The UNESCO Chair in Science Communication for the Public Good played a prime part in the success of the recent International Network for Governmental Science Advice (INGSA) Conference 2024. 

The Chair sponsored and supported the planning of INGSA204, with several members of the UNESCO Chair team also travelling to Kigali, Rwanda to deliver various panels and talks around INGSA2024's theme  "The Transformation Imperative”, focusing on policy making in a post-covid, climate-shifted and digitally evolving world. In particular, UNESCO Chair head Sujatha Raman, who has long been engaged with INGSA herself, played a key intermediary role during the planning process.

INGSA2024 was last held in 2021, virtually, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. INGSA2024 did not just mark a return to the in-person after three years, it was also the first time the conference was held in Africa. PhD Researcher Rita Agha said this conference was particularly impactful because of this context and setting:

“It really highlighted how these conversations around science communication and policy have moved to different places on the planet ... Our Rwandan speakers talks about the incorporation of indigenous knowledge and their particular disputes. Because our Rwandan speakers were also all very young people, it was a great reminder for us to acknowledge the way we relate to young people, and to follow their example in encouraging young people to engage with the science advisory process early."

PhD Researcher Indigo Strudwicke concurred with how INGSA2024 got her to consider participatory science communications on a higher level. She mentioned how panels got her thinking about not just how science was communicated, but whether the science being communicated contributes to matters of equity and social justice as well. 

"It was my first time at a conference that people at such a high level were considering how to communicate science issues and how to bring public into science evidence." 

The panel Research Fellow Rini Astuti was on was entitled “Toward a Global Definition of Excellence in Research”. It explored the limitations of the current definition of research excellence, which fails to acknowledge the important role of scientists in providing scientific advice and communication. Rini echoed the important the same gratefulness at how the conference expanded her thinking:

"The INGSA conference was a rich and rewarding experience and opportunity for me to grasp the interconnection between science and policy work, she said.

Rita and Indigo spoke as part of a panel entitled Skills for Transformation – Training the Next Generation of Experts at the Interfaces, alongside Sujatha and fellow PhD researcher Indigo Strudwicke. 

Sujatha and Indigo also both played key parts in tying together the themes of INGSA2024 on the last day, with Sujatha delivery the final plenary address, and Indigo gifting a poster depicting the different salient points across the conference.

The UNESCO Chair Team are now applying all they've taken from the conference to their personal Australian contexts.

Indigo said she is keen to engage on how Australia's government engagement could be stronger and more active -- "What I realised was science advice to legislative processes have been inconsistent. We need to ask how we contribute to debates in politics, how do we empower a parliament to be science literate."

This fruitful collaboration marked the first time that the UNESCO Chair has sponsored and been invovled to this extent with INGSA. The team looks forward to the next iteration of the conference, and more opportunities to work together with and grow alongside INGSA and its goals.

As Rita neatly puts why this conference is so important, "The more consideration in human impact, the more chances we have to use science communication for the public good."

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