WSDS21: DAY 1 – Introductions, Open Session and Practitioners’ Panel

DAY 1 – Introductions, Open Session and Practitioners’ Panel

WSDS kicked off with a round of introductions and icebreakers, an open session with themes of power and geopolitical transitions, and a panel of practitioners testifying to the joys, challenges and daily life of being a science diplomat.

In the Open Session, Rasmus Bertelsen (WSDS Director, UiT The Arctic University of Norway) first introduced the InsSciDE project, funded by Horizon 2020, as a (critical) response to the EU’s call for developing SD for scientific cooperation on global challenges and enhanced international relations. At the core of these ambitions are notions of power and the formulation of strategy in the context of an uncertain future. He argued that the shifting geopolitical and -economic context for SD requires Europe to pursue more inclusive dialogues with non-Western counterparts and deeper understanding of the global neighbours gaining power. Using a quote from Swedish slalom master Ingemar Stenmark – ‘the more I practice, the luckier I get’, – Bertelsen explained that deliberating and preparing strategies for different scenarios helps generate ‘luckier’ outcomes when conflicts or emergencies arise.

Simone Turchetti (Case Study Author in InsSciDE Environment, University of Manchester) presented a rare insight into burgeons of Brexit and UK’s present environmental policy in 1980s Brussels. The current UK Prime Minister and staunch supporter of the ’Leave’ campaign, Boris Johnson, was there as a young journalist. While Johnson was actively criticizing the European Commission as a Daily Telegraph correspondent, his father Stanley Johnson was the Commission’s chief environmental adviser.

The Practitioners’ Panel was led by Swiss diplomat and InsSciDE representative of UNESCO Christina Bürgi-Dellsperger, who invited the panelists to share their personal path into SD, high-points and challenges from their career and advice for aspiring science diplomats.

Tania Friederichs, Head of Sector for Research and Innovation at the EU Delegation to India and a lawyer by training, told of a buzzing STI scene in India and looking for ‘pockets of excellence’ to partner with. She emphasized that science diplomats must ‘know their product’, ensuring they enter discussions well-versed in the scientific as well as economical/political/social aspects of what is being proposed.

Bhaskar Balakrishnan is a Science Diplomacy Fellow at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS). His journey started as a researcher of theoretical and particle physics before joining the diplomatic service in 1974 in pursuit of making a bigger difference in the world, eventually serving as the Ambassador of India in Greece, Cuba and Haiti. He described working as a science diplomat as a continuous learning experience – science diplomats must have a good ability to learn on their own – and highlighted the value of exchange with local epistemic communities.

Guillermo Orts-Gil, Head of Communications and Public Relations at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), echoed the others’ experience of becoming a science diplomat by seizing a relatively sudden opportunity to change jobs, as he went from nano science researcher to the first International Science Coordinator at the Spanish Embassy in Berlin. Orts-Gil said the most important intrinsic quality for a science diplomat is open-mindedness – the other necessary skills can be learned.

In an internal discussion that followed the panel, Bürgi-Dellsperger added her own personal reflections from working at Embassies of Switzerland in Tokyo, Rabat, Ankara and in several European cities. She elaborated on remarks by Friederichs’s on the gender component of being a science diplomat, concurring that she saw some advantages and noting that women are sometimes perceived as being easier to talk to. However, early in her career she was often the only woman in the room and had to learn how to ensure her voice was really heard. She also brought to light some personal challenges of career diplomats, such as the difficulty of maintaining personal relationships due to constant relocation.

At the end of the day, students were placed in groups according to common professional interests and discussed their ambitions in science diplomacy and what they hoped to gain from WSDS21. In the evening, we hosted a Pub Quiz on the avatar-based social platform Gather (winners: The SciDip Rockers!).

Select Session Recordings:

Case in point: Power with science diplomacy and sowing seeds of Brexit in EU climate negotiations

Moderator: Paula Urze (Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA))
Speakers:
Rasmus Bertelsen ("Power with Science Diplomacy"): UiT The Arctic University of Norway, visiting professor at Sirice; Director of WSDS and Leader of InsSciDE’s work package Power with Science Diplomacy
Simone Turchetti - ("Bojo, Brussels and Brexit: charting the environmental diplomacy ancestry of Britain’s separation from the EU"): University of Manchester; Case Study Author in InsSciDE’s work package Environment

Practitioners’ Panel: Science Diplomats in the Field

Moderator: Christina Bürgi-Dellsperger
Speakers:
Bhaskar Balakrishnan: Science Diplomacy Fellow at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)
Tania Friederichs: Head of Sector for Research and Innovation at the EU Delegation to India
Guillermo Orts-Gil: Head of Communications and Public Relations at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)

12 July 2021
D. Palmberg