News and information on science and global development
Events, News
New CDE Policy Brief on the importance of transnational and north-south partnership for research and education for sustainability.
Image: Photo: Lilian J. TrechselThis is a project born by chance through the meeting of two individuals, Professor Lorenzo Cantoni Adine Gavazzi. It turned into a prosperous venture into the world of Machu Picchu.
Image: José BastanteShare the beauty of your research! The Swiss National Science Foundation invites researchers to submit their photographs, images and videos to the SNSF Scientific Image Competition.
The Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) offers project grants for pluri-disciplinary research teams.
New Issue of Mountain Research and Development is out.
Der Preis richtet sich an Nachwuchswissenschaftler/innen und prämiert drei Dissertationen, die wissenschaftliche Exzellenz und Praxisrelevanz vereinen.
Companies based in Switzerland should ensure that their activities abroad respect human rights and comply with environmental standards: that is the view put forth by the Responsible Business Initiative (Konzernverantwortungsinitiative). Elisabeth Bürgi Bonanomi, law expert at CDE, offers a legal perspective.
Professors of development economics at various Swiss universities on the developmental effectiveness of the Responsible Business Initiative
Mountain Research and Development invites transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary papers that address transformations affecting pastoralists and rangelands in mountains and high-elevation landscapes.
The European Commission published the Green Deal Call.
SNSF has launched a new Bilateral Cooperation Programme jointly with of the National Foundation for Science & Technology Development (NAFOSTED) in Vietnam.
Der Nachwuchspreis der SAGW ist dem akademischen Nachwuchs der Schweiz gewidmet. Mit dem Preis werden junge Forscherinnen und Forscher der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften für die Qualität eines Artikels ausgezeichnet, der in einer wissenschaftlichen Publikation veröffentlicht wurde.
In a portrait video, SERI presents Deepak Kumar Ravi, a young researcher from India who is currently conducting research at ETH Zurich on ways to estimate the risk of falling for elderly persons and patients.
The Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research (SFIAR) offers an annual Award for graduates and scientists of a Swiss institution who work in agricultural research for development.
COVID-19 has impacted the world as a whole, making voices from developing countries in the Global South critical for finding solutions.
Mountain Research and Development is looking for papers that help understand urbanization in mountains and emerging new relations between rural mountain areas and urban centers in and outside mountains. Papers that propose ways of shaping these transformation processes to increase sustainability, as well as synthesis and comparative studies across several mountain regions are also highly welcome.
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.
In recognition of the challenges that Covid-19 presents INASP has created a package of freely-available self study courses to help you continue to produce, share and use research and knowledge, in support of national, and global development.
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.