Sep 6, 2023
What are the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals? What are the biggest challenges in pursuing and achieving those goals? How does technology play a role? And what’s the best way for government, academia, and industry to cooperate and collaborate in support of fundamental research? We will learn those answers and more in this episode with Declan Kirrane, the Chairman of the Science Summit at the United Nations General Assembly, and founder and managing director of ISC Intelligence in Science. Declan has more than 25 years of experience as a global senior advisor to governments and industry on science research, science policy and related regulation. He has been actively promoting a more significant role for science within the context of the United Nations General Assembly since 2010. This has culminated in the annual Science Summit within the context of the UN’s General Assembly. The focus of the Summit is on the role and contribution of science to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – or SDGs. The current edition – UNGA78 - takes place from September 12-29, and will bring together thought leaders, scientists, technologists, policymakers, philanthropists, journalists, and community leaders to increase health science and citizen collaborations to promote the importance of supporting science. And we are thrilled that Oracle will be part of the Science Summit with a few of our executives speaking and attending, including Alison Derbenwick Miller, global head and VP of Oracle for Research.
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Episode Transcript:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/researchinaction/Research_in_Action_S01_E19.mp3
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;22;29
What are the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals? What are the biggest challenges in pursuing and achieving those goals? And what's the best way for government, academia and industry to cooperate and collaborate in support of basic research? We'll get the answers to all this and more on Research in Action.
00;00;23;02 - 00;00;49;08
Hi, and welcome back to Research and Action, brought to you by Oracle for Research. I'm Mike Stiles and today's distinguished guest is Declan Kirrane, who is the chairman of the Science Summit at the United Nations General Assembly and the founder and managing director of ISC Intelligence and Science. And we're talking to a guy with more than 25 years of experience as a global senior advisor to governments and industry on science research, science policy and regulation around science.
00;00;49;10 - 00;01;17;07
Declan has been promoting a bigger role for science in the context of the U.N. General Assembly since 2010, and that's led to an annual science summit that focuses on the role and contribution of science to reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. The current edition UNGA 78 is happening September 12th through 29th and will bring together thought leaders, scientists, technologists, policymakers, philanthropists, journalists and community leaders.
00;01;17;09 - 00;01;37;02
We'll talk about increasing health science and citizen collaborations and why it's important to support science overall. Now, Oracle's actually going to be part of that science summit a few of the executives will be there speaking, including Alison Derbenwick Miller, who's global head and VP of Oracle for Research. Declan, thank you so much for being with us today.
00;01;37;08 - 00;01;58;13
Thanks, Michael. Great to be here. Thank you for the opportunity. Delighted to be here. What we want to hear all about the science summit at the U.N. General Assembly. But before we go there, tell me what got you not just into science, but science policies and your role in creating this summit? Well, first is, I suppose, the simple answer to that is happenstance.
00;01;58;13 - 00;02;21;10
I have to tell you, it was not planned. My primary degree is the history of art. And then I did law and probably needed a job after all of that. And then as a lot of people did in the late, late eighties, emigrated to the U.S. of A and on the basis that there was nothing going on in Ireland.
00;02;21;10 - 00;02;51;23
So opportunity beckoned and therefore from that worked on Wall Street and at a boutique mutual fund company. And then between one thing and another, I ended up in a in a boutique similar boutique company in Paris. And from that to Greece and from that, I got into more consulting side of things and from that started working for global multilateral bodies such as the World Bank and the IMF on a contract basis.
00;02;51;23 - 00;03;23;25
And then from that got more into telecoms and from that into into science coming out. And I suppose from the area of telecoms, infrastructure and data rather than, if you like, a bank scientist. And I suppose my history of art background gave me a wonderful perspective on policy, at least that's what I argue. And, and from that I got very interested and from the insights, but partly because the European Commission invited me and a couple of others to set up a dissemination service.
00;03;23;25 - 00;03;57;19
It's called Cordis. Cordis and the Cordis Information Service was designed by the European Commission to provide information on ongoing collaborative research and to provide information on publicly funded research opportunities in the course. The reason the European Union did that was to was to ensure that the information resulting from funding they're providing reached a very, very wide audience. So my job was to to do that and we built that out and that brought me into the area of science policy.
00;03;57;22 - 00;04;27;19
And I gradually began to understand the huge importance of science policy. And of course, 20 years ago science policy was not a thing, you know, it doesn't really exist in terms of policy making headlines, but it gradually came to be and as you know, it's it's part of the lexicon now. A lot of governments around the world have science policy priorities, and it's recognized as a driver for economic development and global competitiveness and driving solutions to global challenges.
