CSSP organises Online Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Jacob Thoamas | 26 February at 4pm

Watch Live: https://www.facebook.com/officialjnu/live

UNESCO calls for COVID-19 vaccines to be considered a global public good

UNESCO Press Release No.2021-16

UNESCO calls for COVID-19 vaccines to be considered a global public good

Paris, 24 February — UNESCO's International Bioethics Committee (IBC) and the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) have called for a change of course in current COVID-19 vaccination strategies, urging that vaccines be treated as a global public good to ensure they are made equitably available in all countries, and not only to those who bid the highest for these vaccines. Both committees have a long track record in providing ethical guidance on sensitive issues*.

The statement was presented during an online event on 24 February, which gathered UNESCO's ethics bodies together with Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University.

"When vaccination campaigns were announced across the globe, the world breathed a sigh of relief," said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. "Without solidarity, we are far from achieving this goal, and over 130 countries have yet to receive a single dose and the most vulnerable, so far, are not protected." 

While some advanced countries have secured enough vaccines to protect their entire population two, three or five times over, the global south is being left behind. As things stand today, the inhabitants of many developing countries will not have access to vaccines until well into 2022. The latest announcements by the G7 are welcome, but they need to be translated into effective delivery of vaccines in developing countries.

"We will not end the pandemic anywhere until we end it everywhere, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Ultimately vaccine equity is not just the right thing to do, it is the best way to control the pandemic, restore confidence and reboot the global economy. So, I welcome the UNESCO ethics commissions' statement on vaccine equity and solidarity. It is very timely. (...) Together we can end the pandemic!"

Professor Sachs called on the IMF to allow for developing countries to draw on Special Drawing Rights to finance the development of vaccines, adding that developed countries should show more solidarity and contribute to funding the COVAX facility. "It is a tiny fraction of the trillions that have been spent in addressing the pandemic. But it is the last mile to ensure that COVID-19 goes away effectively," said Professor Sachs.

The IBC-COMEST Statement stresses three key messages:

Firstly, pharmaceutical industries have a responsibility to share the intellectual property acquired with government support to enable manufacturers in all countries to provide access to vaccines for all, which should be considered a global public good. The IBC and COMEST also stress the responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry to invest in factories capable of producing vaccines of the highest possible efficacy and facilitating rapid distribution where needed.

Secondly, the IBC and COMEST say that the vaccine's benefit to the greatest number of people cannot be considered the sole ethical criterion. Equality, equity, protection from vulnerability, reciprocity and the best interests of children must also be taken into account. Furthermore, decisions on fair distribution and prioritization should be based on the advice of a multidisciplinary group of experts in bioethics, law, economics, and sociology, together with scientists.

Thirdly, the IBC and COMEST consider that vaccination strategies should be based on a non-compulsory, non-punitive model, grounded in information and education, including dialogue with people who may be hesitant about vaccination or hostile to it. Refusing to be vaccinated should not affect the individual's fundamental rights, specifically his or her right to access healthcare or employment. 

Other issues the statement covers include: international cooperation across all different sectors working on COVID-19 to share the benefits of research; the sustainability issues that favour the emergence of zoonotic diseases; trust in science and healthcare authorities; the indispensable need for dialogue between science, ethics, politics and civil society.

****

*UNESCO has a long track record of providing ethical guidance on sensitive subjects, including the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights and the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights.

****

The full statement can be accessed here:

https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375608

 

Media contact: Roni Amelan, r.amelan@unesco.org

 

 

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

ISC Roundtable "What does 'Transformation(s) to Sustainability' mean today? 4 March at 7:30pm IST

Roundtable: What does 'Transformation(s) to Sustainability' mean today?

Thursday, 4 March at 7:30-8:30 pm IST (15h–16h CET)

 

The Transformations to Sustainability programme (a joint initiative of the International Science Council, the Belmont Forum and the NORFACE network) invites you to an in-depth discussion of some of the critical questions for research on transformations to sustainability in early 2021. Three leading scholars and practitioners – Ulrich Brand, Cheikh Mbow and Karen O'Brien – will be led by Susanne Moser in a discussion of vital questions such as:

 

·         What, if anything, is the COVID-19 pandemic teaching us about 'transformation' and 'transformative research'?

·         What are the minimum elements of a definition/conceptualization of transformation (to sustainability)? What can and should we agree on?

·         How do we recognize transformation and distinguish it from other kinds of change, particularly as it is happening?

·         When is research itself transformative?

