QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER — March 2020
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Welcome to new members and new awardees!
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On October 21-22, 2019, Belmont Forum members, partners, past and present co-chairs, invited awardees, and special guests convened in Taipei for a retrospective and visioning event. These discussions segued directly into the 10th anniversary plenary on October 23-25, 2019.
We thank MOST for hosting last year's milestone events in Taipei!
At the plenary, the Belmont Forum welcomed
new members: the Austrian Science Fund
(FWF) and the
Thailand Science Research and Innovation
(TSRI).
Parvinder Maini (MoES, India)
has joined as the newest Steering Committee member.
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Sustainability Research & Innovation 2020
Future Earth and the Belmont Forum joined forces to establish an annual marquis congress. This congress will allow the world’s foremost research and innovation communities to come together to share successes, exchange views, and work across disciplines and sectors to support a global transformation to sustainability.
Our first convening will bring together a global community of transdisciplinary research and innovation in an engaging, interactive format, allowing leaders in sustainability innovation to work alongside the world’s leading sustainability scientists, and to engage policy leaders working to support the major international policy processes supporting this transition. The program is underway, and registration is open:
https://sri2020.org/.
Regarding the spread of the COVID-19, the organizers are committed to go ahead with the SRI2020 events as planned.
We are monitoring the situation and will send updates about virtual registration for SRI2020, extensions of the early bird registration, and other considerations for COVID-19. We are seeking sponsors to support facilitated and engaged remote activity for the best possible congress experience.
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Help shape the global sustainability transformation. Future Earth and the Belmont Forum are
seeking a host for the next Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress 2021
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Hosting SRI2021 is a unique opportunity for networks, universities, research institutions, government agencies, corporations, granting agencies, professional societies, non-profit organizations and other change-makers in sustainability aspiring to strengthen their global profile and thought leadership.
The event will build on the outcomes and lessons learned from SRI2020, pushing forward an ambitious agenda for elevating the sustainability sector globally. It will also go deeper in exploring next generation conferencing, emphasizing virtual event participation to reduce emissions from travel.
Hosting the next SRI event is an opportunity for applicants to showcase the leadership of their nation, region, city, company, or organization in sustainability research and innovation to the world stage. It will open up conversations with international funders and give hosts a seat in discussions that will shape global research and innovation agendas.
The next edition of SRI will continue the dynamic and interactive event championed at SRI2020, with a mix of both plenary and parallel sessions, short ‘ignite’ style presentations and many opportunities for participants and speakers to interact.
An MOU will be signed between the Belmont Forum, Future Earth and the winner, with the winner announced at the SRI2020 closing ceremony.
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Highlight: AGU Fall Meeting 2019
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Co-chair Maria Uhle and Executive Director Erica Key traveled to San Francisco, CA to the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Among the many activities in which they participated, they also held a town hall session with Mark Shimamoto of AGU and Josh Tewksbury of Future Earth.
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Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs)
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Arctic I end-term and Arctic II kick-off knowledge exchange
Following an inte
rnational call, funding organizations from 10 countries have committed resources for
the
Resilience in a Rapidly Changing Arctic
call. This is the Belmont Forum's
second Collaborative Research Action focused on Arctic regions
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Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and USA have agreed to
award 8 international consortia
of researchers and stakeholders who will conduct collaborative projects of 3 to 4 years duration.
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The Belmont Forum just received word from IASC that we will be able to hold the end-term valorization at the
Arctic Science Summit Week
meeting in Akureyri, Iceland from
March 29-30
, 2020. At the same time, we will be having a kick-off meeting for the newly funded Arctic II projects. So, we will be able to share learning between the two cohorts and connect with the broader attendance at ASSW. We hope to see you in Akureyri and look forward to capturing the breadth of outcomes from all the arctic projects and contribute to the advancement of arctic science at ASSW and beyond.
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Belmont Forum awards funding for ocean sustainability research
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The Belmont Forum, Future Earth and JPI Oceans co-branded Collaborative Research Action on
Transdisciplinary Research for Ocean Sustainability
announced the awardees within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) no. 14 (Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development).
Following an international call,
funding organizations from 16 countries
have agreed to award
13 international consortia
of researchers and stakeholders a total of 14 250 000 € plus in-kind contributions over 4 years. The projects will use transdisciplinary processes to bring together stakeholders and researchers from across the globe to innovate solutions to accelerate sustainable use of oceans and minimize the effects from global change.
The Kick-off meeting for these projects is organized during #SRI2020 in Brisbane.
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Coming in March:
Towards Sustainability of Soils and Groundwater for Society
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The goal of this CRA is to produce the necessary knowledge and propose solutions to maintain well-functioning soils and groundwater systems in the Critical Zone
1
, or rehabilitate them where degraded, through:
1) Better understanding of the long- and shorter-time dynamics and functions of soils and groundwater, impacts from societal (including economics) decisions, integrative management practices, public policies, and how these systems have been transformed; and,
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2) Providing avenues, pathways, and narratives toward transformation of management practices of the whole soil and groundwater systems through a fundamental shift of socio-economic actors’ practices and related-decisions making processes.
We invite you to regularly consult the Belmont Forum website, on which information on the call will be updated. Enquiries should be sent to Johann Muller at BelmontForum@agencerecherche.fr.
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Upcoming Events
Belmont Forum is looking to connect with you! Consult the calendar of events on our website, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
27 March - 2 April 2020
Arctic I end-term and Arctic II projects kick-off and knowledge exchange event during the summit.
Regarding the spread of the COVID-19, the organizers of ASSW2020 are having close consultations with the government authorities, and organizers are committed to go ahead with the ASSW2020 events as planned. We
will employ methods of virtual connectivity for those who cannot travel to Iceland.
3-8 May, 2020
6-8 May, 2020
18-22 May 2020
26-29 May 2020
Pacific Ocean, Pacific Climate Change Conference, Apia, Samoa
1-5 June 2020
The T2S mid-term meeting will be held in Delft, The Netherlands.
14-17 June, 2020
Brisbane, Australia
We are monitoring the COVID-19 situation and will send updates.
21-25 June, 2020
28 June - 4 July, 2020
29 June - 2 July, 2020
2020 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Brisbane, Australia
2-3 July, 2020
The Climate Predictability and Inter-Regional Linkages end-term event will take place in Lisbon, Portugal in collaboration with JPI-Climate and ERA4CS.
Due date for submission:
15 June 2020
Annual reporting deadline for all CRA projects
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Welcoming
Kasan Aksornthong
to the BF Secretariat
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During the Belmont Forum Plenary meeting in Taipei in October 2019, Thailand (TSRI)’s membership was ratified. TSRI is seconding Kasan Aksornthong for one day a week to the Belmont Forum Secretariat to help advance member actions and meet the Belmont Forum Challenge.
Kasan became a Program Officer at the office of Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI) in 2019, after finishing his post-graduate degree in International Development Studies. He had previously worked at the Teachers’ Council of Thailand as a Foreign Affairs Officer, and at the secretariat office of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) on an internship program. He joined the Belmont Forum Secretariat on behalf of TSRI.
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