00;04;27;19 - 00;04;51;05
So sciences is a thing, but 20 years ago it wasn't. So it's a relatively recent and I began quickly to appreciate the policy dimension of that, and that led me to work on policy that led me to understand policy mechanisms. And, you know, from my standpoint, I mean, there's no point in looking at some global challenges or many global challenges from a national perspective.
00;04;51;12 - 00;05;21;24
Really, it has to be global, it has to be international. That led me to engage with the United Nations. And from that, we just started to build from, as you say, from 2010, to start to build, engage with nations. And I really want to stress these were designed to be very, very simple to present not to a scientific forum, but to the U.N. for it to the mother ship, to the General Assembly, to diplomats, to policy and political leaders, and show them what science is.
00;05;21;24 - 00;05;43;04
And to give you a practical example, our first meeting was on biobanking. And you know, the main attention, wasn't it? What's biobanking? You see, that's exactly what we want. The want the question we wanted them to ask. And from Matt and that first mission, I think there's about 18 people in the room and we had about four or five diplomats last year at the Science summit.
00;05;43;06 - 00;06;07;02
We had approximately 60,000 participants. We had just under 400 sessions and we had 1600 speakers. So we've come a long way. And that really now is it's it's it's established. But we want to keep promoting. We want to keep science in the eye of the U.N. and we want to ensure that the future recognizes the contribution of science.
00;06;07;05 - 00;06;27;29
That's quite a journey. I think you did just about everything except science. Are you sure you weren't in the circus as well? Yeah, well, it's it's, you know, it's all true, you know, So, yeah, it's it's put a lot of it. Last 20 years has been on primarily on science. Yeah. Well in the intro I mentioned the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.
00;06;27;29 - 00;06;54;00
And our listeners are pretty savvy. They probably know about those, but I'm not savvy. So what are SDGs and how do they speak to global health and humanity in the in the in the mid nineties the the United Nations. And when I say the United Nations, I mean many of the United Nations constituent entities and agencies obviously were very concerned about what we generally call global challenges.
00;06;54;00 - 00;07;18;29
And in the area of health and other forms of well-being, the environment, climate, food security and safety and so on and so forth. And that led to a consensus that there needed to be, quote unquote, you know, how's this for a cliche? We have to do something. So that we have to do something resulted in the Millennium Development Goals, which were, as you can imagine, launched on the year 2000.
00;07;19;02 - 00;07;44;01
And they set forward these goals to to address challenges. And that that 50 years went by pretty quickly. And that then led on to a similar mechanism where you identify a challenge, you define a response to it, and then you allocate specific targets within that and get everyone to sign up to that and off you go now.
00;07;44;03 - 00;08;12;18
So that then that broad approach was repeated for the United Nations SDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals, of which there are 17. And they cover the headlines that you'd imagine between poverty reduction, hunger reduction, improved health, a life below water, life on land, addressing obviously biodiversity, climate and many other areas. And then we're in the middle of these now.
00;08;12;21 - 00;08;45;10
But already the world is turning its attention to the post SDG agenda. And this is where this probably where we are now. The United Nations is organizing the summit of the future September 2024, and that I suppose you could characterize that meeting rather I do as a a banging of heads together because there is a sense of crisis, there is a sense the SDGs are not being achieved, that progress towards the attainment of the SDGs is insufficient.
00;08;45;12 - 00;09;07;19
It is exclusive. It excludes many constituencies, many countries, and again, I won't enumerate them here, but I just present that as as the scenario. So there's now a lot of momentum behind what we know. What do we do next? Why old humble viewers? I don't think it's going to be a if you like, a goals oriented process. I think that's too simplistic.
00;09;07;19 - 00;09;41;01
The world. I think as we found out, is much, much more complex. And I think the issue of inclusion and equity are issues that are present in a way that they were not when the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals were designed 30 and 50 years ago, respectively. And I think this equity dimension is going to give a far stronger voice to less developed nations.
00;09;41;01 - 00;10;07;05
And just on the back of an envelope calculation, I think if you take the OECD countries and change, you've probably got 30 nations that we could call a developed. And then I suppose the big questions that what about everybody else? And that is becoming a very stark consideration, which was not there. And this needs to be addressed in terms of inclusion and equity to a much, much greater extent than is currently the case.