 

Find out more and register here: https://t2sresearch.org/event/roundtable-what-does-transformations-to-sustainability-mean-today/

 

------------------------------------
Sarah Moore | Science Officer
International Science Council (ISC)
sarah.moore[@]council.science | www.council.science

Paris, France

 

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter  Join the ISC community

Follow us on Twitter @ISC | Like us on Facebook InternationalScience

All staff at the ISC headquarters are currently working remotely in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, and are reachable via email. Read a message from Daya Reddy, ISC President, and Heide Hackmann, ISC CEO, on how the international scientific community is responding.

Just Released "India Innovation Index 2020" by NITI Aayog

Just Released

India Innovation Index 2020. New Delhi: NITI Aayog, 2021. 

NITI Aayog has released India Innovation Index 2020. The 2020 edition of the index builds upon its maiden edition with new indicators for a more robust assessment of the innovation ecosystem.

Download Full-Text PDF | Download India Innovation Index 2019

Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) 2021-23

Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF)
MGNF is a Certificate Program in Public Policy and Management offered by IIMs. It has been designed at the initiative of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India (GoI) and implemented in collaboration with State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs).

How to apply: The application window for 2021-23 admissions is now open. Application window open till March 27, 2021. 

Further Details

Just Released "Science Diplomacy Review", 2(3) Issue

Science Diplomacy Review

Vol. 2(3) | November 2020

Table of Contents
Articles

• Health, Science and Diplomacy: Necessity in Epidemic Times – A Cuban Perspective | Danev Ricardo Pérez Valerino, Victoriano Gustavo Sierra González and Sergio Jorge Pastrana
• Indian Innovation Diplomacy: Choices, Challenges and Way Ahead | Suryesh K. Namdeo and Jenice Jean Goveas
• Rural Eco-Hydrological Issues in Indonesia | Muhammad Yunus Zulkifli

Perspectives

• UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science: An Upcoming Milestone in Global Science | Anup Kumar Das
• AYUSH and its Significance in Health Diplomacy | Abha Arya
• Gender Perspective in Science Diplomacy | Jyoti Sharma, Sanjeev Kumar Varshney and Prasad KDV Yarlagadda
• European Union's Horizon Europe Moves Ahead | Bhaskar Balakrishnan

Note on Institutions in Science Diplomacy

• American Association for the Advancement of Science – Center for Science Diplomacy | Sneha Sinha

Report Review

• Global Biodiversity Outlook 5: Report by UNEP CBD on Appraisal of 10 Years of Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020) and Aichi Biodiversity Targets | Amit Kumar

Book Review

• Emerging Technologies for Economic Development | Kapil Patil

Download OA PDF | Read Back Issues

Indialics Public Lecture on Draft STIP 2020 | 18 February 2021

Indialics Public Lecture on Draft STIP 2020 | 18 February 2021

CfPs: "Legal Issues in the Digital Age", ISSN 2713-2749

"Legal Issues in the Digital Age", ISSN 2713-2749

"Legal Issues in the Digital Age" Journal is an academic quarterly open access e-publication which provides a comprehensive analysis of law in the digital world. The journal is international in scope, and the primary objective of the journal is to address the legal issues of the continually evolving nature of digital technological advances and the necessarily immediate responses to such developments.
The Digital Age represents an era of Information Technology and Information Communication Technology which is creating a reliable infrastructure to the society, taking the nations towards higher level through efficient production and digital data. But the digital world exposes loopholes in the current law and expects legal solutions.
The Journal dedicated to providing a platform for the development of novel and analytical thinking among students, academicians and legal practitioners. The Journal encourages deliberations on the subjects of interdisciplinary nature, and it includes the intersection of law, technology, industry and policies involved in the field  around the world.
The Journal is a highly professional, double-blind refereed journal and authoritative source of information in the field of IT, ICT, Cyber related policy and law.
Authors are invited to submit papers covering their state-of-the-art research addressing regulation issues in the digital environment. The editors encourage theoretical and comparative approaches, as well as accounts from the legal perspectives of different countries.
The journal has been published by the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow since 2020.

Call for Papers
Dear Friends,
The Editorial Board is delighted to share with you a call for articles  for the new journal "Legal Issues in the Digital Age". Please send your contributions to our email: lawjournal@hse.ru.
Feel free to get in touch for additional information.
With kind regards,
Editorial Board, "Legal Issues in the Digital Age"

Author Guidelines | Current Issue

L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards honour five women researchers in mathematics, astrophysics, chemistry and informatics

UNESCO Press Release No.2021-13

L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards honour five women researchers in mathematics, astrophysics, chemistry and informatics 

Paris, 11 February — On the International Day for Women and Girls in Science, celebrated on 11 February, UNESCO and the L'Oréal Foundation honoured five women researchers in the fields of astrophysics, mathematics, chemistry and informatics as part of the 23^rd International Prize for Women in Science. 

