Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Call for Abstracts: International Symposium on Data Science (DSWS-2023), Japan, 11-15 December

International Symposium on Data Science (DSWS-2023) – Building an Open-Data Collaborative Network in the Asia-Oceania Area

Website: https://ds.rois.ac.jp/article/dsws_2023/ 

Deadline for Abstracts: 30 September 2023 

1st Circular/ Brochure
 
Registration and Abstract Submission

Pleased to announce that the International Symposium on Data Science (DSWS-2023) will be held in collaboration between the Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research, Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS-DS) and the Committee of International Collaborations on Data Science, Science Council of Japan (SCJ) from December 11th to 15th, 2023.

Following the online conference for DSWS-2020 held in the previous year, DSWS-2023 will be conducted in a hybrid format, combining in-person and online participation at the Science Council of Japan.

Registration and abstract submission will open on June 1st. The deadline for abstract submission is September 30th, and the registration deadline is November 30th. For more details, please visit our website below.

We look forward to the participation and presentations of many attendees.

International Symposium on Data Science (DSWS-2023)
Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Chairperson: Masaki Kanao
International Advisory Committee (IAC) Chairperson: Johnathan Kool
________________________________
Symposium Title: 

Purpose:
The symposium aims to facilitate information exchange regarding the archiving, publication, and utilization of diverse data related to social issues such as COVID-19 and various global challenges (pandemics, information proliferation, global warming, extreme weather events, regional conflicts, etc.) in the Asia-Oceania region. Discussions will focus on forming international networks related to open data in the region and establishing concrete cooperation frameworks within an international framework.

Session Themes:
– Opening session, Keynote talks
– Challenges of data systems and networks
– Open science and the FAIR principles
– Lessons learned from COVID-19 data
– Recent developments in data science
– Involvement of early career researchers and scientists
– Asia-Oceania data forum
– GEO variables and data mapping for Cold Regions
– Strategic discussion

Organizers:
– Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research (DS), Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS)
– Committee of International Collaborations on Data Science, Science Council of Japan (SCJ)

Supporters:
– National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
– Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS)
– World Data System (WDS) of the International Science Council (ISC)
– Committee on Data (CODATA) of the International Science Council (ISC)
– Science Council of Japan (SCJ)

Dates: 
December 11th (Monday) to December 15th (Friday), 2023 (On December 12th (Tuesday) afternoon, the Public Lectures (in Japanese) will be held as part of the International Symposium)

Venue:
Science Council of Japan, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo (Hybrid format: In-person sessions at the SCJ 2F Conference Room and online streaming)

Important Dates:
– Registration and Abstract submission open: 1 June 2023
– Fixing the speakers and program of the oral sessions: 31 August 2023
– Abstract submission deadline: 30 September 2023
– Programme booklet online: 1 November 2023
– Registration deadline: 30 November 2023
– Symposium date: 11-15 December 2023


Website: http://ds.rois.ac.jp/article/dsws_2023/ | 1st Circular/ Brochure | Registration and Abstract Submission

UNESCO to lead global dialogue on the ethics of neurotechnology

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PRESS RELEASE
 

UNESCO to lead global dialogue on the ethics of neurotechnology

 

Paris, 6 June – The Member States of the Executive Board of UNESCO have approved the proposal of the Director General to hold a global dialogue to develop an ethical framework for the growing and largely unregulated Neurotechnology sector, which may threaten human rights and fundamental freedoms. A first international conference will be held at UNESCO Headquarters on 13 July 2023.

 

"Neurotechnology could help solve many health issues, but it could also access and manipulate people's brains, and produce information about our identities, and our emotions. It could threaten our rights to human dignity, freedom of thought and privacy. There is an urgent need to establish a common ethical framework at the international level, as UNESCO has done for artificial intelligence," said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.

 

UNESCO's international conference, taking place on 13 July, will start exploring the immense potential of neurotechnology to solve neurological problems and mental disorders, while identifying the actions needed to address the threats it poses to human rights and fundamental freedoms. The dialogue will involve senior officials, policymakers, civil society organizations, academics and representatives of the private sector from all regions of the world.

 

Lay the foundations for a global ethical framework

 

The dialogue will also be informed by a report by UNESCO's International Bioethics Committee (IBC) on the "Ethical Issues of Neurotechnology", and a UNESCO study proposing first time evidence on the neurotechnology landscape, innovations, key actors worldwide and major trends.