00;10;07;05 - 00;10;37;01
And arguably then will lead to a more successful approach to whatever succeeds the SDGs, the SDGs. I'm interested in the mechanics behind that because I'm just kind of reading between the lines of what you're saying and it's like for this thing to have true accountability and for these goals to have any teeth at all. There does need to be a someone accountable, be a very good grasp of who the participants are going to be and some form of deadline.
00;10;37;04 - 00;11;01;19
Absolutely correct. Mike And that that was that the plan A the problem with that in in in in a word is it doesn't really work you've so many moving parts you've so many constituencies that it's you know, having this set table of goals and table of targets and allocating milestones know simply doesn't work. Now, why doesn't it work?
00;11;01;21 - 00;11;29;07
I believe in my view it is that many less developed nations don't have the wherewithal to achieve these SDGs. One needs investment, one needs skills, one needs training, one needs cooperation, one is finance. I mean, these are all requirements to make change it, particularly in the area of or particularly in every area. But if you look at health, if you look at energy transformation, if you look at digital transformation, they don't happen without moolah, without money.
00;11;29;14 - 00;11;48;22
So the question is, well, where's I coming from? The answer, I'm afraid, is it's not. And that leaves a lot of they again, when I say lesser developed nations, I mean that is the majority that's 150 nations on the on the on the on a rough calculation. And they're not they don't feel involved. They don't feel they're taken seriously in terms of support for the investment.
00;11;48;24 - 00;12;13;12
And I think they're looking looking at the developed world and they're saying, well, okay, you benefited from carbonized development then and now we're supposed to do on carbonized development and how is that going to work for us? And there's no answer to that. So I think it's extremely complex. And as you say, trying to build consensus around this is extremely difficult because any move forward does require political consensus as very, very hard to get these days.
00;12;13;12 - 00;12;30;16
I mean, you can you can look at Ukraine, you can look at you can look at the Sahel, you can look at many parts of the world where consensus are at a political level. It's very difficult, if not impossible. And then you factor into that, well, how do you then adopt action plans? How do you adopt roadmaps? Again, extremely difficult.
00;12;30;16 - 00;12;54;14
So I in my view, the the SDGs have come a bit unstuck because of the inability of developed nations to provide the necessary wherewithal, including funding. And therefore, of course, the other side of that coin is the inability of of many, many nations to advance those objectives, to achieve the goals that have been set out to reach those targets.
00;12;54;14 - 00;13;32;09
And that simply is not happening. And on SDG eight in the High-Level Policy Forum in July of this year and the the process of reporting on SDH was abandoned for reasons which I think are quite obvious, and no one had anything to report. So I point to that specifically. And also I was with a number of African nation ambassadors for dinner in Brussels two weeks ago, and they pointed out that they've stopped wearing their SDG lapel pins, you see.
00;13;32;11 - 00;13;56;13
And there's two reasons for that. One is in protest at the slow progress towards the SDGs, and secondly, because of, as they see it, their exclusion from the decision making process associated with the SDGs, which, as you can imagine, has a, you know, an annual review mechanism and and and all that sort of stuff. They feel excluded from that.
00;13;56;13 - 00;14;27;04
And my own view is they are for the reasons I've I think I've mentioned or alluded to and this brings this this promotes exclusion and inequity. And again, to repeat this, this wasn't in fashion 50 years ago to the extent that it is today. Now, it is a very, very strong policy and political force. And the institutions, the multilateral institutions that take leadership on these issues now have to find ways to to address that and to build inclusion in a very, very significant and meaningful way.
00;14;27;04 - 00;14;50;08
It's not just the family photo opportunities. It's making sure that these communities, that the stakeholders feel they're involved and they are involved. They're seeing the benefits. And I suppose to that extent, it's it's you know, it's politics as usual. Boy, those those challenges are just huge. It's it's quite an undertaking to to pursue those. But I guess that's what also makes it exciting as well.
00;14;50;10 - 00;15;11;10
Since this show is called Research and Action, we do talk a lot about the need to knock down barriers and support research, but research has several stages from basic all the way through clinical. What is especially important about supporting basic research and getting that right? What are those benefits? I suppose so. Simply put, you know, that's where it all starts.
