The inaugural Goethe Science Diplomacy Award was presented on June 19, 2026, during Goethe University’s Summer Reception for international guests and researchers. The award, established by the Foundation for the Promotion of International Scientific Relations at Goethe University Frankfurt, recognizes researchers whose work strengthens international cooperation, promotes academic freedom and fosters dialogue across societal, cultural and political boundaries.

An Osaka Metropolitan University researcher evaluated Japan’s Location Optimization Plan, a national compact city policy, using a quasi-experimental analysis across 1,595 SMCs from 2008 to 2022. The findings caution against one-size-fits-all compact city policies and suggest that small cities may need more selective, context-sensitive approaches, including smart-decline principles.

In a perspective published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, Colorado State University researchers describe a management approach to prevent the uptake of toxic metals in rice grains to protect human health.

Biodiversity genomics may hold the key to Europe’s nature crisis, helping identify species, monitor ecosystems and inform policy at an unmatched scale. A landmark agreement between the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA), the International Barcode of Life Europe (iBOL Europe), and the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) commits to building a coordinated European infrastructure for biodiversity genomics, manifested through the Biodiversity Genomics Europe plus (BGE+) project aimed at creating a system of shared resources, technology and data across the continent.

Two new policy briefs were developed within the SELINA project, a product of the “Derive a minimum set of key ecosystem condition indicators per ecosystem type” task, providing a framework for monitoring ecosystem pressures and recovery across the European Union. 

JMIR Publications Announces Expansion of Jisc Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Partnership, Adding Three New UK Institutions for 2026-2027