20th Globelics International Conference 2023
Theme: Innovation-Driven Knowledge-Economies and Transformation in the Global South
12-14 October 2023
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Call for Papers
The Globelics network was started twenty years ago with the first international conference held in Rio de Janeiro in 2003. The main aim of the Network was to focus on Learning, Innovation and Competence-building Systems (LICS) to understand the nexus between innovation and development. This 20th anniversary conference will use the opportunity to reflect on insights generated by the network and the future research agenda.
Episodes of development in economic history highlight the successful experience of countries that have managed to harness Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems at the global, national, subnational and sectoral levels to transform their social and economic structures for achieving prosperity. In current times, the constellation of innovations driven by rapid advances in digital technologies have given rise to a new technological revolution (commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0) with profound impacts on all sectors of the economies and sections of societies. New and persisting developmental challenges have driven a renewed interest in types of innovation that highlight their impact on society and the natural environment, such as inclusive innovation, responsible innovation, transformative innovation, grassroots innovation and jugaad. At the core of all these approaches is how knowledge, both science-based and experience-based, is harnessed for addressing development challenges. The basic premise being the knowledge divide is at the root of the development divide.
At the current juncture wherein, globalisation is at a crossroads and the economies across the world, ravaged by the once in a century pandemic and external shocks, consider strengthening the innovation system as a strategic approach towards building resilience. Evidently, there is an across-the-board drive among the developing countries to transform their economies into innovation-driven knowledge economies. Such a transformation is often viewed as capable of building resilience by addressing many of the downsides of globalisation-induced high growth, like excessive exploitation of exhaustible resources and accentuated divides within and between countries. While such initiatives in India are manifested in Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), Digital India, Skill India, and Make in India, among others, in Kerala, the development strategy has been explicitly reoriented in terms of transforming the state to a knowledge economy. It is against this background that Globelics revisits India for the 20th Globelics International conference with the chosen central theme 'Innovation-Driven KnowledgeEconomies and Transformation in the Global South'.
The 20th Anniversary of Globelics is also an occasion to celebrate the journey of Globelics from Brazil 2003 to India 2023 and its varied achievements. At the same time, it is also a forum for critically reflecting on our perspective and the approaches inter alia in terms of its achievements and limits. This is especially important at the current juncture wherein there is growing disenchantment with the development experience under globalisation on the one hand and the need for reimagining the innovation system in the COVID and Post COVID world towards building the much needed resilience in the South. The selection of Kerala, which is known for its unique development experience (so called Kerala Model of development), as the location for such a deliberation could not have been more appropriate.
Globelics-India 2023 coincides with India's Presidency of G-20, which provides immense scope for translating the outcomes of the conference into policy action. In the past two decades, we have observed the increasing presence of Global South in shaping the paradigms and trajectories of global development agenda— sustainability, climate change, pandemic, energy security issues—all being closely linked to the research domains of the Globelics.
The 20th Globelics Conference intends to bring together scholars across disciplines from different parts of the world to pool together experiences and expertise to reflect on varied issues involved in transforming developing economies to sustainable, resilient and inclusive innovation-driven knowledge economies.
World-leading scholars will give this year's keynote address on innovation and development, and it is planned that the conference will be inaugurated by The Chief Minister of Kerala (to be confirmed). There will be a special keynote on the conference theme along with Globelics Lecture and Freeman Lecture. The conference will combine plenary sessions, presentations of research papers in parallel tracks, thematic panel sessions or special sessions, poster presentations, book presentation sessions, excursions and cultural events.
Conference Tracks
While we encourage submissions on the central theme of the conference, submissions on all the issues conventionally deliberated in the Globelics international conferences are also welcome. However, it is requested to articulate the issues by keeping in mind the broad theme of the conference.
Submissions are welcome on issues around the following themes:
1. Science, technology, innovation: Theory and policy for a knowledge economy
2. Transformative innovation, responsible innovation and mission-oriented innovation
3. Knowledge-driven development of national, regional, local and sectoral innovation systems, including Agricultural innovation systems and rural development
4. Measurement of the knowledge economy: Indicators, data requirements, different approaches and methodologies
5. Skilling for the knowledge economy: Industry-academy interaction, Intellectual property rights, open innovation and development
6. Industry 4.0 and development: Digitalization and automatization, productivity and employment implications, gig economy and quality of employment
7. Economic and social upgrading for sustainable Catch-up: trade policies, FDI, value chains and innovation networks in a knowledge-driven economy
8. Innovation for inclusive development: Indigenous knowledge, Grassroot innovations, Jugaad, informal economy, micro and small enterprises
9. Entrepreneurship, employability and gender dimension in innovation and development
10. The green economy and financing innovation: Low carbon innovations, environmental technologies and renewable energy
Special Sessions: Those interested in organising special sessions are also encouraged to submit their proposals
Conference Organisers: The conference is organized jointly by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) New Delhi, Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC), Indialics and the Globelics Scientific Board in association with Digital University of Kerala (DUK) and Higher Education Council of Kerala. The conference will be hosted by Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), Thiruvananthapuram Kerala, India.
We encourage scholars at scientific institutions, universities, enterprises and public sector institutions to take this opportunity to present their research papers on the conference theme or on any of the conference tracks. We especially encourage young researchers and researchers from low-income or developing countries to submit papers, Papers for oral presentations and poster presentations must be written in English, and the selected ones must be presented at the conference in English.
Paper Submission not later than 15 May 2023
Submission of full paper (in PDF) not exceeding 12,000 words (including notes, tables, appendices, list of references, etc.) should be made via the online submission form available at Globelics website which will be open by late February 2023. Papers must be submitted before
15 May 2023.
The selection of the papers is based on a peer review process that focuses on relevance, academic quality and originality. Globelics reserves the right to use available software to control plagiarism and to take appropriate action in such cases.
- Deadline for the general submission of papers: 15 May 2023
- Acceptance notification for all other countries: 31 May 2023
- Deadline for application for travel support: 15 June 2023
- Response to applicants for travel support: 15 July 2023
- Conference registration open: 1 August 2023
- Conference registration close: 20 September 2023
- Last date for upload of final version of papers: 15 September 2023
- Conference dates: 12-14 October 2023
PhD students are welcome to enter the PhD students' paper competition. Winners will be announced during the Conference. You can follow the preparation of the conference on the Globelics website.
Travel Support and Hospitality: All those submitting papers are encouraged to mobilize travel support by themselves. The Globelics Scientific Board (GSB) will make efforts to mobilize resources for offering travel support for those from the low and lower middle-income countries. The support available will be contingent on availability of funds. Faculty members and PhD students from low and lower middle-income countries can apply for travel support. Travel support is given as reimbursement after the conference based on ticket stubs directly from the Globelics Secretariat. Application for travel support must be submitted along with your paper sub submission. Please note that the offer for travel support is contingent on the availability of funds. Further information on the procedure for travel support application will be available on the conference website.
All the participants will be offered hospitality for four nights: Arrival 11 October 2023 and departure 15 October 2023