00;15;11;10 - 00;15;45;05
And when we talk about basic research, we talk about basic research, but I would also call it pre competitive research. So that's a start for, you know, is everybody's friends and everybody is collaborating before they before they apply for a patent or before they discover discover something they can monetize or exploit or innovation in whichever way. And I think a very important aspect of this is the fact that it's by and large government funded, and this gives it a very important dimension, not to mention is seeding the potential for innovation.
00;15;45;07 - 00;16;08;28
And I often reflect that if you if you the government plays a huge role in science and technology. And now I don't have the details in front of me, but, you know, as far as I understand it, about a Tesla Enterprise wouldn't be where it is today without a small business loan from the US government. And of course, Mr. Gates was a beneficiary of government contracts at a very early stage in the development of Microsoft.
00;16;08;28 - 00;16;30;01
So just to point there to the importance of government funding across the board with respect to the government investment in science and technology in the pre competitive space, there's a clear recognition that without a synchrotron or without the government investing in synchrotron or large scale science facilities, then I think we're not going to have stakeholders who can build those.
00;16;30;03 - 00;16;52;12
So it simply simply won't happen. Many, many outcomes I think are evident in terms of the investment and in science and technology. You know, basically we have an advance in knowledge. Basic research seeks to understand the fundamental principles underlying various phenomena. And I think the curiosity driven research around this then leads to much innovation. But of course you don't know that at the beginning.
00;16;52;12 - 00;17;10;28
So I think there has to be a very strong political commitment to Blue skies research. And again, I stress the word political committee because it is a policy decision for a government, any government to invest in pretty competitive research, in science, capacity building, which is predominantly pre competitive and on in there in basic science. So I think that's that's hugely important.
00;17;10;28 - 00;17;34;11
Just to point to the policy dimension, I think that then leads to various innovations and that that that is applying. So you see a very clear narrative between basic research, innovation and applied research. Many groundbreaking innovations and technological advancements have emerged from the discoveries made in basic research. And I think this needs to be spelt out very often when a policymaker gets up in the morning.
00;17;34;18 - 00;17;56;18
That can be a complicated narrative. You know what I want to be getting from this? Why spend vast sums of money on basic research, blah, blah, blah? But I think when you look at the evidence, I think then the case is is compelling. But of course, that needs to be understood continuously, primarily by policymakers. And it does bring long term benefits, The outcomes of basic research might not lead to immediate benefits or applications.
00;17;56;18 - 00;18;25;27
However, these insights often lay the groundwork for future breakthroughs, which could and very often do have significant societal, economic or technological impacts over time. Problem solving is another reason to fund and do basic research educational value. Basic research plays a critical role in educating the next generation or generations, indeed, of scientists, researchers and thinkers. It provides a training ground for students to learn research methodologies, critical thinking and analytical skills.
00;18;26;00 - 00;18;52;06
And these values have multiple applications, multiple applications. And then we have cross-disciplinary insights. I think this is self evident. Basic research often leads to unexpected connections between different fields of study. These interdisciplinary insights can spark collaborations and innovations that otherwise wouldn't come to the fore. Intellectual curiosity, I think, needs also to be highlighted. Then we have the benefits coming from scientific advancement.
00;18;52;10 - 00;19;26;18
So I think Mike, there are many, many, many benefits in that. And I'd just like to point to really one example of basic research. You may not be a follower of radio astronomy or you might be about South Africa won a global competition to build the square kilometer Array telescope, the SKA, and that was a global competition in 2011 against the UK, against Chile, China, Brazil and Canada.
00;19;26;18 - 00;19;50;25
I believe there may be one or two other countries there as South Africa won the right to host and to build the UK and it is now doing that. It's probably a 30 year project. But here you have an example of of an African nation competing to build a hugely complex scientific instrument in the middle of the Karoo desert.
00;19;50;25 - 00;20;30;21
Now why do that? Many reasons to do it. But one of the compelling reasons that I learned from exposure to the project is the enormous commitment that the South African government and now, of course, to have partner countries, including Australia, that huge commitment they have made to education and training the next generation through the scale. And you will see in the system you'll see that many US multinationals, the Dell Corporation, IBM, Microsoft have very strong project association and collaboration with the UK and South Africa.
00;20;30;24 - 00;21;00;04
When the Economist wrote about the UK in 2016, I believe it was, they said this is the world's largest science project. And I think, you know, just it's worth reflecting on that. And this has enormous, enormous future potential. It has existing benefits to the scientific community and of course it is a huge flagship idea that provides a lightning rod for scientific collaboration across Africa and across the world.
