NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH
1 November, 2021
BCN presents
Registration is now closed.
Thanks to everyone who attended for a great event!
'Nothing but the Truth'
BCN symposium on trust and truth in science
The BCN Symposium ‘Nothing but the Truth’ will be devoted to ‘truth and trust in science’, both within the scientific community (organization of science) and in the broader arena (communication of scientific findings to society). During a one-day conference, we will discuss several important topics in plenary lectures and interactive workshops by renowned experts. Confirmed speakers include John Ioannidis, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, Heather Douglas and Hanneke Hulst.
We especially invite researchers who are in early stages of their careers, and we hope that the discussions during our conference can help form basis for values and opinions carried throughout their academic path.
There is a growing debate on trust and truth in Science, both within the scientific community and in the broader public arena.
Within science, researchers are more aware of problems in the way science is organized. Controversial issues include poor reproducibility of findings, the role of the funding system and the influence of commercial interests. Moreover, there is a strong competition between scientists and journals for high impact and ‘first findings’, and such ratings are of huge importance for individual research careers.
On a societal level, people have become more sceptical of scientific facts. Politicians, opinion makers and the general public may have trouble recognizing fact from fiction, and ‘alternative facts ’ are used to support different agendas. This has been especially visible in the latest developments regarding the coronavirus, in which the public is asked to trust in the science being delivered to them in the form of containment measures or vaccines, and a growing number of people find these not trustworthy enough.