Science Feedback invited to chair panel session at this year’s EU DisinfoLab Conference

Flora Teoh, senior science editor at Science Feedback, chaired the panel discussion “Science in Danger” at this year’s EU DisinfoLab conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which took place on 15 October 2025. Joining the panel were Dr. Jennifer Jones, Director of the Center for Science and Democracy from the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Adriana Lamačková, Associate Director for National Legal Strategies in Europe, from the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The discussion shed light on the risks to individuals and society when evidence-based discourse and policy-making are suppressed in the service of authoritarians and ideologues. Jones highlighted how attacks on science skyrocketed after U.S. President Donald Trump came into office: scientists fired and research funding stripped, potentially setting back scientific progress for decades.

But Europe is not immune to the same disregard for science, something that Lamačkova highlighted using the issue of abortion: across Europe, so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” target vulnerable women with inaccurate information about abortion under the guise of counseling, designed to influence decision-making and obstruct abortion access.

How to move forward? Both panelists described multiple approaches. Lamačková highlighted the importance of supporting the dissemination of evidence-based information, whether it is through protecting healthcare providers from intimidation and harassment or public campaigns to counter abortion misinformation. And Jones underscored the importance of getting all members across civil society on board when it comes to coordinating responses to attacks on scientists and scientific institutions, as well as holding policymakers accountable.

In summary, the session illustrated how we have much to lose if attacks on science continue to chip away at evidence-based policymaking. Science is integral to protecting people and planet, whether it is about ensuring the cleanliness of the air we breathe, the safety of the food we eat, the decisions we make about our bodies—and on a grander scale, the liveability of the future climate for our children and the generations that come after them. We need to stand together with science if these efforts are to continue.