00;21;00;11 - 00;21;26;13
At a very practical level, it brings many scientists to visit the facility to work with African and South African collaborators. So this is an ongoing benefit. I think a wonderful example of what our research infrastructure is, what basic science is, and why it should be funded. Yeah, what you just described is an enormous success story. But, you know, candidly, my optimism is challenged because so much of this does rely on government participation.
00;21;26;19 - 00;21;54;08
Yet it feels like as long as money and politics is in the picture, those are the anchors that can weigh things down. And against that backdrop is the science summit. So how did the science summit become a reality and was there any resistance to it or did anybody think this wasn't a good idea or not worth doing? The as far as I've learned, I mean, the response has been universally very, very positive, extremely positive.
00;21;54;11 - 00;22;26;03
And that's because the science summit is designed aimed to advance a greater awareness of the contribution of science to the SDGs. Now, how do you do that? You do that by bringing folk together. And those folk are not just the scientists. I mean, we're not organizing an ecology conference, we're not organizing a radio astronomy conference, we're organizing a science engagement process with U.N. leadership.
00;22;26;06 - 00;22;54;09
And more than that, we are showing how science needs to be inclusive. So to that end, we have a very strong narrative around inclusion. We have a very strong narrative around development, finance for scientific education, for science, performance and investment in science. And through doing that, we are education policymakers. We are engaging with policy makers. And I need to stress this invariably is it is a process.
00;22;54;16 - 00;23;15;28
But at the end of the day, policymakers that I have engaged with at many levels in Africa, Europe and the United States, they want to make the world a better place. I don't think there's any any doubt about that at very often in that quest, they are very remote from the outputs of science for the evidence that is there that shows that science delivers.
00;23;15;28 - 00;23;38;28
Of course, it's in the system. But very often the political system of political decision making is very human. It's a very natural process. It's not always empirical. And I think as you know, and possibly in in the Western world, we see that policy making is becoming more political with a small P. So it's into that environment that we are going and showing how science makes a difference.
00;23;39;05 - 00;24;08;26
Practically. We're showing how science delivers on the SDGs, we're showing how science delivers on the future challenges. And with reference to a very important aspect, we're also highlighting the the importance of enabling access to data now, and this is you'll probably be familiar with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, and there are other regulatory regimes in in the United States and Canada, Japan and Brazil and and elsewhere.
00;24;08;28 - 00;24;33;19
And now we are looking at the evolution of regulation concerning artificial intelligence. Now, these regulatory processes as one outcome have impacts on access to data and the use of data for scientific purposes. There is no global regulator, there's no global policymaker. How do we address a global coordination on these issues? And that's something we want to raise within the context of Science Summit to ensure that science is data enabled.
00;24;33;21 - 00;25;00;25
When we talk about science capacity building, essentially we are talking about improving the flow of data, access to data, use of data from machine learning and AI and other purposes, and extending that capability globally. And when that can happen, then you will see dramatically improved outcomes in terms of health research at the environment, biodiversity, energy and many, many other areas.
00;25;00;29 - 00;25;44;06
But we're not there yet. That very much is in the future. So we're trying to align the debate around the objective of creating these new innovations with the need for aligning energy policy, energy technology and other information technology around alignment on regulations. That's huge, huge importance. So we see that. We see the opportunity after the United Nations General Assembly to talk to governments, to talk to political leaders, to talk to Balsillie was to talk to diplomats, to talk to regulators, to talk to bureaucrats and show them what this is, how this matters, and very importantly, how they can include optimized policies to support science in future policies at the bloc level, at nation level.
00;25;44;06 - 00;26;13;20
And we have many, many meetings bringing forward scientists to show what they do, what's necessary in terms of government regulation and support to enable. So we're talking about creating the enabling policy and regular Tory environment for more and better science. And funnily enough, we don't say that's more that's about more money. We don't feel that. We don't think that what there is, is more opportunity and a great need for alignment at government and policy level.
00;26;13;23 - 00;26;39;06
And if every country in the world goes it alone in terms of creating regulation and creating policies, then we're looking at extreme fragmentation. There is much, much untapped potential for governments to work together, and that's one reason we're very happy to be working with Oracle, because, you know, from there, you know, as a company and, you know, forgive me if this is too simplistic, but they, they they create these machines that can communicate data.
