Learn about the 5 main topics to be addressed during the fourth edition of the CILAC Forum
On December 5, 2017, the UN proclaimed the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 with the purpose of establishing a common framework capable of guaranteeing that science fully supports the efforts of countries to achieve the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In this sense, the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azulay, has stated that:
Sustainable development is not only a long-term aspiration, it is a necessity, not only for the future of humanity itself, but also increasingly important for the present. To build a more desirable world, we need to better understand and better respect the ocean, which contains 97% of the water on earth and covers 71% of the planet's surface.
The Decade will provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lay new foundations between science and policy to strengthen ocean and coastal management for the benefit of humanity.
The Open Science movement aims to make science more open, accessible, efficient, transparent and beneficial for everyone. Driven by unprecedented advances in our digital world, the transition towards open science allows information and data from scientific products to be more accessible and more easily shared with the participation of all parties, helping to reduce the gaps that exist. both between countries and within them
On the other hand, along with these emphases, there is clear awareness about the complex emerging challenges when conceiving open science policies, with logics that often seem to conflict: financial and budgetary aspects, international law regulations combined with diversity of realities. localities, multiplicity of actors at the discussion table, gender equality in access to opportunities, innovative mechanisms to stimulate investment, and a long etcetera that should be discerned.
Beyond these challenges, the Recommendation on Open Science itself, signed by UNESCO in 2021, points out the importance of incorporating citizen and participatory science as an essential element of open science policies and practices at the national, institutional and community levels. financing, in a strategy to further deepen the link between science and society.
Open science should not only encourage greater sharing of scientific knowledge within scientific communities alone, but also promote the inclusion and sharing of academic knowledge from traditionally underrepresented or excluded groups (such as women, minorities, indigenous researchers and researchers from less favored countries and languages with few resources) and contribute to reducing inequalities in access to development, infrastructure and scientific capabilities between different countries and regions.
Our societies today carry in their internal fabric a connecting thread between the productive, scientific, technological and cultural genre, which is none other than the participation of artificial intelligence in all the daily processes of our lives.
The Artificial Intelligence is the ally that sustainable development needs to better design, execute, consult and plan the future of our planet and its sustainability. Technology like AI will help us build more efficiently, use resources sustainably, and reduce and better manage the waste we generate, among many other things.
However, there are many questions that arise from the development of these technologies, and in CILAC, we have covered this for a long time.
The Forum will be an opportunity to return to them and advance their consideration.
The space activity has always been synonymous with technological and economic progress. The economic dimension of space has existed for a long time, especially in the telecommunications sector. Of the total USD 339 billion in revenue that the global space economy had in 2016, satellite services represented 38%, and within satellite services, 82% were satellite telecommunications. From this point of view, therefore, the economy of space is not new.
However, a series of changes are taking place that suggest a substantial evolution of the economic framework. Based on the regulatory framework in the US, in recent years we have been witnessing the entry of economic agents, entrepreneurs, investors, financiers, venture capital, etc., who do not come from the space sector but who have begun to invest in attracted by its prospects for innovation and its potential for economic growth.
The entry of individuals into the space sector entails, among other things, a radically different approach to risk, a clearly relevant element in this sector. However, from this logic, when it comes to public resources, inevitably the approach to innovation and the development of new products must take into account the need to minimize risk, which translates into slower development times and higher costs.
This proposal is legitimized by the need to assume the science as another space for human development, return to life its sacred character and recognize from experience that we are essential elements of a greater system organized based on the preservation and care of life.
Science is humanity's greatest collective enterprise. It allows us to live longer and better, it takes care of our health, it provides us with medicines that cure diseases and relieve pain and suffering, it helps us get water for our basic needs - including food -, it supplies energy and makes our lives more pleasant, as it can play a role in sport, music, leisure and the latest communications technologies. Last but not least, science feeds our spirit.
Science offers solutions to the challenges of everyday life and helps us answer the great mysteries of humanity. In other words, it is one of the most important ways to access knowledge. It plays a fundamental role from which society as a whole benefits: it generates new knowledge, improves education and increases our quality of life.