Science20 Brazil emphasizes importance of science to global transformation

Representatives of science academies in 19 countries and organizations in Brazil and elsewhere assembled in Rio de Janeiro to begin producing documents and recommendations on science, technology and innovation for the G20 summit in November.

By Heitor Shimizu in Rio de Janeiro  |  Agência FAPESP – Representatives of national science academies in 19 countries and the European Union, as well as scientific organizations in Brazil and elsewhere, assembled in Rio de Janeiro on March 11, the first day of the Science20 (S20) Inception Meeting. 

Organized by the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and held on March 11-12, the meeting marked the official inception of S20 Brazil 2024, and the start of a process that will result in the production of thematic documents with recommendations and a final communiqué to be presented at the S20 Summit in July and forwarded to the G20 heads of state and government.

The G20 (Group of Twenty) is the premier intergovernmental forum for international economic cooperation. It plays an important role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on all major international economic issues. The G20 Leaders’ Summit 2024 will take place on November 18-19 in Rio de Janeiro, with Brazil presiding. 

The S20 is the G20’s engagement group for the area of science and technology. Comprising the national science academies of all G20 countries, its main aim is to foster a dialogue between the scientific community and policymakers, and to offer recommendations to the Leaders’ Summit.

One of this year’s innovations is the G20 Social, a space for civil society to participate in and contribute to the Summit’s policymaking discussions. The G20 Social has 13 engagement groups including the S20.

“Brazil proposes to put issues relating to global asymmetry in access to and development of science, technology and innovation at the center of its presidency,” said Luciana Santos, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation during the opening sessions of the S20 Inception Meeting.

Santos stressed the importance of the bioeconomy. “When the outlook is challenging, a window of opportunity opens for economies that are already low-carbon to embark on a green technology revolution that’s only just beginning. The international community must introduce trade rules that are more favorable to emerging green industries in developing countries and reformulate intellectual property rights to facilitate technology transfer to those countries,” she said.

The Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) is responsible for organizing the eighth edition of the S20. Like the G20, the S20 has a non-permanent rotating secretariat and operates as a forum. Previous editions were held in Germany (2017), Argentina (2018), Japan (2019), Saudi Arabia (2020), Italy (2021), Indonesia (2022) and India (2023). The Brazilian presidency’s watchword for the G20 is “Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet”. The ABC’s motto for the S20 is "Science for Global Transformation”.

According to the ABC, because many topics can be discussed under this heading, five task forces have been set up: Bioeconomy (driving sustainability for the planet); Health Challenges (quality, equity and access); Artificial Intelligence (ethics, social impact, regulation and knowledge sharing); Social Justice (promoting inclusion, ending poverty and reducing inequality); and Energy Transition (renewables, and social and economic considerations). 

“By taking on board the mission of hosting the G20, Brazil has reinforced its role as an influencer and mediator in the pursuit of answers to global questions, reassuming its leadership of discussions that place science at the forefront of the search for solutions to our world’s most pressing problems,” said ABC President Helena Bonciani Nader, sherpa (local lead) for S20 Brazil 2024 and a member of FAPESP’s Board of Trustees. 

At the S20 Inception Meeting, the representatives of national science academies discussed a document prepared by the ABC as a basis for the recommendations on science, technology and innovation to be submitted to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in November.

“The title of the meeting, Science for Global Transformation, is particularly relevant for us in South Africa and all of southern Africa. The key is collaboration and cooperation among partners. We must work together to develop ways and means of achieving some of these goals. The health challenges, for example, aren’t just about equity and access, but also about the quality of healthcare, which needs to be holistic and inclusive. As for social inclusion and sustainability, the emphasis placed on ending poverty and reducing inequality is absolutely critical, alongside the inclusion of Indigenous communities and entrepreneurship to contribute to economic growth,” said Stephanie Burton, Acting President of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

“We can use technology to reduce inequality. We need to look for technologies that improve and encourage diversity, and this is a huge task. We must develop transformative technological tools that promote equity and inclusion of diversity. A good example is the development of reliable automatic real-time translation, so that we don’t all have to speak the same language but can understand each other while speaking our own languages,” said Ashutosh Sharma, representing the Indian National Science Academy (INSA).

Besides presentations by science academies and other scientific organizations in G20 countries, the event featured a presentation on the keynote lectures on health, innovation, artificial intelligence and research collaboration, as well as a new initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization called the UNESCO Global Alliance on the Science of Learning for Education.

For more information, visit: s20brasil.org/en/about/.