In the second webinar of the UNESCO Chair series on ‘Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development in Latin America’, Dr. Pascual Restrepo (Assistant Professor of Economics at Boston University) gave a presentation on the ‘Origins and implications of the current wave of automation technologies’. Dr. Maria Savona, Professor of Economics of Innovation at SPRU & Professor of Applied Economics at LUISS University, acted as a discussant. The semin...

During the first webinar of the UNESCO Chair series on ”Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development in Latin America”, Prof. Gabriela Dutrénit  (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, México) gave a presentation on “STI Policy, development strategy and social inclusion”. Gonzalo Rivas, Chief of the Competitiveness, Technology and Innovation Division of the Interamerican Development Bank (IADB), acted as discussant. The seminar was held ...

  As part of UNU-MERIT’s UNESCO Chair on Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development for Latin America, we proudly announce our series of webinars on Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development in Latin America. The meetings will be framed around four main challenges for STI policies in the region. These topics crucially depend on the intrinsic characteristics of the region, as well as on global trends in the changing techno-econ...

This training program will take place during October 2022 in a hybrid format, including a series of webinars and a face-to-face course in Tegucigalpa between the 24th and 26th of October. The training program is oriented toward Honduras’s high-level decision-makers, including policymakers at the national and sub-national levels, experts, scholars, representatives of unions and the private sector, who are leading and working on agendas to enhance competitiveness, productive development and ...

The 2021 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists highlights the instrumental role of prosecutorial services, in investigating and prosecuting not only killings but also threats of violence against journalists. This year’s campaign highlights the psychological trauma experienced by journalists, and stresses the need to investigate and prosecute anyone making such threats. To mark this year’s event, which coincided with the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to two inve...

Three UNU-MERIT researchers contributed to the UNESCO Science Report 2021: Luc Soete and Hugo Hollanders among others co-authored the chapter on the European Union, while Shuan Sadreghazi wrote the chapter on Iran. In a preface to the 750-page document, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored three important lessons. The first is that we are all deeply interconnected. No-one will be safe from the virus until everyone is safe. The second lesson is ...

“We must build bridges, meet the different actors working in the country by developing different forms of science communication – journalism, dissemination, education – and enrich each other from these differences.” Prof. Daniela Hirschfeld ...

For this sixth edition of our Science Reporting Workshop, Reach and Turn, we partnered with UNESCO, the City of Knowledge Foundation, and the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation — returning to Panama as a side event of the second Latin America and Caribbean Open Science Forum (CILAC). In this edition we focused on the role of academic activism, the use of social media for communicating science, and the road ahead for science communication in Latin America and global...

A guest post by Dr. Lidia Brito, UNESCO Regional Director of Science for Latin America and the Caribbean The declaration signed by the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives, meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, established the adoption of “a historic decision on a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative Goals and targets.” There, the governments that signed committed themselves to working tirelessly for the full imple...

The Dead Sea, Jordan – the lowest point on Earth, where three thousand delegates at the World Science Forum are sharing the highest of aspirations: to make sure science brings ‘real change’, and perhaps even peace. A gathering of researchers and policymakers under the patronage of Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO and King Abdullah II of Jordan, this year’s forum coincides with the COP23 Climate Change Conference in Bonn as well as World Science Day for Peace and Development – a day for h...