Geneva, 7 November 2003. Former French science minister Hubert Curien will be among major figures from European politics and science meeting in Bern on 13 November to launch the Forum Engelberg 2004. A press conference introduced by the chief magistrate of the canton of Obwald, Alexander Höchli, will be held at the city's Hotel Schweizerhof at 16:00.
Founded in 1989, the Forum Engelberg provides a valuable platform for science and a forum for scientists and politicians to meet. The topic of its 2004 conference, to be held in Lucerne from 1 to 4 March 2004, is "Science on the Agenda of European Politics". The conference is dedicated to the current President of the Forum, Hubert Curien, who served as France's Science Minister from 1984 to 1986 and 1988 to 1993, and is a former President of CERN1 Council.
"In today's technology and knowledge based society, it is vital that science, and scientists, play a full role in the political process", said Luciano Maiani, Director General of CERN and co-president of the Forum Engelberg 2004 conference. "This is particularly true in Europe in the light of the goal set by the European Union in Lisbon to make Europe the world's most competitive knowledge based economy by 2010."
The Forum Engelberg prides itself on being open to all. Participants at the 2004 conference will include scientists of many disciplines, industrialists, politicians and civil servants, as well as anyone concerned about the role science should play in the political process. For the programme of its 2004 conference, the Forum Engelberg has assembled an impressive array of speakers including the Directors of Europe's seven international research organisations and the European Commissioner for research, Philippe Busquin.
Journalists wishing to attend the press conference on 13 November are invited to contact Marie-Anne Heimo at ma.heimo@bluewin.ch. The press conference will be held in the Salon Français of the Hotel Schweizerhof, which is next to the railway station at Bahnhofplatz 11.
Further information
James Gillies, CERN: Tel: + 41 (0) 22 767 6333, email James.Gillies@cern.ch
Programme of the press conference 16:00-18:00 13 November 2003
Welcome
Alexander Höchli,
Chief Magistrate of the canton of Obwald
What is the FORUM ENGELBERG?
Hubert Curien,
President of the FORUM ENGELBERG
The interdisciplinary programme of FORUM ENGELBERG 2004
Luciano Maiani,
Director General of CERN,
co president of FORUM ENGELBERG 2004
The role of ethics in FORUM ENGELBERG 2004
Roger Berthouzoz OP
Grid computing
Chris Jones,
CERN
The young scientists programme
Paul Kuster and Konrade von Bremen
1. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have observer status.