Organised by: Mr. Aidan Gilligan, Founder, CEO SciCom - Making Sense of Science; Member of the Governing Board of Euroscience Co-organised by: Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, UN Secretary General’s Ban-Ki Moon’s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis & Malaria.
Science Policy - European Science Open Forum (ESOF), Copenhagen
16h30 – 17h45, Tuesday 24 June 2014 (Pompeii Hall, Carlsberg Academy)
Session Description
Countries large and small, developed and developing, express a clear interest in implementing science diplomacy through politics. This is for the purpose of representation, cooperation, resolving disputes, improving systems, and securing the right to science for citizens and our most vulnerable populations. The same applies to global companies and institutions operating in a complex matrix of technical and relational challenges.
We will test this theory against the successes and failures of health diplomacy strategies around two challenging issues: global responses to HIV/Aids and harm reduction science linked to lifestyle. We will spotlight how new disciplines and voices are being integrated into decision making. Accepting that societal problems are not necessarily problems with purely scientific solutions, we will argue that meeting global challenges demands not only scientific discovery and innovation, but greater inclusiveness and dialogue. We will aim to demonstrate that if we accept the potential of science diplomacy as a common currency capable of underpinning today's stakeholder interactions, we must equally leverage control at the highest levels to remove the political barriers that prevent affected populations from accessing services.
Session Format: Traditional lecture but highly interactive
Session Duration: 1h15 minutes
Target Audience: Policymakers, General Public, Media
Category: Healthy Society
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Organiser: Mr. Aidan Gilligan, Founder, CEO SciCom - Making Sense of Science, Euroscience Governing Board Member, ESOF Copenhagen 2014, International Media & Marketing Committee Vice-Chair. 121 Rue Franklin, 1000, Brussels, Belgium. Phone Number: +32(0)474042602; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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Co-organiser: Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, UN Secretary General’s Ban-Ki Moon’s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis & Malaria. Av. De France 23, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. Phone Number: 0041792394054; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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Moderator: Dr. Alan Leshner, Chief Executive Officer AAAS and Executive Publisher, Science Journal, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington DC, DC 20005, USA. Phone Number: 202-326-6650; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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Discussant: Prof. Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Adviser to European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso European Commission, BERL 08/039, Rue de La Loi 200, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. Phone Number: 003222995021; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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Discussant: Ms Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor, South African Minister for Science and Technology, Care Of: Daan du Toit, Minister Counsellor (Science and Technology): South African Mission to the European Union (Senior S&T Representative to the EU: South African Department of Science and Technology) Rue Montoyer 17-19 B-1000, Brussels, Belgium. Phone Number: 0032473687514; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Presentation Title: Building an International Science Diplomacy System
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Speaker 1: Dr. Vaughan Turekian, AAAS Chief International Officer & Editor-in-Chief Science Diplomacy, 1200 New York Avenue NW; Washington DC, DC 20005, USA. Phone Number: +01 202-326-6650; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Talk Description:
Traditionally, states have been the main actors practicing diplomacy to manage their international relationships. Global challenges from cross-border energy supply, shifting geo-political environments and the linkages between health and ageing, trade, intellectual property, and human rights, present stakeholders with a complex matrix of technical and relational challenges. My talk will uncover how a new type of diplomacy and dialogue is necessary to navigate the changing landscape of international affairs. As economic progress becomes interdependent with advances in science and technology, science diplomacy is the chosen method of interaction between stakeholders. In tandem, I will argue the imperative of working in ways that are transparent and open to a diversity of contributors and ideas. Assessing risk versus benefit in adopting an innovation is complex and requires open dialogue. Only then will we further scientific discovery to meet global challenges and improve quality of life.
Presentation Title: HIV/Aids: How Science Diplomacy Removes Political Barriers To Accessing Services
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Speaker 2: Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, UN Secretary General’s Ban-Ki Moon’s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis & Malaria. Av. De France 23, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. Phone Number: 0041792394054; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Talk Description:
For over 30 years, the UN has been the spider in the web of international efforts to improve global health and responses to HIV/Aids. It employs leading physicians, researchers, advocates, policymakers, diplomats and administrators with a single-minded focus on leveraging at the highest possible political level to try and remove the political barriers that prevent affected populations from accessing services. My talk will draw on our successes and failures in The Global Fund. I will unravel the world of science and diplomacy strategies to evidence how $20 billion in additional donor commitments and pledges were mobilised. I will help delegates better understand the role of personality and politics, coalition building and pressure groups, big business and even bad timing. As the current UN Special Envoy to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, I will share insights into why these are the parts of the world where the AIDS epidemic is expanding the fastest.
Presentation Title: Harm Reduction: How Science Diplomacy Enhances Dialogue & Evidence-Based Policy
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Speaker 3: M.D. Delon Human, President & CEO, Health Diplomats, Secretary-General of the Africa Medical Association, Former Secretary of the World Medical Association, 8 Place de la Tour, CH-1270 Trelex, Switzerland. Phone Number: +41 22 369 90 12; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Talk Description:
Science, communicated well, provides a critical opportunity for stakeholders involved in global health policy development to engage and break down barriers. Policy development in e.g. pharmaceutical, tobacco and food regulation often lack a robust science base, which leads to politically driven rather than evidence-based policy. My talk will argue that by widely sharing our biomedical discoveries, cultivating research talent and human resources in developing countries, and negotiating treaties and other international agreements that save lives and improve health, we can provide leadership through science and foster more constructive relations with other countries. Sound global health policy will greatly benefit if we can generate new ideas to show the positive role science and scientists can play in the design and development of policies to ensure the highest possible standards of health, wealth and stability of the world.