The 2024 World Science Forum was held in Budapest, Hungary, from 20-23 November, where leading scientists, decision-makers from the world of politics, industry, representatives of the civil society and the media from all over the world gathered to engage in dialogue about pressing global challenges.
The GYA was widely represented among participants and speakers throughout the Forum.
Building Trust in Science: Pre-Event Workshop for ECRs
As a side event to the World Science Forum, the GYA, in collaboration with the InterAcademy Partnership, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Young Academy, hosted a capacity-building workshop for 25 early-career researchers (ECRs) from around the globe. The workshop focused on “Trust in Science” and featured dynamic discussions on the multiple stakeholders who contribute to or erode trust in science, on ethical research practices and on best practices for strengthening public confidence in science.
The workshop was facilitated by immediate past GYA Co-Chair Priscilla Kolibea Mante (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana), GYA Alumnus Tyrone Grandison (Microsoft, United States) and Biljana Gjoneska (alumna of the IAP Young Physician Leaders programme).
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Impressions from Early-Career Researcher participants
“Trust in science is a multi stakeholder effort; we need to be exercising trust in science efforts from grassroot levels at the community all the way to government levels; and we need to ensure that trust in science is something we as scientists practice, advocate and speak about openly on all platforms.”
– GYA Member Natisha Dukhi (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa)
“This workshop has given me the opportunity to reflect deeply on my own research and has inspired me to extend these reflections to my colleagues. I believe this is essential for improving the quality of our work and fostering trust in science.”
– Marianela Rodriguez (Scientist, National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), Argentina).
Research Assessment – Regional Perspectives
The GYA collaborated with the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) on a thematic session exploring world regional perspectives on reforming research assessment. Moderated by GYA member Carlo D’Ippoliti (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy), speakers – GYA Co-Chair Yensi Flores Bueso (University of Washington Seattle, United States), Lidia Borrell-Damián (Secretary General, Science Europe), Nosisa Dube (Director, South Africa National Research Foundation), Fang Xu (Professor, Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Luciana Balboa (University of Buenos Aires-CONICET, Argentina) – shared studies, current practices and reform processes related to research assessment cultures at a global level, in Europe, South Africa, China and South America, and the guiding principles of CoARA. Panelists emphasized the need for dialogue across world regions to learn from best practices in research assessment, and to better empower researchers to focus on quality research.
A detailed report on panel speaker contributions and discussion can be found here: Thematic session IV/a – Research Assessment – Regional Perspectives and Unifying Actions | Programme | World Science Forum.
GYA contributes to Closing Declaration
Priscilla Kolibea Mante (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; Immediate past GYA Co-Chair) represented the GYA on the 2024 World Science Forum Steering Committee. In this role, she spoke in the Parliamentary Session on the closing day of the Forum, advocating for the voice of science to be inclusive and diverse, and for all stakeholders to foster the participation of early-career researchers in science-policy dialogues.
The WSF was concluded with the Declaration “The science and policy interface at a time of global transformations“.
GYA Members and Alumni as invited speakers
GYA Alumna Lisa Herzog (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) spoke on the opening panel “Conceptualizing Trust in Science”. (Full report on this session here), highlighting the project she co-led with the GYA’s Trust in (Young) Scientists Working Group “Science with Society“.
GYA Alumna Clarissa Rios Rojas (United Nations, Switzerland) was a speaker at the “Ministerial roundtable – Policy for Science: Balancing Risk and Reward” (Full report here).
Speaking on alternative methods to measure wellbeing, specifically the “Years of Good Life” model, GYA Member Sibel Eker (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, The Netherlands) was part of the Thematic session “The Science of Measuring Sustainability – Going Beyond GDP” (Full report here).
GYA Alumnus Javier Garcia Martinez (University of Alicante, Spain) contributed to the Ministerial Roundtable (Full report here).
Photo galleries
Many of the photos used in this news item are attributable to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Access all World Science Forum photos in these Flickr galleries.