The response from research communities across the globe to the COVID-19 crisis, clearly demonstrates the necessity of science diplomacy and the strength of connected communities.
On Friday 25 September, Director of the COST Association, Ronald de Bruin represented COST in the InsSciDE virtual panel discussion, ‘Researchers and research institutes: Shaping and informing global action through diplomacy.’ The event was part of a series of webinars looking at cross-sectoral responses of research, business, government or diplomacy communities, in efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic.
COST Director Ronald de Bruin explains how “COST puts science diplomacy in practice, every day” during an insightful discussion on ‘Shaping and informing global action through #diplomacy as part of the webinar series by @insscide_eu https://t.co/YXuIdJXPf9#Science #COSTactions pic.twitter.com/FKr5B5pFgO
— COST (@COSTprogramme) September 25, 2020
‘The Researchers and research institutes: Shaping and informing global action through diplomacy’ webinar event, focused on how independent of governmental support, the research community spurred into action when the pandemic hit, building open source data and information banks as well as building interdisciplinary networks across borders. The discussion explored how this positive response emerged with such speed and scale and how it was possible to maintain the momentum.
Director of the COST Association, Ronald de Bruin stated “In my role as COST Director, I act as diplomat for science every day. Researchers starting networks are representatives of their countries, so they are de facto national ambassadors of science.
COST being an intergovernmental organisation, facilitates working connections with countries outside of the EU. As an example, the Western Balkan countries are member countries and neighbours to COST, allowing their researchers to participate on equal terms with their peers from all over Europe and beyond. So, researchers from the Western Balkans work side by side in COST Actions.
We live the COST programme in the spirit of the Ubuntu philosophy of South Africa, a COST Partner Member, which stands for “I am because we are”. The power of the collective is in the DNA of the COST Actions.
The bottom-up reaction from the Actions to the COVID crisis outbreak was to connect with their peers in other COST Actions and work on the challenges from different angles. A very strong point is the COST Actions’ interdisciplinarity that adds an important piece to the bigger puzzle of global COVID19 response
Trusted and safe environments such as networks are needed to engage in collaboration and to involve/ reach out to stakeholders beyond the scientific world. COST creates added value by identifying and connecting these different worlds and ensuring that they are made visible and linked to decision-makers via the art of science communication and scientific policy advice.”
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