News

Today’s academic institutions are navigating complex economic and political landscapes, demanding swift and principled action. The cornerstone of scientific inquiry and education is academic freedom—an essential right for both institutions and individuals. The Stockholm Charter for Academic Freedom was initiated and signed by young academies across the world to commit to the safeguarding the freedom of academic education, research, and dissemination.

Stockholm Charter for Academic Freedom

To meet the economic, institutional, and political challenges that academia faces, we call upon our governments and institutions for science and higher education to protect academic freedom and its attendant rights:

1. Freedom of teaching: The freedom of scholars to determine educational content, learning methods, and forms of evaluation.
2. Freedom of research: The freedom of scholars to define research questions and pursue these using the research methods of their choosing.
3. Freedom to disseminate: The freedom of scholars to engage in evidence-based communication with colleagues, scientific communities, and the wider public and to freely choose how to do so.

Safeguarding these freedoms requires:

• Protection in law;
• the availability of funding for curiosity-driven research, in parallel with other types of funding;
• sufficient resources for a functional work environment;
• a transparent, independent, and scholar-led recruitment process;
• the availability of secure and permanent employment;
• shared governance, i.e., the right of scholars to participate in the decision-making in their institutions.

We recognize that academic freedom is not absolute and comes with responsibilities, including adhering to professional and ethical standards. Academic freedom comes with an obligation to create an inclusive, collegial, and responsible academic community, conducive to curiosity and exchange.

Through this charter, we commit to a vision of a free academia.

(Cover picture courtesy of Erik Thor)