00;26;39;06 - 00;27;07;29
And this is a this is a vital and vital a vital need globally. And how they do that and future, I think, will point to many, many future opportunities, which is a very important consideration, because with the science summit and at the level of the U.N., there's there's a huge recognition of the need to work with industry players and the importance of working with industry to deliver innovations, because it's not going to be a university center in it.
00;27;07;29 - 00;27;33;27
With the greatest respect to Cork University in Ireland, they're not going to be making the mess that's going to come through a company. So and industry. So this collaboration opportunity between academia, between governments and industry, I think is ripe for transformation, I think has enormous potential to address global challenges. So can you give us kind of a feel for what kind of speakers and sessions can be expected at the summit?
00;27;34;04 - 00;28;02;24
Yes, Michael, we've got a very inclusive approach to the summit, so we're covering a lot of things, but I suppose I would accept that we have a bias towards health on the health research. On the 13th of September, we have an all day plenary on on One Health, which is a perspective that brings together planet people and animal health into a, if you like, a one world view.
00;28;02;27 - 00;28;26;10
We have a lot of amazing speakers from the five continents who will be coming to that meeting. And what we want to do then is this is relatively rare. It's a relatively new area. By that I mean it's a relatively new or a policymaking. So where want to advance policymaking in this area? We want to also promote interdisciplinary research and show how research matters across these three areas because they cannot be addressed in isolation.
00;28;26;12 - 00;28;56;06
And we'd argue at the moment, by and large, that they are. If you look at national funding systems and national priorities and all the rest of it, they look at animal health or they look at human health or they look at biodiversity. But looking at all three I think is vital. That's our that's our flagship session on Wednesday the 13th on the 14th, Thursday the 14th, we're going to focus on on pandemic preparedness and we're going to bring together the leadership from the National Research Foundation in South Africa, from the African Union Commission, from the European Union.
00;28;56;06 - 00;29;33;16
Delighted to have Irene North steps. The director for the People Directorate in Brussels is coming to join us. For three days. We have Professor Cortes at Lucca from the Medical University of Graz, who leads many European Union research initiatives. But he was the main instigator of the European Union's biobanking research infrastructure, of biobanking, of molecular resources. We should infrastructure, which does pretty much as it says on the can, and we're looking to create a UN version of that, if you like, And look at how this capacity for biobanking is going to contribute.
00;29;33;16 - 00;29;57;01
So and pandemic burden, it's very, very important that we also have President Biden's science adviser, Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the and I and the in the United States, Then we will also have representatives from Dr. Sao Victor. So from the U.S. Academy for Medicine, National Academy for Medicine. He'll be presenting the US approach to pandemic preparedness, which is called 100 days Mission.
00;29;57;06 - 00;30;22;17
What you Need to Do in the first hundred Days. We're very excited about that and very, very much looking forward to using that as a template for a global approach. And while there's been a lot of focus on global strategies, which we obviously very much support, we want to take that global strategy approach to the level of action in terms of what capacity is needed, where's that capacity needed, How can the capacity be delivered?
00;30;22;19 - 00;31;09;02
So very much looking forward to pandemic preparedness as a highlight of the summit. Then on Friday, Friday the 15th of September would have a one day plenary on genomics capacity building with a focus on Africa. But the approach will be global, But bring it forward. Will How does the capacity work for pandemic? Sorry for genomics and has been led by global industry in terms of Illumina and it's been led again by data experts, and that really looks at a future for genomics capacity building in Africa, without which we are going to be or Africa is going to be extremely hampered in the development of medicine and related therapies.
00;31;09;04 - 00;31;37;12
So there are three of the sessions. We also have the Obama Foundation having a meeting on the on the 17th of September. We're going to bring philanthropic organizations together, are for lunch on the 15th. We are going to have a number of sessions around the Amazon with the Brazilian Fapesp, the Rio National Research Agency, and they'll be looking at the future of Amazon from the perspective of collaborative research and development and science.
00;31;37;15 - 00;32;06;00
We will be working with a number of legal experts with the law firm Ropes and Gray, who will bring together experts to identify scenarios for an enabling regulatory environment for genomics that's going to take place on the afternoon of the 16th. We are going to have a number of focus days. The government of of government of Ethiopia will be joining us and they'll be presenting how the Ethiopian government presents or approaches the SDGs.
00;32;06;00 - 00;32;27;18
From the point of view of enabling science. We have a similar approach from the government of Ghana. We will have the nice people from Mongolia, the government of Mongolia. They will be presenting a regional approach from the roof of the world, and we would have the same from Nepal, from India, from Japan, from Brazil and many other nations.
