Annual Plenary Conferences of the Academia - Archive

Each year the Academia organises an international conference, as an integral part of the annual general meeting. These conferences aim to engage all sectional interests of the Academia and are therefore broad in scope and of a highly interdisciplinary nature.

The meetings are open to the general public and to staff and students of the hosting institution. These meetings generally attract in the region of 150 participants from across all disciplinary interests of the Academia. Papers presented at the conference, together with the text of the Erasmus lecture, are reviewed for publication in the European Review. Since 1998, the annual conferences have followed overarching themes. The topics covered in annual conferences since 1997 include th following.

• 1997: Gent - "Options for a supranational Europe?" Erasmus Lecture - Paul Crutzen. Other sessions covering: "The future of Universities?", "Postmodernity and postmodernism?", "Flemish art in a European context?", "Programmed cell death?", "Energy and natural resources for tomorrow?"
• 1998: Basel - "The impact of modern Biology on politics, culture and the economy of Europe?" Erasmus Lecture - Peter Burke. Medaille d'Or - Paul Sacher. Additional sessions covering: "Health and healing in classical antiquity?", "Neo-Darwinian concepts in the social sciences?", "Large physics facilities in biological and pharmaceutical research?", "Climate and health?", "Biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology: Macromolecular trafficking?", "Recent advances in experimental medicine?".
• 1999: Copenhagen - "The sea in the culture of Europe?". Erasmus Lecture - Raoul van Caenegem. Additional sessions covering: "Climatic Ice Cores?", "Recent advances in medicine?", "Scandinavian philosophy in the 20th century?"
• 2000: Prague - "Concepts of time?". Erasmus Lecture - Kristof Glamann. Sessions included: "Measurable time" or "experienced time". Non-theme sessions covered: "Biology and Medicine", "Linguistics", "Physics". [Archive]
• 2001: Rotterdam - "Science and language?". Erasmus Lecture - Edoardo Boncinelli. Sessions covering: "Linguistics", "Special Languages", "The language of DNA". Plus other specialist section mini symposia. [Archive]
• 2002: Lisbon - "The Sciences and the Understanding of Risk: Policies for Public Trust and Well-being". Erasmus Lecture - Harold Kroto. Sessions included: "Defining the problems", "Encounters with Risk" —a series of short surveys across disciplines and issues; "Conceptualising Risks: the state of the science/art of risk"; case studies: "Confrontation with risk"; "Public perception and participation"; "Where do we go from here?". [Archive]
• 2003: Graz - "What makes us human?". Erasmus Lecture - Carl Djerassi. Sessions covered: "Human Genetics and Social Developments", "Culture and Belief - The Essential Human?", "Cognition and Man-Earth-Cosmos". [Archive]
• 2004: Helsinki - "Europe in Change". Erasmus Lecture - Stig Strömholm. Sessions covered: "The shaping of Europe", "Turning points in European culture", "Is there a common European society?", "Building a Europe of networks". [Archive]
• 2005: Potsdam - "The Scientific and Cultural Architecture of Man in Nature". Erasmus Lecture: Pierre Léna. Sessions covered: "The impact of Einstein of European Science and Culture", "System Earth - a view from the outside", "System man - communities", "System man - individuals". [Archive]
• 2006: Budapest - "Brain, Mind & Matter". Erasmus Lecture: Bert Sakmann. Sessions covered: "The architecture of brain & matter", "Understanding the brain", "The creative mind", "The natural & the artificial". [Archive]
• 2007: Toledo - "The Dialogue of Cultures and our European Heritage - (Toledo, crucible of culture and the dawn of the renaissance)". Erasmus Lecture: Erasmus Lecture: Francisco Márquez-Villanueva. Sessions covered: "Music and Culture, History and the history of science, Medicine, pharmacology and life sciences", "Astronomy", "Mathematics and Art",  "Land-water and agriculture", "Literature". Special session on the Literature of Al Andalus. [Archive]
• 2008: Liverpool - "Promoting Global Science". Erasmus Lecture: Semir Zeki. Sessions covered: "Health is wealth-wealth is health", "Alcohol misuse and abuse", "Science Policy", "Evolution and emergence", "Liverpool and the slave trade".  [Archive]
• 2009: Naples - "Risk, Environment and Sustainable Development". Erasmus Lecture: Carlo Ginzburg. Sessions covered: "Natural Risks- Interdiscplinary perpsectives of Art, Science and Literature", "Opportunities for science, energy and sustainable development", "Risks of intellectual life in 18th-20th century Naples", "Presentations by new members from 2008", "Risks in the Marine environment", "Great Migration waves in Naples, Europe and the World". [Archive]