3.1.2 The S4D4C Approach to Science Diplomacy: a Multi-Stakeholder Endeavour

The S4D4C consortium celebrated its 1st Global Networking Meeting “EU Science Diplomacy beyond 2020” in Madrid in December 2018. The main output of the conference was the publication of The Madrid Declaration on Science Diplomacy (S4D4C 2019), which has been acknowledged as one of the first public calls to all “actors”, including the general public and scientists themselves, as key stakeholders in the science diplomacy endeavour. For more information about this Declaration, you may go back to Topic 2.3.5. The Madrid Declaration on Science Diplomacy.

Joint science diplomacy objectives are possible where actors converge around such common challenges. Therefore, science diplomacy goes beyond international science collaboration, as it tackles interests that go beyond the scientific ones and may directly or indirectly serve to advance diplomatic goals.

This approach has a number of implications, as science diplomacy is not understood as a thread of diplomacy but as a wider framework in which a rich variety of stakeholders interact. Of course, this set up brings many advantages (the more agents working towards the same goal, the better) but it also comes with some challenges that need to be carefully understood and tackled (coordination, training, deep understanding and respect of each stakeholder’s interests, etc.)

You may watch in the following video the main highlights of this 1st S4D4C Global Meeting through the experiences of the different science diplomacy stakeholders in attendance. Through this video you will be introduced to our multi stakeholder approach on science diplomacy.

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