News and information on science and global development
Events, News
This article spans issues of international student mobility, inequalities in higher education, and spaces for transformative learning for sustainable development.
Gestalten Sie den K3 Kongress 2021 mit! Bewerben Sie sich um einen der 21 Workshop-Plätze bis zum 29. März 2021.
Based on insight generated from Swiss academic and research entities, this Policy Brief aims to highlight the importance of bringing R&S4D closer, at research entities in Switzerland and elsewhere, and how to go about doing it.
The 2021 SNIS Award recognizes the best Ph.D. thesis in the field of International Studies received from a Swiss University.
A synthesis of twelve years (2007-2019) of the long-term farming systems comparisons in the tropics (SysCom)
Covid-19 has changed the way we do almost everything. There is significant hope this is temporary, but while we continue to live under various lockdowns and restrictions, how can we carry out research that ensures the safety of the participants and researchers above all else?
Grants are awarded to promising high-level research projects in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics carried out by individual scientists or research units in one of the S&T-lagging countries identified by TWAS.
The Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE) recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. This milestone affords us the opportunity to look back on – and take stock of – the commission’s experiences, as they may hold important lessons for the future.
The objective of the online academy is to build skills enabling the participants to contribute to, and take leadership in, the achievement of the SDGs with special focus on climate change, waste management and biodiversity.
A Lead Agency agreement between the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa allows researchers in both countries to submit joint research proposals.
New calls for the EPFLglobaLeaders doctoral fellowship programme for the next generation of sustainable science leaders and the CYD master, doctoral and postdoctoral Fellowships for Cyber-Defence Research. Both programs are open to applicants from any part of the world.
ThinkSwiss Research Scholarships is a program that opens doors for students from India, Singapore and Australia to the world of Swiss academia, that combines high quality curriculum with innovative thinking.
18th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons
The EADI Global Development book series is currently inviting proposals for a new volume in any sub-field of Development Studies. The series reflects the multi-disciplinary character of EADI member institutes and the association at large and aims at broadening our understanding of the processes that advance or impede human development, whether from a political, economic, sociological or anthropological perspective.
A new podcast from the ACU, looking at the critical question of ‘Who gets to learn, and who gets to teach?’. With Kirsty Kaiser, Implementation Manager at the Research Fairness Initiative and Professor Imran Rahman, Dean of the School of Business at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.
The Research for Development Programme (R4D) has produced a broad range of publications with findings from collaborative North-South research for development.
Synthesis report on how to measure the coherence of Switzerland's development policy.
As travel and face-to-face meetings continue to be restricted, inasp introduces a new self-paced online tutorial designed to help with facilitation of online courses and events. The tutorial is free to participants.
Under the leadership of SCNAT, the Sustainability Research Initiative is developing priority topics for sustainable development research in Switzerland. At a review meeting in early July, several well-known experts gave the draft research agenda very good marks. They especially appreciated the systemic approach and encouraged the authors to place even more focus on pathways towards transformation.
The fair research contracting self-assessment tool supports institutions to engage in fair and equitable negotiation processes for formal contracts despite recognised imbalances in institutional contracting capacities.
Switzerland is small, rich, and profits greatly from globalization. Consequently, it is under growing international and public pressure from those who wish to make the world economy “fairer” and “more sustainable” by means of transnational rules.
For millennia, humankind’s food security and resilience were ensured by thousands of cultivated plant species, dozens of domesticated animal species, and the wider biodiversity from which they derive. But with the expansion of industrial agriculture and globalized standardized food systems, this long-running agricultural biodiversity has fallen steeply. Today, just three plant species account for half of all plant-based food calories, and only four animal species account for the vast majority of meat supplies. Looking ahead, restoring agrobiodiversity – the richness of what we cultivate, breed, consume, and conserve in the wild – is crucial to ensure resilient food systems against the backdrop of climate change. In particular, we must safeguard the livelihoods of the “guardians of agrobiodiversity”: approximately 500 million small farms across the world – particularly those in the global South. This factsheet outlines causes and consequences of agrobiodiversity loss, areas of promise, and options for policy and research.
Doing research in conflict contexts is crucial. But how do you best conduct research in conflict-affected contexts? These guidelines are designed for all levels of researchers – from research student to professor – who conduct research in settings that are conflict-affected.
International Conference of SUDAC – swissuniversities Development and Cooperation Network and KFPE. The focus was placed on research partnerships in and with the Global South. With its programmes Consortia for Education and Research (COFERs) and Clusters of Cooperation in the Global South (CLOC), swissuniversities provides important instruments to foster these research partnerships.
Poverty, social inequality, global environmental problems and pandemics: Switzerland has to focus its international cooperation strategy more strongly on poverty reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 using research to make its global contribution. This is what the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences call for in their statement on international cooperation, which was elaborated under the lead of KFPE.
In September 2018, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the KFPE held a joint workshop in Tanzania. The purpose of which was to bring together researchers and stakeholders from the Global South to identify: (1) What constitutes best practice in research partnerships (2) How to engage researchers and governments from the Global South in research programme agenda setting (3) How to translate research outputs into development impact.
More than 70 high-level decision makers, scientists, NGO and funding agency representatives gathered to celebrate 20 years of KFPE Guidelines at the conference “Leveraging Research Partnerships for Global Challenges”. A series of talks presented in three separate sessions addressed the following topics: (i) new roles and tasks of science in general and research partnerships in particular; (ii) regional adaptation of scientific systems; and (iii) how science policies and funding systems can support transformative research. Participants were left with one clear conclusion at the end of the 22 November meeting: stronger integration and dialogue between science and society, including policy and business, is essential if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Die 20-Jahr-Jubiläumsfeierlichkeiten zum «Leitfaden für grenzüberschreitende Forschungspartnerschaften» der KFPE brachte Vertreterinnen und Vertreter aus Forschung, Politik, Verwaltung, Wirtschaft und Nicht-Regierungsorganisationen zusammen. Die Agenda 2030 müsse schnell und global vorangetrieben werden.
