At the recent Sustainability, Research and Innovation (SRI) Congress held in Panama in June 2023, four GYA members participated in person: Nadia De León Sautú (Centro de Investigación Educativa (CIEdu), Panama), Luisa Echeverría-King (Universidad Simón Bolívar, Colombia), Alma Hernández-Mondragón (Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute , Mexico), and Sandra López-Vergès (Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies, Panama), presenting at multiple sessions.
Sandra López-Vergès and Alma Hernández-Mondragón co-led a training on the link between science and policy focused on considerations for preparing and communicating scientific evidence, with a focus on learnings from the situation during the COVID19 pandemic. Nadia De León Sautú and Luisa Echeverría-King co-led an interactive workshop on just, equitable, and inclusive science leadership organized by the Belmont Forum and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research.
Additionally, Sandra participated in a virtual panel organised by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics titled “Operationalizing sustainable development to benefit people and the plant”, in which examples of research projects with impact on sustainability in Panama and the US were presented, with the aim to identify the common points of positive examples that could be used globally. Sandra also spoke during a fireside chat featuring women in science hosted by the UK embassy.
Finally, Sandra and Nadia participated in the presentation of The Leticia Declaration, the resulting document and policy briefs on collaborative leadership for sustainable science, technology and innovation systems with social impact in Latin America and the Caribbean, emerging from the Science Leadership Programme led by the GYA in the region during this past year.
In addition to in-person participation, the GYA was represented by member Encieh Erfani (International Center for Theoretical Physics, Italy), who presented virtually in the panel “Toward an International Decade of Sciences for Sustainability” (picture attached). GYA alumna Orakanoke Phanraksa (National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thailand) also participated in the SRI2023 in Panama.