00;32;27;23 - 00;32;58;22
And that national approach is very, very important because again, we want to highlight the need for synergies, highlight the similarity between national approaches and then how they can be brought together and benefit from one another. We will also have a presentation from the editor of Nature, Magdalena Skipper at They'll be presenting a what they call a storytelling evening, and that's that's designed to inform and show how science careers evolve.
00;32;58;28 - 00;33;27;05
So so the community can get an understanding of of how that has worked in a number of individuals so very much at look at looking forward to that. I think that personal aspect is is very, very important. And we will be having a number of sessions with with investors how they are approaching investing in science and technology, how that investment can be better aligned between governments, industry, not for profits, philanthropy.
00;33;27;05 - 00;33;50;18
And we're feeling we're seeing that a lot of these organizations have similar objectives. So there's enormous potential to see how they can be more aligned, work together for common objectives and thereby increase possible benefits and outputs. So very much look forward to dose those discussions. In terms of our principal outputs, what we want to do really is three levels.
00;33;50;18 - 00;34;12;01
First is we want to increase participation and collaboration. So we want to bring people together. And one of the main outputs of the science summit last year, researchers discovered each other. They went away and they started collaborating. That wouldn't have happened if they hadn't met at the science. So that's one level. Second level is what our agenda is.
00;34;12;04 - 00;34;44;27
So the United Nations will convene the summit of the future in 2024. So the question we're asking everybody is what should the science agenda for that meeting look like? And we want to compile it. And with the 400 odd sessions we're running, we want to work with them and see how can they contribute to that, What priorities can they put forward and how do they look in terms of a specific objective which the United Nations can support in terms of energy attainment or the post SDG agenda?
00;34;44;29 - 00;35;22;06
And the third element we want to advance is better policy making, make better policies. We will have tennis knocked and Dennis is the chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Science Committee. The Inter-Parliamentary Union is a global organization and represents 138 parliaments around the world. This dialog is hugely, hugely important. So we're going to be working with Denis to see how his members so those legislators in those 140 odd countries can incorporate better global ideas into policymaking at a local level.
00;35;22;06 - 00;35;52;29
And I'm talking about I'm talking about Nepal, I'm talking about Ghana, I'm talking about Kenya, I'm talking about many, many countries. And then what we what we hope that that will achieve is real sustained change. And as we move towards the end of this decade, that's going to be hugely, hugely demanding. But I think if we build this global momentum and we drive this cooperation and instill a sense of cooperation among scientists globally, and also we say that, you know, scientists in fact, are policy policymakers.
00;35;52;29 - 00;36;10;12
I don't see this divide between policymakers and scientists. I think scientists have a huge amount to contribute to policymaking. So, in fact, they're the policymakers. They know a lot about health, They know a lot about what policies are needed to deliver better health. And we want to give them a voice. Well, as I mentioned, Oracle will be speaking and participating at the summit.
00;36;10;12 - 00;36;37;01
And you touched on it a little bit. But when you think about the role for industry players, especially technology giants like Oracle and what's needed to pursue the SDGs, we've talked on the show a good bit about the concept of open science and increasing access to scientific data. It feels like big advances in global health can't happen if those developing or lower middle income countries are kept at arm's length from data.
00;36;37;04 - 00;37;00;02
Absolutely, Mike. Absolutely. Very, very well said. And as I've outlined, is that one of the main impediments potentially to this is regulation by advanced nations, which impacts on less developed nations. So I think an industry has a huge role to play in that because, you know, industry and providing the wherewithal to to advance this data exchange. So we very much look to industry leadership.
00;37;00;02 - 00;37;16;20
And I think Oracle is going to be very instrumental there in showing and leading the way in terms of how data is enabled and how data systems can allow access to data use of data, and of course the use of data for machine learning. And I think that's something we need to learn a lot about, particularly in developing nations.
00;37;16;23 - 00;37;35;25
I also think that the United Nations Global Sustainability Report, the latest version of which is available in draft, and I think the final version will be published at the end of this month. Points to a huge role for for industry. My own view is that I think industry need to be much more at the table at this U.N. table.
00;37;35;25 - 00;37;56;24
I'm delighted to see that Oracle is joining us in this quest, because I think we need to build a narrative and I think it'll be for industry are going to be a very credible partner in terms of telling governments what is necessary, what's needed in terms of creating the space for data to do what data needs. And again, in particular in the countries that are going to be challenged in their quest for access to data.
