6th World Science Forum, Rio de Janeiro, 2013

The theme of the 2013 World Science Forum was “Science for Global Sustainable Development”. Among other important issues the conference addressed barriers for global sustainability; science policy and governance; scientific integrity; science for natural resources, and the roles of science in innovation. The conference was co-organized by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. IAP Co-Chairs participated in the Forum, where Volker ter Meulen chaired a session on Science and Engineering Education.  It emerged from the Forum discussions that there is a growing acceptance from the global research community that it has a responsibility to help provide sustainable solutions to global problems, Recurrent themes during the 3-day event included the need to improve science education and communication, to tackle inequality, to work across disciplines, to share data and to be inclusive and work with the public and private sectors.

The Forum participants issued a Declaration with five priority recommendations, including a call for concrete action to mobilize science academies and the scientific community to play a role in supporting, for example, the Future Earth. Currently national governments and the UN are continuing discussions on the design of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and reviewing the Hyogo Framework for Action on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), which IAP Members have also been encouraged to participate in. The implementation of this Agenda and of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals may represent an even bigger challenge. Therefore, the World Science Forum 2013 urges scientists, decision makers and society to be engaged in this process at the national, regional and global levels to pave the way to achieving global sustainable development.

The next WSF will return to Hungary in 2015 and then be hosted in Jordan in 2017, with the support of IAP Member - The Royal Society of Jordan (RSS).

Read the full Declaration here.