IYBSSD Closing Ceremony 

Inaugurated on 8 July 2022, the United Nations’ International Year of Science of Sustainable Development (IYBSSD) was the occasion to stress the crucial role that fundamental science plays in paving the way towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are at the core of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development defined by the United Nations in 2015. The International Year was also an opportunity to involve scientists doing basic research and invite them to reflect on how their work contributes to the SDGs.

As a member of the International Year’s steering committee, ICTP took part in the global conversation by organising a series of conferences and panel discussions that addressed issues such as climate change, artificial intelligence, human ecology and open science, in connection with the research carried out at the Centre. 

Some of the initiatives organised by ICTP to mark the IYBSSD included:

• The Importance of Basic Sciences in Addressing the Global Energy Crisis – 18 May 2022
• Artificial Intelligence for Detection and Attribution of Climate Extremes - 23 June 2022
• Workshop on Quantitative Human Ecology - 25-29 July 2022
• Embedding Ethics in Machine Learning – 11 November 2022

In partnership with the American Physical Society (APS) and the European Physical Society (EPS), ICTP also established a travel award fellowship programme, allowing successful early career scientists from and currently working in a developing country to spend two consecutive months in a partner research institute in Europe, North America, or in a more advanced developing country.  
 

• APS-EPS-ICTP Travel Award Fellowship Programme (ATAP) – next deadline: 31 March 2024

The IYBSSD’s closing ceremony is taking place on 15 December at the CERN Science Gateway in Geneva, Switzerland, in the presence of representatives of science academies from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. A whole day will be dedicated to highlighting the main achievements of this initiative, which involved more than 400 events in over 70 countries across the world. The morning sessions will focus fully on early career researchers, while part of the afternoon will offer insights into the 2024-2033 International Decade of Science for Sustainable Development. The latter was proclaimed last August and is considered one of the main outcomes of the IYBSSD.
 
To attend the meeting online: https://www.iybssd2022.org