Science Summit at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78)

Introduction and aims

The purpose of this panel is to bring together global leaders whose expertise brings them into the realm of policy on the African continent. They will be responding to the question of how policy is being influenced through other disciplines and what opportunities exist for further support for science in Africa through other understandings of society beyond the lab.


Abstract

Aside from scientific enterprise in Africa, there are significant developments in various other related spheres, ranging from a renewed scholarly output in areas of the history and sociology of science and technology to a dynamic capital landscape resulting in increased funding for innovations serving the African continent. In the acknowledgement of the broader impact of the ripples sent out by development in these fields, we aim to delineate the scope and possibilities that the interactions between these specialties are defining now and what they mean for the future. By understanding and defining the space of interaction, we also seek to outline new modes of connection and establish strong ideas for how strategic impulses throughout these nodes can speak to stronger interventions and policies that favour African scientific enterprise and the unique space it occupies.

Expected outcomes

The outcome of this panel is to develop a roadmap for how individuals, organisations and institutions in the broader ecosystem of African scientific enterprise can collaborate to expedite science and technology policy innovations.