This workshop is organized in the framework of Sustainability Research + Innovation Congress 2023

It will be a hybrid workshop, held in person and online. Attendance online is free of charges.

Basic sciences have an important contribution to make to the implementation of Agenda 2030. They provide essential means to meet crucial challenges such as universal access to food, energy, health coverage and communication technologies. They enable us to understand the impact of the currently 8 billion people on the planet and to act to limit, and sometimes even to reduce it: depletion of the ozone layer, climate change, depletion of natural resources, extinction of living species.

Applications of technology are easy to recognize. On the other hand, contributions of basic, curiosity-based, sciences are not well appreciated. They are nonetheless at the basis of major technological advances that stimulate innovation, as well as essential for training future professionals and for developing capacity of populations who can take part in decisions that affect their future. UNESCO is well aware of this: its Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers, revised in 2017, recalls the importance of bringing together politicians, scientists, diplomats, international organizations, entrepreneurs, and every goodwill person.

In 2022 and 2023, a consortium of 52 organizations leads the celebration of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly under the aegis of UNESCO.

During a special event organized by the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, 24th May 2023, Serbia expressed its intention to propose a resolution to promulgate an International Decade of Science for Sustainability. This proposal has been supported by several other countries.

This workshop aims to mobilize sustainability science stakeholders and other scientists from all over the world. They will be able to give their input for the building of the International Decade.

Speakers:

Michel Spiro, Chair of the Steering Committee of IYBSSD, President of IUPAP

Carlos Alvarez Pereira, Vice-President of the Club of Rome

Salvatore Aricò, CEO of the International Science Council

Nicole Redvers, Director of Indigenous and Planetary Health, co-founder and chair of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation, University of Western Ontario, Canada

Encieh Erfani, is currently a scientific consultant at ICTP, Trieste, Italy and member of the Global Young Academy

Diego Mina, researcher at the French National Institute of Research for Sustainable Development (IRD)

Cristina Caparrós, Ph.D. candidate in Conservation Medicine, Andrés Bello University, Santiago, Chile

Marielle Agbahoungbata, Coordinator of the X-TechLab,Agence de Développement de Sèmè City, Cotonou, Bénin

A full account of the workshop can be found here.