On March 4th the “EU Science: Global Challenges, Global Collaboration” (ES:GC2) conference begin at the European Parliament in Brussels. The conference will bring together science policymakers, scientists and other industry representatives from 100 different countries. The main focus of the conference is to encourage worldwide collaborations in science and explore how we can generate effective scientific responses to various global challenges.
The five-day event will include scientific and technical seminars on a wide range of themes, training sessions on how to prepare project proposals, along with providing an opportunity for scientists to test their research ideas, and meet the press and other potential collaborators.
On the Wednesday (6th March), EU-UNAWE and the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development will take part in the workshop called “Science for Global Development: Astronomy – A Case Study” from 9:30-12:30 at the European Parliament. The focus of the workshop will be: how astronomy can be used as a tool for development and the lessons from astronomy that may be relevant to other disciplines.
The workshop is part of the “EU Science: Global Challenges, Global Collaboration” (ES:GC2) conference from March 4th – 8th. The conference will bring together science policymakers, scientists and other industry representatives from 100 different countries. The main focus of the conference is to encourage worldwide collaborations in science and explore how we can generate effective scientific responses to various global challenges.
A selection of specialists in the field of astronomy for development will be speaking during the workshop, all from industry, leading astronomical institutes and organizations and of course, EU-UNAWE. The talks will discuss how astronomy can be effectively utilised as a development aid, and as a tool for human and technological capacity building, covering the role of research, universities, schools and children.
A full schedule for the “Science for Global Development: Astronomy – A Case Study” workshop can be found below:
09:30 Welcome speech by Bill Newton
09:45 Rationale for astronomy as a development tool by George Miley
10:05 The IAU Office of Astronomy for Development by Kevin Govender
10:25 Astronomy for technological capacity building by Anita Loots
11:00 Astronomy and Industry by Harry Van
11:20 Astronomy for human capacity building – universities and research by Jean Pierre de Greve
11:40 Astronomy for human capacity building – schools and children by Pedro Russo
12:00 Experiences from the CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory by Niall Smith
12:10 Discussion
For more information visit the website here or, if you’d like to take part in the conference, register using this online form by 27th February. If you have any problems with the registration process, please contact us at: russo@strw.leidenuniv.nl.