On this occasion, UNESCO published a global study on gender equality in scientific research. Entitled To be smart, the digital revolution will need to be inclusive, it shows that although the number of women in scientific research has risen to one in three, women remain a minority in mathematics, computer science, engineering and artificial intelligence. Every year, women write as many scientific articles as men, but their chances of appearing in prestigious journals are lower. While women represent 33% of researchers, on average they only occupy 12% of seats on national science academies around the world.

"It is not enough to attract women to a scientific or technological discipline. We must also know how to retain them, ensuring that their careers are not strewn with obstacles and that their achievements are recognized and supported by the international scientific community," says Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant UNESCO Director-General for Natural Sciences. 

Alexandra Palt, head of the L'Oréal Foundation, points out that "The 'invisibilization' of women in science is still too significant. Today, less than 4% of the scientific Nobel Prizes have been awarded to women and the glass ceiling still persists in research. While the gender imbalance remains in science, we will never be able to meet the challenges of an inclusive society or to tackle the scientific issues the world is facing."

Laureates of 23^rd L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards (€100,000 each)

Africa and Arab States

Professor Catherine Ngila – Chemistry. Acting Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences, Former Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic and Student Affairs (DVC-AA) at Riara University, Kenya, and Visiting Professor of Applied Chemistry at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Recognized for introducing, developing and applying nanotechnology-based analytical methods to monitor water pollutants. Her innovative work is of vital importance for the development of water resource management in an environmentally sustainable way.

Asia and the Pacific

Professor Kyoko Nozaki – Chemistry. Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo, Japan. Recognized for her pioneering, creative contributions within the field of synthetic chemistry, and their importance to industrial innovation. Her research has led to new, highly effective and environmentally friendly production processes to manufacture molecules useful for medicine and sustainable agriculture. 

 

North America

Professor Shafi Goldwasser – Computer Science. Director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California Berkeley, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, USA, and Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Weizmann Institute, Israel. Recognized for her pioneering and fundamental work in computer science and cryptography, essential for secure communication over the internet as well as for shared computation on private data. Her research has a significant impact on our understanding of large classes of problems for which computers cannot efficiently find even approximate solutions.

Europe

Professor Françoise Combes – Astrophysics. Professor, Chair of Galaxies and Cosmology, Collège de France, since 2014 and astronomer at the Paris Observatory - PSL, France. Recognized for her outstanding contribution to astrophysics which ranges from the discovery of molecules in interstellar space to supercomputer simulations of galaxy formation. Her work has been crucial to our understanding of the birth and evolution of stars and galaxies, including the role played by supermassive black holes in galactic centers. 

Latin America and the Caribbean

Professor Alicia DICKENSEIN – – Mathematics. Professor of Mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Recognized for her outstanding contributions at the forefront of mathematical innovation by leveraging algebraic geometry in the field of molecular biology. Her research enables scientists to understand the structures and behaviour of cells and molecules, even on a microscopic scale. Operating at the frontier between pure and applied mathematics, she has forged important links to physics and chemistry, and enabled biologists to gain an in-depth structural understanding of biochemical reactions and enzymatic networks. 

Since 1998, the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Programmre has worked to support women scientists' careers and remove the hurdles that stand in their way so that they can play their part in solving the great challenges of our time. Over 23 years, it has supported more than 3,600 women researchers in 117 countries, rewarding scientific excellence and inspiring younger generations of women to pursue science as a career.

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has made gender equality one of its priorities. It is the only specialized UN agency with a specific mandate in the sciences. For its part, the Fondation L'Oréal supports women in achieving their potential, taking charge of their lives and contributing positively to society, through a three pronged approach focusing on scientific research, inclusive beauty and climate change.

****

See also, To be smart, the digital revolution will need to be inclusive : excerpt from the UNESCO science report, a statistic study of women's place in the sciences, which constitutes the 3^rd chapter of the 2021 UNESCO Science Report entitled The Race against Time for Smarter Development, to be published in full in April.

UNESCO media contacts:

• Clare O'Hagan, c.o-hagan@unesco.org, +33(0)145681729

• Bernard Giansetto, b.giansetto@unesco.org, +33(0)145681764

 

Fondation L'Oréal contacts:

• Aïda-Marie Sall / aida-marie.sall@loreal.com / +33 (6) 80 00 45 59

• Oriane Chastel / oriane.chastel@mtrchk.com / +33(0)658089149

• Sylvain Hertwig / sylvain.hertwig@mtrchk.com / +33 (0)782070725

• Chloé Bassilana / chloe.bassilana@mtrchk.com / +33 (0)659780297

 

 

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

UNESCO research shows women career scientists still face gender bias

UNESCO Press Release No.2021-12

 

UNESCO research shows women career scientists still face
gender bias

 

Paris, 10 February — Despite a shortage of skills in most of the technological fields driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, women still account for only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics, according to the forthcoming UNESCO Science Report, whose chapter on gender in science, entitled To be Smart the Digital Revolution will Need to be Inclusive, is published on 11 February to mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science. 

