Articles
RSS SubscribeTuesday 8th September 2009
Responses to Environmental and Societal Challenges for our Unstable Earth
by COST
The European Science Foundation (ESF) and European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) have recently approved the launch of a new foresight activity entitled Forward Look “Responses to Environmental and Societal Challenges for our Unstable Earth” (RESCUE), a joint COST-ESF “Frontiers of Science” initiative. The Chair and Vice-Chair of the RESCUE Scientific Steering Committee are Professor Leen Hordjik (Director, EC-JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability, IT) and Professor Gísli Pálsson(Social and Environmental Anthropology, University of Iceland, IS), respectively.
The purpose of this foresight exercise — an open, participatory, scientific community effort — is to help address the new societal and scientific challenges related to global environmental change, including its human dimensions, and to help stimulate an integrated response from natural, social and human sciences. This activity is carried out in close cooperation with ICSU and the ESSP. Through its analyses and recommendations, RESCUE should enable the science community, together with other actors and key stakeholders, to develop medium to long-term strategies for future research endeavours and applications that contribute to global sustainable governance. The core of RESCUE activities are organised aroundthematic RESCUE Working Groups: “New, emerging and neglected scientific questions in RESCUE remit”; “Collaboration between the natural, social and human sciences in global change studies”; “Requirements for research methodologies and data”; “Towards a ‘revolution’ in education and capacity building”; “Interface between science and policy, communication and outreach”; Chaired by Prof Joseph Alcamo; Prof Rik Leemans; Prof Claudia Pahl-Wostl; Prof Karen O’Brien; and Dr Jill Jäger, respectively.
The launching conference of the joint initiative RESCUE will be held on 10th–11th September 2009 in Rueil-Malmaison (near Paris, France). In order to initiate the RESCUE activities this launching conference will bring together a limited number of key expert scientists and research managers representing important related science communities and initiatives. This conference is organized around a number of keynote lectures and parallel, topical sessions linked to the thematic Working Groups. Shortly after this launching conference, the RESCUE Working Groups will start their own activities.
