Advisory Committee Sensitive Collaborations (ACSC)

The committee has started to map the existing and intended student exchange programs, research cooperations and business contracts with entities based in Israel and in Palestine. Initial results show that formalized collaborations include student exchange programs and bilateral and multilateral research collaborations (mostly in the medical field) with universities in Israel and Palestine, and business contracts with companies that are based and/or active in Israel and/or Palestine. The committee will in the upcoming months analyze in more depth each of these partnerships, based on the Framework governing the work of the committee, leading to a concrete advice for each collaboration partner.

Because of the urgency of the matter, the committee considers that there is an immediate need for provisional advice on these collaborations, to offer interim guidance to the university regarding these partnerships. While the final advice will be based on an assessment of the risk level for each partnership, this provisional advice cannot be specific for each separate collaboration. Also, the advice is limited to institutional collaboration, meaning collaboration that is based on formal decisions made by actors (at EUR and/or at partner institutions) with institutional responsibility. Collaboration between individual academics is exempt from the advice.

Considerations

1. Notwithstanding different perspectives, interpretations, and political viewpoints, it is at least clear that there is currently a situation of armed conflict in Israel-Palestine and uncertainty on when and how this conflict will end.
    
2. Based on the preliminary rulings of the International Court of Justice and broadly supported by international opinions, the committee considers that there are serious indications of human rights violations in the situation of Israel-Palestine.
    
3. In this context, specific risks of harm now exist to academic and other institutions, as well as to the staff, students, and wider communities involved in and affected by these collaborations. These risks of harm include, inter alia, safety risks, knowledge security, academic freedom, reputational risks and the risk of becoming complicit in or subject to human rights violations.
    
4. The committee recognises that the position of existing or intended academic institutional partners in Israel is different from those in Palestine, especially considering the grave damage to the academic sector in Gaza. The recommendations described below are explicitly not intended to prevent efforts at supporting the rebuilding of the academic ecosystem in Gaza.

These considerations lead to the following conclusion:

The committee deems it important to immediately apply the precautionary principle on the university's collaborations with its partner institutions: when there is risk of serious harm, effective and proportional action to prevent or abate the harm must be taken, including when there is uncertainty regarding the cause, extent and/or probability of the potential harm.

Until the committee completes its thorough identification and assessment of the various formalized partnerships, current and new collaborations should be approached with caution, by observing at least the following recommendations.

Recommendations

1. Regarding travel, the university is advised to suspend all outgoing student or staff mobility to Israel and/or Palestine as part of existing exchange or research collaboration programs.
    
2. Regarding institutional collaboration with academic partners, the university is advised to apply a moratorium on all new institutional research and exchange collaborations with partners in Israel and Palestine unless the specific new collaboration is assessed by ACSC and approved by the Executive Board or the Dean of the Faculty involved in the collaboration.
    
3. Regarding institutional collaboration with business partners, the university is advised to ask relevant existing and new collaboration partners to share a Human Rights Impact Assessment with special attention to the situation in Israel and Palestine and to report the outcome of that assessment to the ACSC. ‘Relevant’ means that there is at least a potential risk of harm as indicated in consideration 3.
    
4. Regarding individual collaboration with institutional partners, individual academics are advised not to engage in such collaboration, unless the collaboration with that partner is approved by the Dean based on advice by the ACSC. This type of collaboration includes, inter alia, participation in PhD supervision or assessment and recruitment procedures, and editorships for journals governed by universities implied in this assessment procedure. 
    
5. Regarding individual, non-institutional collaboration with individual academics, the committee gives no formal advice, as was mentioned in the introduction, but leaves this to the discretion of the individual academic. This type of collaboration includes conducting collaborative research without institutional contracts or funding, like writing a joint paper.

Further steps

1. The committee will continue its assessment of existing institutional collaborations with academic partners in Israel and Palestine and develop more specific guidance.
    
2. If doubt arises about the implementation of the abovementioned recommendations, faculties can reach out to the ACSC. Given the fact that Erasmus MC is a separate legal entity, the applicability and implementation for Erasmus MC will require further decision by Erasmus MC.
    
3. If the university or faculties decide to take further steps based on these or future recommendations by the ACSC, they are advised to carefully consider legal and contractual obligations.

Rotterdam, 23-08-2024

When it comes to institutional collaborations, the context and partnership will be examined using a set of relevant questions, sources/references, and reflective weighting. When it primarily concerns individual collaborations, the applicant or researcher is asked to use the model as a critical reflection tool to map the impact of the collaboration. A collaboration is seen as 'sensitive' when countries/regions/companies/industry/communities are involved that have to deal with national or international restrictions or can be linked to human rights violations and/or controversial social themes, or that the central values of EUR are violated.

The assessment examines what risks there are, who the partner is, what the connection with the risks is and what the effect of our actions is possible. The risk pillars focus on Human Rights, EUR core values, knowledge security and integral safety. Furthermore, the legal and reputational consequences, and the possible conditions within which the cooperation takes place, will always be considered.

With this model, both existing and future partnerships and collaborations are examined to arrive at a weighted opinion when a request has been made. This model is currently being used on the ongoing Israel-Palestine file; the ACSC has started the assessment of the current partners. Members of the EUR community are cordially invited to share available information about partners and partnerships with the committee via acsc@eur.nl. It is expressly requested that this information be provided factually and carefully substantiated with (weighted) references, and in particular information that answers the questions that have been operationalised in the model.

In line with the Framework, a substantial summary of the advice will be made public when they are definitive, unless the Executive Board will decide otherwise.