Scholars at Risk

IRPPS, together with CNR, adheres to Scholars at Risk (SAR), an international network of over 500 higher education institutions in 40 countries worldwide, which promotes academic freedom and protects scholars whose lives are in danger or whose work in research, education, and the “third mission” is severely compromised.

SAR sponsors activities related to:

– protection, by creating temporary scholarships for academics requesting protection

– advocacy, to raise awareness in civil and political society regarding cases of attacks on academic freedom in various national contexts

– research and training, on the themes of human rights, academic freedoms, academic refugees, and reception policies for researchers and students.

As part of the training activities and in order to become active within the network, the training course entitled “Guidelines for the reception of scholars at risk,” proposed and organized by the Reception and Training Working Groups of the SAR-Italy Board, is scheduled for November 10, 17, 24 and December 4, 2023. Here is the news on the CNR website with the course references, aimed at management and research staff of the central offices and individual institutes, as well as technical-administrative staff of the individual structures (departments, institutes, laboratories).

Virginia Coda Nunziante, CNR, and Stefano degli Uberti, IRPPS-CNR, are the CNR representatives for the activities that will be promoted within the network.

The experience of SAR Italy is demonstrating the utility of a national network in order to: promote relations with local, national, and international institutions/organizations, also from the perspective of the universities’ third mission; facilitate the exchange of best practices between universities and with civil society networks in the local and national territory, as well as forms of common project planning in the intervention areas indicated above; assist academics at risk during transition phases between different host universities and in their eventual return home. (SAR-Italy).