Science Diplomacy and its relevance to low- and middle-income countries │ Dr. Peter McGrath
Channel: Sudanese Researchers Foundation
Date: 2019-03-01

Summary:
The phrase 'science diplomacy' provides a relatively new conceptual framework for a set of activities that have been going on at the interface of science and foreign policy for many years.
The presentation will explore some of the history of science diplomacy as well as efforts to define and explain what it is - as well as what it isn't.
Science diplomacy can also be perceived as an activity used by rich countries, but in which low- and middle-income countries have yet to fully engage. However, I will show that developing countries are also using science diplomacy as a means to achieve their foreign policy goals. Examples of different science diplomacy practices and projects, highlighting those of low- and middle-income countries, will be presented.
For such developing countries, however, science systems are generally weaker than in industrialized countries. This means that developing countries may be at a disadvantage when entering into diplomatic negotiations that require scientific expertise. Some examples of this will be presented - as well as proposals on how these countries may overcome this shortcoming. 

Speaker:
Peter McGrath, 
Coordinator
InterAcademy Partnership (IAP)
and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS),
 Science Policy/Science Diplomacy programme
Dr. Peter McGrath obtained his BSc (honours) in Agricultural Zoology from the University of Glasgow, UK, and followed this with a PhD from the University of Leeds, UK, in 1989. 
His 10-year research career included postdoctoral positions at the Scottish Crop Research Institute, Dundee, UK, as well as Purdue University and the University of Arizona in the USA.
Returning to the UK in 1997, he established his own business as a freelance journalist focusing on agricultural, environmental and scientific issues. 
The experience he gained in communicating scientific issues to non-specialist audiences made him an ideal fit for his first position at TWAS (2003) – as writer/editor in the Public Information Office. 
From 2006, he began overseeing the implementation of TWAS’s core programmes, including South-South fellowships and other exchange schemes, research grants and various prizes, as well as the activities of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD). During this time he helped expand these programmes and developed new partnerships and activities. He was appointed as coordinator of the TWAS Science Policy/Science Diplomacy programme when it was established in 2011. 
In 2013, he switched to become coordinator of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), a global network of academies of science, medicine and engineering, also based in Trieste. IAP is dedicated to providing evidence-based recommendations on scientific issues to policymakers. As well as his IAP duties, he retains his position as coordinator of the TWAS science diplomacy initiative, including acting as the focal point for an EU Horizon 2020 science diplomacy project, S4D4C.

Moderator: 
Mosab Ali Awadelkareem, Al-Neelain University, Sudan.

Panellists:
Maha Dahawi, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
Cynthia Lefebvre Omar, Sorbonne University, France.
Yoran Beldengrün, Mercator fellow, Germany.
Amna Abdalla, Georg August University, Germany.
Mahmoud Maina, University of Sussex, UK.


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