 

The ultimate goal of the dialogue is to advance a better understanding of the ethical issues related to the governance of neurotechnology, informing the development of the ethical framework to be approved by 193 member states of UNESCO – similar to the way in which UNESCO established the global ethical frameworks on the human genome (1997), human genetic data (2003) and artificial intelligence (2021).

 

UNESCO's global standard on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence has been particularly effective and timely, given the latest developments related to Generative AI, the pervasiveness of AI technologies and the risks they pose to people, democracies, and jobs.  The convergence of neural data and artificial intelligence poses particular challenges, as already recognized in UNESCO's AI standard.

 

Neurotech could reduce the burden of disease…

 

Neurotechnology covers any kind of device or procedure which is designed to "access, monitor, investigate, assess, manipulate, and/or emulate the structure and function of neural systems". Neurotechnological devices range from "wearables", to non-invasive brain computer interfaces such as robotic limbs, to brain implants currently being developed with the goal of treating disabilities such as paralysis.

 

One in eight people worldwide live with a mental or neurological disorder, triggering care-related costs that account for up to a third of total health expenses in developed countries. These burdens are growing in low- and middle-income countries too. Globally these expenses are expected to grow – the number of people aged over 60 is projected to double by 2050 to 2.1 billion (WHO 2022). Neurotechnology has the vast potential to reduce the number of deaths and disabilities caused by neurological disorders, such as Epilepsy, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Stroke.

 

… but also threaten Human Rights

 

Without ethical guardrails, these technologies can pose serios risks, as brain information can be accessed and manipulated, threatening fundamental rights and fundamental freedoms, which are central to the notion of human identity, freedom of thought, privacy, and memory. In its report published in 2021, UNESCO's IBC documents these risks and proposes concrete actions to address them.

 

Neural data – which capture the individual's reactions and basic emotions – is in high demand in consumer markets. Unlike the data gathered on us by social media platforms, most neural data is generated unconsciously, therefore we cannot give our consent for its use. If sensitive data is extracted, and then falls into the wrong hands, the individual may suffer harmful consequences.

 

Brain-Computer-Interfaces (BCIs) implanted at a time during which a child or teenager is still undergoing neurodevelopment may disrupt the 'normal' maturation of the brain. It may be able to transform young minds, shaping their future identity with long-lasting, perhaps permanent, effects.

 

Memory modification techniques (MMT) may enable scientists to alter the content of a memory, reconstructing past events. For now, MMT relies on the use of drugs, but in the future it may be possible to insert chips into the brain. While this could be beneficial in the case of traumatised people, such practices can also distort an individual's sense of personal identity.

 

Risk of exacerbating global inequalities and generating new ones

 

Currently 50% of Neurotech Companies are in the US, and 35% in Europe and the UK. Because neurotechnology could usher in a new generation of 'super-humans', this would further widen the education, skills, wealth and opportunities' gap within and between countries, giving those with the most advanced technology an unfair advantage.

 
Read more
Further information about UNESCO's work on neurotechnology
 
Press contact
Clare O'Hagan, c.o-hagan@unesco.org, +33145681729
 
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Great Barrier Reef: Australia to put in place urgent safeguarding measures requested by UNESCO

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PRESS RELEASE
 

Great Barrier Reef: Australia to put in place urgent safeguarding measures requested by UNESCO

 

Paris, 6 June – UNESCO welcomes Australia's decision to implement urgent new protection measures to safeguard the Great Barrier Reef recommended by UNESCO. The measures include a ban on fishing with gillnets. The Australian government formalized its commitments in a letter addressed to Audrey Azoulay, the Director General of UNESCO this week.

 

"The Great Barrier Reef is a fragile jewel of world heritage. For many years, UNESCO has not ceased alerting the world to the risk of this site losing its universal value forever. We have proposed several concrete measures which provide a roadmap for tackling the problem. I am delighted that the dialogue between our experts and the Australian authorities has now resulted in a set of formal commitments," said Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's Director-General.

 

For many years, UNESCO has sounded the alarm on the Great Barrier Reef. In 2021, with regard to very worrying data on the reef's poor state of conservation, experts at the Organization went as far as to recommend the site was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. This warning had global resonance.

 

The fruits of a long process of discussion

 

In March 2022, a UNESCO-IUCN joint mission travelled to the Great Barrier Reef in order to examine the reef in even greater detail, and to dialogue with all the relevant actors: public sector decision-makers, scientists and non-government organizations (NGOs). In their report, the experts confirmed that due to the threats posed by pollution, over-fishing and the rise in sea temperatures, the outlook for the Great Barrier Reef was worrying.

