The project, led by a committee co-chaired by Professor Robin Crewe, Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria, and Professor Oyewale Tomori, President of the Nigerian Academy of Science, will engage African and non-African leaders in science, engineering and medicine, African governments, bodies such as the United Nations and the African Union, the global donor community, industry, and other stakeholders in activities that demonstrate the value of independent academy science-policy advice, with the ultimate goal of ensuring sustainability of national investment of science and technology.

The challenges posed by current research evaluation practices and the possible negative effects on the global research enterprise, particularly through the use of journal-based metrics, requires a focused response by the world’s scientific leadership, as represented by the world’s academies of science and medicine. The IAPartnership proposes an evidence-based study that will describe current research evaluation practices, how these practices affect research being performed and whether they encourage adverse trends such as perverse incentives, and finally, propose feasible alternatives or actions that can be taken to improve research and hence science-career evaluation practices.

This information will be gathered during a series of regional workshops, using the IAPartnership’s ability to convene international experts and collate experiences from around the world.

The two-year project will result in a final report that will summarize the current system and its issues. It will present recommendations to various stakeholders to ensure that research evaluation practices do not undermine research but rather serve science by advancing quality and integrity. While seed funding for the project has been committed by the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, efforts are currently underway to secure additional resources for this study.

Contacts:

Tom Arrison

Executive Director, IAP for Research / InterAcademy Council

Email: tarrison@nas.edu; secretariat@iac.knaw.nl

Project rationale

At a time of increasing pressures from population growth, climate change, social and economic inequity and instability, the continuing need to avoid further loss in ecosystem biodiversity, and pressures on other critical resources (such as water and energy), there are major challenges in delivering food and nutrition security. While agriculture has a central role to play in tackling food and nutrition security, viewed more broadly, food and nutrition security also relies on physical, biological, socio-political and economic environments. Furthermore, tackling the challenges of sustainable agriculture requires the deployment of all available approaches, including both traditional and novel, building on the existing achievements of good agronomic practices.

For food (including nutrient and micronutrient) security, there is an ongoing need to identify and tackle key targets and to link health-related indicators with the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals. Under the project, work will focus on food production issues as well as issues related to the demand-side and other considerations (e.g. the need to reduce food loss and waste, and the impact of changing food preferences and dietary composition).

The project will produce four regional reports along with a global synthesis that highlights the similarities and differences between the regions, providing advice and recommendations for implementation at global, regional and national levels, customised according to local circumstances and strategic needs. Indeed, a core part of this IAP activity is to combine the twin goals of delivering strong, consensus messages at the global level, with clarification of the scientific basis of current disparities in policy expectations and objectives and future options in different regions of the world.

First project meeting

The project was initiated with a meeting at the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle (Saale), Germany, on 31 May - 2 June 2015. This meeting sought the advice of experts from around the globe to clarify the choice of topics where work by IAP and its regional academy networks might add value to the considerable work already conducted by many other scientists in seeking to advise policy-makers. To this end, experts from IAP’s affiliated regional networks discussed the issues at stake, drafted a project roadmap, and agreed on a focus of the working groups’ activities as well as a suitable timeline.

Main Activities:

Regional Activities:

Each of IAP’s regional networks has initiated its Working Group to produce the regional deliverables, identifying inter-regional issues and providing information to feed into the global phase. A review meeting in Hermanus, South Africa, on 28 February 2016, provided an update on the status in each of these four regional activities, with estimates of the timetable to completion. Now the four regional networks are planning their first Working Group meetings.

Global Activities:

A Project Coordinator will be engaged with the project for the entire project duration, who will attend the regional networks’ meetings and ensure that the project stays on track. Once the four regional networks’ statements are available, they will be used to feed into a global statement, to be launched at an international event and disseminated among policy-makers and stakeholders world wide.

Project Head:

Professor Volker ter Meulen, Co-chair, IAP for Science, & past president, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

Partners:

• Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA)
• European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC)
• InterAmerican Network of Academies of Science (IANAS)
• Network of African Science Academies (NASAC)
• InterAcademy Partnership (IAP)

Email contacts:

Anja Geissler, IAP project assistant, German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina - anja.geissler@leopoldina.org

Secretariat, InterAcademy Partnership - iapartnership@twas.org

The GYA is now taking the lead to develop a report on “Solid Waste Management and Green Economy”. The report is intended to motivate and assist governments and businesses in making a transition to the green economy. It will directly address the waste management sector, articulating enabling public policies, business models, green investment opportunities, innovative approaches, and case studies. It is planned to cover: countries with advanced economies (G8); transition and emerging economy countries (BRICS); and developing economies.

The ultimate aim of the report is to inform and help shape public policy and private sector involvement for a transition to green economy to boost sustainable development worldwide.

Contacts:

Project leader: Sherien Elagroudy, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Egypt Solid Waste Management Center of Excellence/ Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering

Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

E-mail: s.elagroudy@eng.asu.edu.eg, shereen_23@hotmail.com

Secretariat, InterAcademy Partnership: iapartnership@twas.org