Background
The UN 2030 Agenda
The UN 2030 Agenda sets an ambitious goal: to transform deep-rooted inequalities within and between nations while securing the planet’s long-term sustainability. Science, engineering, technology and innovation are critical to achieving this vision. But these fields are increasingly being asked to interact with other disciplines, engage with society, transform policy agendas, and ultimately, rethink how sustainable futures and the global good are imagined and acted upon.
The UN 2030 Agenda represents an ambitious vision for transformative global change in the face of planetary crisis. Defined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Agenda is predicated on the core insight that environmental sustainability, equity and prosperity are inextricably linked.
But working out what this means for the knowledge we create, communicate and use to foster transformation in different settings remains a challenge.
What do these evolving expectations mean for how science informs policy, the directions of technological innovation and our approach to environmental challenges? Researchers and innovators working towards the 2030 Agenda are now tasked with addressing these critical questions while engaging inclusively with diverse perspectives, priorities, values and forms of expertise. But how can they do so ethically and reflexively?
UNESCO Chairs serve as prime vehicles for building higher institutions' capacity in specific areas of scholarship through exchange, collaboration, knowledge transfer and sharing in the spirit of international solidarity. Working in the Asia-Pacific region and connecting with partners elsewhere in the world, this Chair contributes to UNESCO’s work in fostering inclusive ways of bringing science, engineering, technology and innovation (SETI) to bear on the Sustainable Development Goals.
The UNESCO Chair at CPAS
Transforming knowledge-systems requires work within and across the biophysical and social sciences and the humanities, as well as at the interfaces between science, civil society, public policy, the media and economic institutions. It calls for dialogue between institutionalised, local and Indigenous ways of knowing. This Chair aims to build capacity in different areas from research to policy to public engagement to grapple with these complexities of changing the way we produce and use knowledge in service of more sustainable and equitable futures.
The UNESCO Chair in Science Communication for the Public Good was launched in 2022. Supported by the Australian National University, the Chair is based in the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS), a global leader in science communication, science-society relations, responsible innovation and the science-policy interface. The Chair works closely with aligned groups, notably the ANU Responsible Innovation Lab (RI Lab), and other members of CPAS. These networks and connections makes the Chair uniquely placed to address these questions.