Country for PR: United Kingdom
Contributor: PR Newswire Europe
Tuesday, April 13 2021 - 18:00
AsiaNet
GESDA to hold inaugural summit in October for global diplomacy initiatives based on emerging science breakthroughs
GENEVA, April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

The Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), a Swiss foundation that 
serves as the first global tool for diplomacy based on the anticipation of 
science, today released its first activity report and announced it will hold 
its first annual summit for ambitious solutions based on a proprietary 
decision-making platform: the GESDA Breakthrough Radar.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1486243/GESDA_Logo.jpg 

The inaugural annual GESDA Summit will convene October 7 to 9 with an expected 
300 UN officials, Nobel laureates and other representatives of the four GESDA 
communities – academics, diplomats, impact leaders, NGOs and the general public 
– at Geneva's science hub, Campus Biotech, where GESDA is headquartered. Among 
the hot-button issues to be debated among participants at interactive sessions 
and other dialogue are:

    -- how to catalyze multilateralism through anticipation and action in 
       science diplomacy; 
    -- future global challenges for human genome engineering; 
    -- a common future for quantum computing; 
    -- the road to the utilization of space resources; 
    -- co-development of advanced AI at a global scale with universal safe 
       access; 
    -- and future of financing and development schemes based on science 
       advances.

At the summit, GESDA will unveil its Breakthrough Radar, a proprietary 
decision-making tool that assesses the impact and momentum of future scientific 
advances, along timeframes relevant to GESDA (five, 10 and 25 years), in four 
scientific frontier issues: the quantum revolution and advanced artificial 
intelligence (AI); human augmentation; eco-regeneration and geoengineering; as 
well as anticipatory science and diplomacy. The Breakthrough Radar is designed 
to provide an easy-to-read mapping of potential scientific breakthroughs and 
their possible impacts on people, society and the planet. Based on this 
anticipatory scientific scouting, GESDA is pushing to develop, in Geneva, 
solutions to address current and forthcoming global challenges, such as:

    -- a hybrid CERN/IAEA-like organization to guarantee safe access and use 
       of quantum infrastructures for communication and computing, like those 
       for strategic national and international security agendas; 
    -- establishment of a new global court or dispute settlement body for the 
       self-regulation of scientific disputes over ethics, privacy, the 
       governance of science and the overall benefits to humanity of 
       scientific progress; 
    -- an international agreement on the co-development, access and use of 
       advanced AI models, along with the creation of an organization to 
       support and rule on those global governance standards; 
    -- and a Manhattan Project-style research and development undertaking to 
       help science and industry accelerate the decarbonization of industrial 
       processes in the next decades. 

So far, GESDA has convened (https://gesda.global/who-we-are/ )about 100 
prominent scientists, senior diplomats, philanthropists, heads of international 
organizations, university and industry executives as well as NGOs and members 
of the general public, as detailed in its first annual activity report ( 
https://gesda.global/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GESDA-Annual-Report_2019-2020_final.pdf 
) covering 2019 and 2020, which includes key facts and figures on the 
Foundation's progress. It produced 11 Scientific anticipatory briefs 
(https://gesda.global/scientific-anticipatory-briefs/ ) and brought together 
around 60 scientific experts, political and business leaders and the general 
public to discuss these briefs at a joint meeting of its high-level academic 
and diplomacy panels ( 
https://gesda.global/gesda-gathers-its-high-level-academic-and-diplomacy-panels-to-leverage-anticipatory-science-advances-and-address-emerging-global-challenges-in-an-innovative-way/ 
) in December 2020. GESDA has attracted philanthropic funding to match seed 
funding from the Swiss federal government as well as the Canton and City of 
Geneva.

The first annual activity report is published after Switzerland's federal 
government strengthened Geneva's role as a digital and technology governance 
hub with its appointment of Ambassador Alexandre Fasel ( 
https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/fdfa/fdfa/aktuell/newsuebersicht/2021/02/science-diplomacy.html 
) as the first special representative for science diplomacy in Geneva last 
February.

"What GESDA has achieved so far really has exceeded my expectations," said 
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman of GESDA's Board of Directors. "The world is 
experiencing breakthrough science and technological advances at an 
unprecedented speed. These discoveries will reshape how we view ourselves as 
humans, how we relate to each other in society and how we care for our 
environment. GESDA will play a crucial part in anticipating advances in 
frontier sciences to ensure we capture their potential for global well-being 
and inclusive development whilst safeguarding our collective welfare."

"Breakthrough technologies such as advanced artificial intelligence, genome 
editing, neuro-enhancement, decarbonization and computational diplomacy are set 
to dominate the global agenda in the coming decades," said Patrick Aebischer, 
GESDA's Vice Chairman and former President of the Swiss Federal Institute of 
Technology In Lausanne. "GESDA will serve as a 'think tank' and as a 'do tank' 
by bridging different communities while ensuring that we can make the most of 
these anticipated scientific advances. With the Sustainable Development Goals 
in sight, and forthcoming global challenges, we must ensure we are ready to put 
governance frameworks in place without slowing down innovation which will 
improve people's lives."

About the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA)

The Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), a Swiss Foundation and 
private public partnership born in 2019, was created as an anticipatory science 
and diplomacy tool for greater impact and multilateral effectiveness.

GESDA's ambitious vision — using the future to build the present — reflects 
both the speed of scientific advances and the dynamism of the city where it is 
headquartered, Geneva, a global hub of multilateralism and home to the United 
Nations' European headquarters and more than 2,000 other international 
organizations, NGOs, multinational businesses and world-class academic 
institutions.

Driven by a broad global community coming from all over the world, GESDA 
addresses three fundamental questions tackling emerging challenges:

Who are we, as humans? What does it mean to be human in the era of robots, gene 
editing and augmented reality ? 

How can we all live together? What technology can be deployed to help reduce 
inequality, Improve well-being and foster inclusive development? 

How can we ensure the well-being of humankind and the sustainable future of our 
planet? How can we supply the world population with the necessary food and 
energy while regenerating our planet?

To this end, the Foundation's work consists of :

    -- anticipating the scientific breakthroughs that will impact the world 
       by listing what is "cooking" in and will come out of the scientific 
       laboratories in the next five, 10 or 25 years (be it in the formal, 
       natural or human sciences), via a global scouting system updated 
       annually, highlighting their potential impact for people, society and 
       the planet; 
    -- accelerating the discussion about the opportunities offered by these 
       scientific breakthroughs with politicians, diplomats, philanthropists, 
       entrepreneurs, NGOs, the general public in order to design with them
       solutions capable of tackling current or emerging global challenges
       facing humanity including the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 2030; 
    -- translating these solutions into concrete & cutting-edge projects by 
       bringing together the coalitions, partners and investors necessary to 
       implement them in collaboration with multilateral institutions, of 
       which Geneva is the UN operational hub.
 
Contacts for further information	
	
For strategic partners	          For media
	
Stephane Decoutère	          Olivier Dessibourg
Secretary General	          Executive Director of Science 
stephane.decoutere@gesda.global   Communication and Outreach
+41 79 292 50 80                  olivier.dessibourg@gesda.global
                                  +41 78 712 88 68
	
For investors	                  Find us online
	 
Sandro Giuliani 	          Website: www.gesda.global
Executive Director of             Linkedin:
the Impact Fund                   https://www.linkedin.com/company/gesda-global/
andro.giuliani@gesda.global       Twitter: https://twitter.com/GESDAglobal
+41 79 303 06 00	
	
 
SOURCE   GESDA -The Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator
 

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