 

"Even today, in the 21st century, women and girls are being sidelined in science-related fields due to their gender," says UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. "Women need to know that they have a place in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and that they have a right to share in scientific progress."

 

The share of women among engineering graduates is lower than the global average for many members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This is the case, for instance, in Australia (23.2%), Canada (19.7%), Chile (17.7%), France (26.1%), Japan (14.0%), the Republic of Korea (20.1%), Switzerland (16.1%), and the USA (20.4%). 

 

There is no distinct regional pattern. Some of the highest proportions of female engineering graduates can be found in the Arab States, for example in Algeria (48.5%), Morocco (42.2%), Oman (43.2%), Syria (43.9%) and Tunisia (44.2%), and in Latin America where women account for 41.7% of engineering graduates in Cuba, 47.5% in Peru and 45.9% in Uruguay. Wide disparities are also to be found among countries of the same region.

 

The chapter also highlights the fact that women are not benefitting fully from employment opportunities open to highly educated and skilled experts in cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence where only one in five professionals (22%) is a woman, according to a 2018 study by the World Economic Forum on the Global Gender Gap.

 

Likewise, women founders of start-ups still struggle to access finance and, in large tech companies they remain underrepresented in both leadership and technical positions. They are also more likely than men to leave the tech field, often citing poor career prospects as a key motivation for their decision. Corporate attitudes towards women are evolving, however, as studies link investor confidence and greater profit margins to having a diverse workforce. 

 

Women need to be part of the digital economy to prevent Industry 4.0 from perpetuating traditional gender biases. As the impact of artificial intelligence on societal priorities continues to grow, the underrepresentation of women's contribution to research and development means that their needs and perspectives are likely to be overlooked in the design of products that impact our daily lives, such as smartphone applications. 

 

The glass ceiling also remains an obstacle to women's careers in academia, despite some progress. Globally, women have achieved numerical parity (45–55%) at the bachelor's and master's levels of study and are on the cusp at PhD level (44%), according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

 

The gender gap widens as women progress in their academic careers, with lower participation at each successive rung of the ladder from doctoral student to assistant professor to director of research or full professor.

 

Overall, female researchers tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers. Their work is underrepresented in high-profile journals and they are often passed over for promotion. Women are typically given smaller research grants than their male colleagues and, while they represent 33.3% of all researchers, only 12% of members of national science academies are women. 

 

The gender bias is also found in peer-review processes and at scientific conferences at which men are invited to speak on scientific panels twice as often as women. (Data on the global share of female researchers is based on information collected over 2015-2018 by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics from 107 countries.)

 

This persistent inequality is contrary to Article 24 of the UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (2017), which affirms that States should ensure that scientific researchers enjoy equitable conditions of work, recruitment and promotion, appraisal, training and pay without discrimination.

 

The Request a Woman Scientist database is one response to gender discrimination in science. Part of the 500 Women Scientists organization. It connects a multidisciplinary network of professionally vetted women scientists with anyone who needs to consult, invite, and collaborate with, or identify, a female specialist.

 

Prestigious prizes are another way to showcase excellence and challenge negative stereotypes about women in science. One example is the L'Oréal–UNESCO For Women in Science Programme, which for the past 23 years, has been raising the profile of outstanding women researchers through the annual attribution of prizes and research fellowships with a view to changing attitudes and providing positive female role models. In 2019, the programme extended its own international prizes and fellowships to include mathematics and computer science, in recognition of the lack of visibility of women in fields which are at the heart of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Five new awardees will be announced on 11 February, one from each continent.

 

Likewise, the OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists whose five 2021awardees will receive their awards at an online ceremony on 9 February. Since 2013, UNESCO and the Elsevier Foundation have been presenting annual awards to women from developing countries who have overcome considerable obstacles to achieve research excellence.

 

The complete UNESCO Science Report: the Race against Time for Smarter Development, is scheduled to be released in April this year. Produced with the generous support of the Fondation Ipsen, the report tracks trends and developments in science governance worldwide every five years. The forthcoming edition will have a dual focus on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

 

****

 

Download To be Smart the Digital Revolution will Need to be Inclusive chapter here (add hyperlink to chapter in English and French:

To be smart, the digital revolution will need to be inclusive : excerpt from the UNESCO science report

 

Two-minute video on study's findings (In English with French subtitles):

https://www.veed.io/download/0a673d61-fe17-4b24-9072-39dabbb4f17a

 

Media contact: Clare O'Hagan, c.o-hagan@unesco.org, +33(0)145681729

 

 

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