 

UNESCO and the IUCN also emphasized that the implementation of corrective measures could significantly improve the state of conservation of the reef, listing ten precisely-defined actions the Australian authorities should take.

 

In July 2022, Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's Director-General, met with the new Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese and recalled the urgency of taking action. A discussion between UNESCO experts and the Australian authorities followed, with the aim of establishing an implementation plan for the ten priority measures including costs and timetable.

 

This process has just been completed. In a letter addressed to Audrey Azoulay, the Minister of the Environment, Tanya Plibersek announced that the urgent new measures for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef UNESCO had requested, would be carried out.

 

Key Measures

 

In the letter the Australian government committed notably to:

  • Create no-fishing zones in a third of the World Heritage site by the end of 2024, and to ban gill net fishing altogether by 2027;
  • Reach water quality improvement targets by 2025, by significantly reducing pollutant discharges from farmers and industrialists, and restoring flora and fauna in drainage basins;
  • Set successively more ambitious CO2 emissions reduction targets, in alignment with efforts to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C.

This comes in addition to the measures already announced by the Australian authorities in recent months.

 

UNESCO will closely monitor the effective implementation of these measures. The state of conservation of the Great Barrier Reef will be examined again by the World Heritage Committee at its 45th extended session (September 10-25, Saudi Arabia).

 

Press contacts

Thomas Mallard, t.mallard@unesco.org, +33 1 45 68 22 93

Lucia Iglesias, l.iglesias@unesco.org, +33 1 45 68 17 02

 
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Monday, June 5, 2023

REMINDER - UNESCO Press Conference: Three New Shipwrecks discovered in the Skerki Bank

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MEDIA ADVISORY
 
UNESCO Press Conference: Three New Shipwrecks discovered in the Skerki Ban
 

Paris, 5 June - On 8 June at 16.00 CET, UNESCO will hold a press conference at its headquarters (Paris) to present the results of the international underwater archaeological mission conducted in August and September 2022 in the banks of Skerki (Tunisia) and the Sicilian Channel (Italy) in the Mediterranean. For the first time, scientists from 8 countries on both shores of the Mediterranean studied the wrecks together, under the auspices of UNESCO, as part of a project led by Tunisia and a project led by Italy.

 
Press accreditation here
 

The international scientific mission, composed of archaeologists from Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia, aimed to document the remains of shipwrecks dating from ancient times to the 20th century using multibeam sonar to map the area, and Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROVs) to document artefacts on the sea floor.

Keith Reef on the Tunisian continental shelf is the most treacherous zone of the Skerki Bank for ships to navigate, due to its rocky elevations some of which almost reach the surface. Using multibeam sonar, the UNESCO-coordinated mission conducted the first thorough study of the ocean floor and discovered three shipwrecks one dating from between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD, and the other two from the 19th or 20th centuries. All three were previously unknown to archaeologists. On the Italian continental shelf, the goal was to document three Roman wrecks, discovered in the 1980s-2000s, in high resolution images.

During the press conference, the results of two projects conducted respectively in Tunisia and Italy will be presented by expedition researchers, and the opportunities and challenges at stake will be highlighted by Alison Faynot, UNESCO's underwater archaeologist.

The French Department of Underwater Archaeological Research (DRASSM) will also present the cutting edge resources it deployed on the mission, including the research vessel Alfred Merlin, equipped with high-tech underwater imaging and mapping equipment.

A photo exhibition and a documentary film

Following the press conference, journalists are welcome to attend these events at UNESCO Headquarters:

  • 5.15pm: press access to the exhibition featuring photographs by Angel Fitor documenting the international underwater archaeological mission.
  • 7.30pm: The preview of a documentary film on the missions produced by GEDEON Programmes in partnership with the CANAL+ Group, with CNC support.
 

Key Figures

  • 8 countries came together on this mission
  • The mission lasted 14 days
  • 20 archaeologists were on board
  • Two underwater robots were employed to survey the ocean floor: Arthur, which spent: 21 hours underwater at depths of 700-900m, and Hilarion, which spent 18 hours underwater
  • 400 hours of video footage were filmed
  • And over 20 000 photos taken
  • An area of 10 km squared was covered by multibeam, a type of sonar used to map the seabed, allowing for a high-definition survey.

