science but to trust in the solutions we bring and the evidence we create.”

SACRU is an international network of Catholic universities including Australian Catholic University (Australia), Boston College (USA), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile), Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Sophia University (Japan), Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy), and Universitat Ramon Llull (Spain).