00;37;56;27 - 00;38;33;03
And that presumes that they have the capacity to have the infrastructure. Many don't, but they're going to need to have that and the industry going to be critical in delivering that. And I think that's that's terribly, terribly clear. So that role for industry in delivering, I think, spans the optimization of policy, the optimization of regulation, the deployment of technology, the maintenance and sustainability of that technology, and of course for the advancement of that technology into different areas in its application, particularly in ICT application, in the areas health and energy and the environment, biodiversity, climate and so forth.
00;38;33;06 - 00;38;55;25
And I think this is something that provides a gives me a lot of optimism in future. And I think also almost we're looking at a, if you like, a post, arguably a post regulatory model where where technology will allow us to define the the remit of Data Act access. I don't think we're there yet, but I think this is this is possibly in future.
00;38;55;27 - 00;39;16;01
And again, Oracle and the colleagues from Oracle will be engaging in a number of discussions on the regulatory side, on the technical side, on the access to data side that's going to help the communities understand not necessarily the solution, but at least define the questions. I think define the questions. Then we have a much greater opportunity in obtaining the answers.
00;39;16;03 - 00;39;39;17
Well, also in my intro, I mentioned that you are founder and managing director of ISC Intelligence and Science. Tell us about that endeavor. What does that do? Well, that that mainly is devoted towards building body types, capacity and advising governments on science. Capacity Building that many faces is based around scientific infrastructures. And of course they come in in many, many flavors.
00;39;39;22 - 00;39;59;29
But ours really is around the design of research infrastructures that that tends to be quite a long, competitive, drawn out, complicated process. Of course, for any funding, there is a there is a competitive process. This takes a a number a number of years, very often for an award, then a subsequent number of years for a design phase to be completed.
00;40;00;05 - 00;40;21;02
Before then you move into construction and operation. Our primary focus is on the design phase and we've done that in in Africa. We do it in India, in in North America, Latin America. And one of our main reasons for focusing on this area is because it means the capacity is there to to allow science to do what it does.
00;40;21;02 - 00;40;46;01
I've mentioned the case of the SKA and in Africa there are many others. But I would say hitherto there's been a lot of differentiation between science capacity. And of course this is this is quite understandable. But I think increasingly in future that capacity will be effectively one big data machine. It won't matter what flavor of science you're doing, you're going to be dipping into a common data reserves.
00;40;46;01 - 00;41;23;05
Now, there's some caveats around that, such as a a synchrotron, for example, or a light source. I think these are, as you can imagine, specific unique instruments. But we're looking forward very much to have the director of the Office of Science in the United States, Dr. Esmond Barrett, talk to us about how this can work on a global level and what are the challenges and how the US experience in building these science infrastructures and capacities can then help many, many other countries to to advance towards not net, not necessary do the same, but at least be on a path to access such capacity.
00;41;23;05 - 00;41;52;08
So ESI has been very, very involved in that and also involved in the regulatory aspects of the impact of updated regulation on science is something we're very exercised about. If we feel that the scientific community historically, by which I mean maybe over the last 15 years have been very slow to understand the implications of regulation of science, but equally the regulatory bodies at national level, equally have been very slow to understand the impacts of science because their primary concerns are not science.
00;41;52;13 - 00;42;23;27
The primary concerns are as they see them is the protection of individual data, etc., etc., etc. and that's very worthy and noble. But then once you pull the thread, you see that that has aspects and implications for scientific endeavor. So we're working in that interface, ensuring or trying to ensure or trying to increase respective awareness and visibility. And now this is has a very sharp focus in the advent of a EIA, the Artificial Intelligence Act in the European Union, which will be defining for reasons we mentioned earlier.
00;42;23;27 - 00;42;43;12
Also, we are very active in that space and we're very particularly active and, and how this seen, how this impacts on less developed nations. Well, Declan, again, we appreciate you being on the show today. If people wanted to learn more about the science Summit or ISC intelligence and science, how can they do that? Main ways. The website for the Science Summit is Science Summit.
00;42;43;15 - 00;45;13;24
It is sciencesummitunga.com the company website is ISC intelligence dot com and then you'll find the usual links to Twitter and all the rest there. Very good. We've got it. And if you listen are are interested in how Oracle can simplify and accelerate your own scientific research. Just take a look at Oracle dot com slash research and see what you think and of course join us again next time for research and action.