The first LARES 2 and fourth LARES International Science workshop was held in conjunction with the second GRM (Gravitomagnetism and Large-scale Rotation Measurement) workshop in Rome. The opening session took place in the auditorium of the Italian Space Agency, which hosted a panel discussion led by Roger Penrose (Oxford University, UK), Wei Tou Ni (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Stefano Bianchi (European Space Agency), Vahe Gurzadyan (Alikhanian National Laboratory, Yerevan, Armenia), Sergei Kopeikin (University of Missouri, USA), Claus Laemmerzahl (University of Bremen, Germany), Slava Turishev (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA), Ignazio Ciufolini (University of Salento, Italy), chaired by Richard Matzner (University of Texas at Austin, USA)