In September you are organizing the conference “Divergent values in sustainability assessments: love them, leave them, or change them?”. A core theme of the conference is “ethics in scientific policy advice”. Why do you think the topic of ethics in scientific policy advice is important now? Martin Kowarsch, expert on Scientific Assessments, Ethics and Public Policy Scientific expertise is important for informing politics about
Between 2016 and 2021, the UK government is channelling £1.5 billion of aid funds through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) the beneficiaries of which are primarily UK researchers. They are in turn expected to work in partnership with their counterparts and other stakeholders in the ‘global south’ and in so doing, contribute to improvements in development outcomes.
Why do we need scientific advice for cities based on urban research? Why is it not only a local, but also a global matter? Scientific advice for cities cannot be seen as a local issue, particularly because sustainable development is a global matter itself and needs a common approach.
‘Hello, I am here to help!’ For several afternoons as an undergraduate student in New Delhi, I would take a bus to a bustling market and settle into a small office for the Childline counseling service. I was trained as a volunteer responder and counselor for children in distress. All afternoon, the phone would ring. It would usually be a child suffering from exam stress or anxiety and a few tips would go a long way.
The Web was created as a coordination and cooperation tool for scientists. Subsequently, it had a revolutionary impact on almost all aspects of our life. The rise of a “network society” did in the end, however, only had a minor effect on the forms of organising among the scientific community. Its paradigm of scientific communication and cooperation between a scholar and a publisher dates back to the early 17th century.
Global rankings have decisively shifted the nature of the conversation around higher education to emphasise universities’ performance in knowledge economies. How did that happen and why are rankings becoming increasingly important? The emergence of global rankings coincided with the acceleration of globalisation at the turn of the millennium. This is because higher education is a global game.