More information

Press contact
Clare O'Hagan, c.o-hagan@unesco.org, +33145681729
 
UNESCO Newsroom
All our press releases
 
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Friday, June 2, 2023

Call for paper proposals: Scientific Disinformation: A Transnational Public Problem | 28 February - 1 March 2024 Quebec, Canada

Call for paper proposals:

Scientific Disinformation: A Transnational Public Problem

28 February - 1 March 2024, in Quebec, Canada
Organized by the Bell Chair of Science Journalism at Université Laval

 

From February 28 to March 1st, the Laval University in QuĂ©bec (Canada) held the international conference on "Scientific Disinformation: A Transnational Public Problem". The conference seeks to promote a debate on the emergence and visibility of scientific disinformation on the public agenda and to reveal the system of conventions of science journalism, seen as a mediator of debates and as a space for discussion where various claim-makers converge, including journalists. 

 

We invite interested researchers to submit a proposal by June 15, 2023 to one of the four conference axes: 1. The media representation of the problem of scientific disinformation; 2. The participation of journalists as claim-makers; 3. The strategies deployed by other claim-makers; and; 4. The transnational circulation of the problem of scientific disinformation

 

Proposals (300 words in Word format) can be submitted in English or French, to journalisme-scientifique.chaire@com.ulaval.ca. Please indicate on the document the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s), a title, an abstract, a list of references cited and< the axis of the Colloquium to which the proposal is related. The proposed papers must necessarily start from empirical research (corpus or field). Special attention will be given to papers that have a comparative ambition or that seek to highlight the different national configurations of the problem of scientific disinformation. Scientific journalism, doctoral students and researchers from the "Global South" are welcome to submit proposals.

The full version of the call for papers is available here


Thursday, June 1, 2023

UNESCO Press Conference: Three New Shipwrecks discovered in the Skerki Bank

6419f440e7b04a618f52b35a754fb4f1.png
 
 
MEDIA ADVISORY
 

UNESCO Press Conference: Three New Shipwrecks discovered in the Skerki Bank

 

Paris, 1 June - On 8 June at 16.00 CET, UNESCO will hold a press conference at its headquarters (Paris) to present the results of the international underwater archaeological mission conducted in August and September 2022 in the banks of Skerki (Tunisia) and the Sicilian Channel (Italy) in the Mediterranean. For the first time, scientists from 8 countries on both shores of the Mediterranean studied the wrecks together, under the auspices of UNESCO, as part of a project led by Tunisia and a project led by Italy.

 

Press accreditation here

 

The international scientific mission, composed of archaeologists from Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia, aimed to document the remains of shipwrecks dating from ancient times to the 20th century using multibeam sonar to map the area, and Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROVs) to document artefacts on the sea floor.

Keith Reef on the Tunisian continental shelf is the most treacherous zone of the Skerki Bank for ships to navigate, due to its rocky elevations some of which almost reach the surface. Using multibeam sonar, the UNESCO-coordinated mission conducted the first thorough study of the ocean floor and discovered three shipwrecks one dating from between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD, and the other two from the 19th or 20th centuries. All three were previously unknown to archaeologists. On the Italian continental shelf, the goal was to document three Roman wrecks, discovered in the 1980s-2000s, in high resolution images.

During the press conference, the results of two projects conducted respectively in Tunisia and Italy will be presented by expedition researchers, and the opportunities and challenges at stake will be highlighted by Alison Faynot, UNESCO's underwater archaeologist.

The French Department of Underwater Archaeological Research (DRASSM) will also present the cutting edge resources it deployed on the mission, including the research vessel Alfred Merlin, equipped with high-tech underwater imaging and mapping equipment.

A photo exhibition and a documentary film

Following the press conference, journalists are welcome to attend these events at UNESCO Headquarters:

  • 5.15pm: press access to the exhibition featuring photographs by Angel Fitor documenting the international underwater archaeological mission.
  • 7.30pm: The preview of a documentary film on the missions produced by GEDEON Programmes in partnership with the CANAL+ Group, with CNC support.
 

Key Figures

  • 8 countries came together on this mission
  • The mission lasted 14 days
  • 20 archaeologists were on board
  • Two underwater robots were employed to survey the ocean floor: Arthur, which spent: 21 hours underwater at depths of 700-900m, and Hilarion, which spent 18 hours underwater
  • 400 hours of video footage were filmed
  • And over 20 000 photos taken
  • An area of 10 km squared was covered by multibeam, a type of sonar used to map the seabed, allowing for a high-definition survey.

More information

 

Press contacts

Clare O'Hagan, c.o-hagan@unesco.org

Thomas Mallard, t.mallard@unesco.org

 
UNESCO Newsroom
All our press releases
 
Social media

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unesco_fr

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If you would rather not receive future communications from UNESCO, let us know by clicking here.
UNESCO, 7, place de Fontenoy, PARIS, NA FRANCE France