Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 2nd Open Science Conference at the United Nations, around the theme “From tackling the pandemic to addressing climate change”.
This conference is an opportunity to learn from the experience with open science during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis so that we can better deploy science to address the other great challenges of our time – those that are the subject of the SDGs and climate goals.
Colleagues,
This is a time of reckoning.
Through the COVID-19 crisis, we see how precarious, inequitable and unsustainable our development trajectories have been.
Even before the pandemic objective assessments were indicating that poverty reduction was slowing, hunger was growing again after years of decline, inequalities were rising; and greenhouse gas emissions as well as biodiversity loss continued to increase.
These statistics have only worsened over the last year and a half.
Going beyond these numbers, in human terms, no country or individual has been left untouched by COVID.
Impacts have also been manifestly unequal. Even now, when there are genuine ways forward, prospects are uneven.
The most vulnerable people and countries face the most arduous and fragile paths to recovery.
And if we do not look at the evidence and change course, tomorrow we may well be on our way to irreversible damage from climate change and ecosystem destruction.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have directly experienced, over the course of the last year how seemingly irretrievable situations can be turned around.
Science made it happen, delivering with staggering speed through the sharing of knowledge, pooling of resources, and cooperation in research towards a common end.
Public health guidance, treatment protocols and vaccines were developed in record time.
Open science, based on freely sharing knowledge and data, making them publicly available and accessible to all, has been fundamental in making these advances possible.
The rapid sharing of genome sequencing data, open source designs for personal protective equipment (PPE), preprint publishing of research articles and data sharing platforms – together, initiatives like these accelerated the flow of information and the pace of action to match the urgency of the crisis.
Promoting collaboration across disciplines and geographies has been especially important for developing integrated solutions, and for countries that may lack the laboratories and resources to independently advance such research.
Let us use this year of experience with open science to take stock of how we can continue to harness its power for the well-being of all.
In that spirit, I would like to pose before you five areas calling for further reflection.
The first such area derives from understanding that the impact of science is mediated through interfaces with policy and society.
Even as the speed of discovery and dissemination has increased, we must ask ourselves whether these interfaces have also been enabled to keep up in terms of assessing results, evaluating impacts and making course-corrections.
Enhancing such functionalities are essential for effective decision making by governments and individuals.
The second point I would like to bring up is those who are left behind from accessing these networks of open science.
We must close digital divides, which threaten to perpetuate existing inequalities and create new ones. Only about half of the world’s population can access the Internet, leaving 3.6 billion out of its reach. The gap is even larger for women.
These deficits in access are compounded by capacity gaps in research skills, data literacy, as well as unequal conditions at work
Our third area of reflection must be on how we can match the speed and effectiveness with which open science can develop solutions, to the other grave problems we face.
Can we adopt the same mission driven sense of urgency and focused funding that we saw with COVID-19, to deal with our challenges of improving the lives of all on a small, shared planet?
Related, but no less important is the fourth area: how can we more equitably share the fruits of open science?
The distribution of the very vaccines that were developed from research driven by decades of public and philanthropic funding remains vastly unequal.
Wealthier nations have secured millions of doses, sometimes far in excess of their populations, while others are barely able to access them.
About a quarter of the world’s population has received at least one dose. But only one percent of the people in low income countries falls in this group.
Certainly, global challenges call for global solutions. But unless these are shared - adopted and implemented at the local level - the problems will persist and can even multiply.
Finally, and related to all of the above, is being able to maintain trust in science. Digitalization and openness must be accompanied by quality assurance, privacy protections and measures for reducing and actively combatting misinformation.
Colleagues,
This event is a chance to turn reflection on these areas towards concrete outcomes – an opportunity to discuss how open science can help advance the wellbeing of all, and contribute to addressing the climate crisis.
At the United Nations, we are committed to furthering the role of science in solving such challenges and to bringing together stakeholders to form new partnerships and share knowledge.
In 2015, 缅北禁地Member States launched the 缅北禁地Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM) – supported by DESA- to encourage a new multi-stakeholder way of deploying science, technology and innovation towards achieving the SDGs.
One way the TFM is disseminating knowledge and useful technologies is through an open access online platform – 2030 Connect – which links across open science resources and technology databases that can advance the SDGs.
We are very pleased to also have the Dag Hammarskjold Library’s vast resources accessible through 2030 Connect.
Dear friends,
By working together to share ideas and advance open science, we can give substance to our commitment to leave no one behind.
Scientific solutions will come from working collaboratively across disciplines; and by co-creating knowledge across borders, through inclusive models that can fully understand and reach local contexts.
Open science needs to stand on a foundation of quality STEM education for all, enhanced training, and global collaboration toward problem solving that contributes to the public good.
I encourage you during this conference to think about how we can learn from the trials of the past year to turn open science into inclusive science.
I wish you all the best for a successful conference and look forward to further collaborations.
Thank you.