Prevent, protect, rebuild: How to help crisis-hit scholars

This article is promoted by the International Science Council.

With a record number of scientists displaced around the world, how can institutions offer better support during crisis and conflict?

In 2014, scholars at the University of Mosul in Iraq were scattered throughout the region, their campus and city occupied by militants. But in the middle of this traumatic displacement, unsure whether they would ever return home, and in many cases, separated from their families, academics and students continued their work and studies.

With no permanent labs and spaces to meet, little or no financial support and facing uncertainty on all fronts, the Mosul scholars worked wherever they could – some in shipping containers in refugee camps, or at night in classrooms borrowed from other universities. Some teachers drove hundreds of kilometres every day to meet students, explained Heike Wendt, department head at the Institute of Education Research and Teacher Education at the University of Graz, Austria.

In 2022, within months of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a small group of volunteers mobilising as Science for Ukraine had already connected with more than 1,000 displaced scientists, coordinating with institutions around the world, offering safety and work.

“It was a very impromptu effort,” explained Oleksandra Ivashchenko, a Science for Ukraine coordinator and medical physicist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. “The goal was just to help people find a place to settle, so it was a mix of finding new places where they could find jobs, housing and helping them to cross the border,” she said.

“Around the world, record numbers of people have been forced to flee their homes. We estimate that this includes about 100,000 scientists,” explains Mathieu Denis, head of the International Science Council’s Centre for Science Futures. “That means robbing the world of the knowledge and expertise of the equivalent of the scientific workforce of 3-4 developed countries.”

Iraq

Wanting to show solidarity with fellow scientists, Wendt and colleagues in northern Iraq worked with Iraqi scholars to start the Rethink Education and Science in Iraq (RESI) project. The collaboration aimed to create a space for people displaced by the conflict to work as scientists again – taking back a key part of their identities, and planning a post-conflict future together.

Since the liberation of Mosul in 2017, the project has used the platform and network built during the conflict to encourage young scientists who will shape the future of Iraq’s rebuilt scientific infrastructure. More than 4,000 students and 1,000 teachers have been involved in the project, which includes annual conferences bringing together scientists and civil society to discuss the country’s urgent challenges.


Photo: University of Mosul

The project started with just €50,000 (US$53,600); now in its eighth year, institutional support has been vital to keeping it going, Wendt said.

Still, while the number of displaced scientists around the world continues to grow, there is little funding available for this type of work, and bureaucratic hurdles remain.

Grant requirements are rarely written with such urgency in mind, Wendt pointed out – most favour projects that can wait months to get off the ground. And many international and national funding streams prioritise lower-income countries, which excludes countries in conflict like Iraq and Ukraine.

Institutions need flexibility and a willingness to re-work requirements to fit the inherently risky, fluid nature of the work, she added. It would also be helpful to offer security and legal advice and other support tailored to scientists working in conflict environments.

Ukraine

By connecting with both displaced scientists and institutions looking to help, Science for Ukraine was able to suggest ways to improve the response. “Being able to collect information about the exact needs is crucial, because what we think might work is not necessarily what works,” Ivashchenko said.

For institutions, providing a clear, centralised list with opportunities and requirements can help scientists who are finding their way in new surroundings, she said. The group also helped a large jobs database tweak search settings to meet the particular needs of displaced scientists.

Much of the initial attention focused on people who had fled Ukraine – but as it became clear that the conflict would last longer, Science for Ukraine began pitching the idea of remote fellowships for scientists who stayed, keeping them connected to the global scientific community even if their own institutions were out of commission.

“For long-term conflicts like this, one of the most important aspects is sustainability – making sure that we are creating pathways to rebuild, and looking into the future,” Ivashchenko said.

Becoming proactive

In a recent paper, the International Science Council’s Centre for Science Futures (CSF) pointed to both Iraq and Ukraine as examples of why science institutions need to rethink support mechanisms for refugee and displaced scientists. “More can be done, on more fronts, by more actors,” summarised Denis.

In the paper, the CSF makes practical recommendations for how the science community can be more proactive to protect science in times of crisis, broken down into three phases: prevent and prepare, protect, and rebuild.

Preparation includes adequately funding and strengthening science infrastructure to better withstand shocks. The CSF also recommends encouraging collaboration with disaster risk and humanitarian experts, and stronger cross-border partnerships between scientists. In times of crisis, these networks can quickly pivot to the kind of life-saving work done by the Iraqi and Ukrainian projects.

Institutions and governments should also provide more funding for projects which, like RESI and Science for Ukraine, protect scientists and allow them to continue working during a crisis – which can also speed post-conflict recovery and prevent brain drain. Remote fellowships, access to digital scientific resources and conference opportunities for scientists from crisis-hit regions should also be part of a more effective response.

It’s also critical to safeguard work, including notes, archives and clinical research data, the CSF notes. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, scientists raced to back up their work with the help of colleagues overseas. Ahead of a crisis, digitising and archiving data can protect potentially irreplaceable data, and help displaced scientists maintain their work.

In the aftermath, rebuilding science infrastructure needs to be a priority – particularly because strong scientific involvement can boost overall recovery efforts, the CSF notes.

Beyond conflict and crisis, collaborative projects like RESI are also vital to understanding our greatest scientific challenges, Wendt said.

Iraq has already been deeply affected by climate change; work from researchers there can inform climate solutions around the world. Wendt’s research in education looks at structural reform, inequality and crisis response – areas where educators and students in Iraq have vital knowledge to share. “How can we ever understand it, if we don’t understand it in this context?” she asked.

“We have to solve all of the big problems for our planet in the coming years, and all of the expertise says that they can only be solved if we make sure that scientists from all parts of the world are at the table,” said Wendt. “It’s our responsibility to show solidarity, and to make sure that the voices of these colleagues and their research, knowledge and findings are heard.”






This article is promoted by the International Science Council.