From the European Framework for Science Diplomacy to Practice: a roadmap for research organisations
As part of our effort to highlight perspectives from the EU Science Diplomacy Alliance community, we are sharing a recent reflection by Jadranka Jezersek Turnes from our new member Kontekst Institute on implementing the European Framework for Science Diplomacy at organisational level:
The European Framework for Science Diplomacy (2025) signalled a shift: science diplomacy is no longer a “nice-to-have” narrative, but a policy-relevant capability that requires institutional capacity, governance, and alignment with a changing geopolitical environment. Building on this, Jadranka’s recent MINIB policy review translates the Framework into an organisation-level implementation architecture and a staged roadmap that research organisations can actually use.
The core message is straightforward: if science diplomacy remains informal, person-dependent, and project-by-project, it will not survive political cycles, staff turnover, or rising research-security pressures. The roadmap therefore proposes three building blocks—capability stack, governance blueprint, and monitoring–evaluation–learning (MEL) routines. The roadmap also set and a four-stage pathway that research organisations could follow by implementing science diplomacy activities or tools: Design → Embed → Routinise → Scale.
This policy review adapted for research organisations and universities comes as a toolkit at a timely moment, as the European Commission has just presented a new set of measures to strengthen Europe’s international engagement through research and innovation, including a proposal for a Council recommendation on an EU framework for science diplomacy, alongside initiatives on research security. (Research and innovation)
For the Science Diplomacy community, the author puts forward the following question: How do we help Member States and research organisations move from high-level principles to repeatable implementation—with clear mandates, role clarity, responsible openness/security governance, and learning systems that make practice cumulative rather than episodic?