On the 14th of December 2020, S4D4C celebrates the second anniversary since we organised the 1st S4D4C Networking Meeting, which took place on the 12-14th December 2018 in Madrid (Spain).
S4D4C had been running for less than half a year and, with that meeting, this Horizon-2020 funded consortium aimed at hosting a global discussion on the reconceptualization of science diplomacy as an approach key to advance in national, regional and global challenges (See Gluckman et al. 2017); in order to focus on how best adopt a multi-stakeholder approach and improving training of current and future science diplomats.
For three days, we had top-level professionals coming from all over the world: Europe, Canada, China, India, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama and the United States of America, and fields, involving academic researchers, policy practitioners, chief scientific advisers, diplomats, and politicians.
As such, it was the first opportunity for S4D4C to relate the global discussion on science diplomacy to the European Union main stakeholders and policy perspectives.
Part of the conference focused on the different conceptual approaches to define science diplomacy, its main current challenges, and how different actors interpret it. But overall, mixing the theory and practice of science diplomacy around national, regional, and global challenges was the main topic.
This event was also the first activity that the S4D4C Open Door fellows were exposed to, giving them the opportunity to engage with the wider community of researchers and practitioners.
The main policy outcome of this global meeting was the publication of “The Madrid Declaration on Science Diplomacy” in February 2019. This document has stirred public and policy debate in different fora and countries, inspiring some to improve their national science diplomacy strategies.
S4D4C is now pleased to release version 1.12 of this declaration, which displays up to 167 experts across many different countries and fields endorsing it.
Lastly, S4D4C is in preparation for the Final Networking Meeting to be held online on 15-19th March 2021. There are two calls for abstract submissions currently open, as S4D4C wants to give the wider community the possibility of actively participating in this final conference by submitting a proposal for either a satellite session or a flash talk. Deadline for abstract submission is 30th December 11:59 (CET, UTC+1).
