STRINGS project member Valeria Arza has won the Houssay Award at the 2021 Houssay, Houssay Trayectoria and Jorge Sabato Awards.

The Houssay award is a recognition granted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Argentina. It recognises those who have contributed throughout their scientific career to produce new knowledge, develop innovations with a social and productive impact, and promote knowledge transfer and the training of human resources.

Find out more.

On Friday, 5 November 2021 Rasheed Sulaiman V participated at the session Facilitated Adoption of improved varieties by small-scale farmers which was presented during the Global Conference on Green Development of Seed Industries, organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and referred to STRING’s work on pathways. In particular Dr Sulaiman V discussed the need to support both pathways that are analysed in the STRINGS’s case study if we are keen to enhance use of better seeds by farmers.

See the session programme for more information.

Dr Valeria Arza, member of the STRINGS project, participated at the session “The significance of international research cooperation for the attainment of the SDGs – approaches from research management”, within the ScienceSummit@UNGA76 around the 76th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA76), held on 27th September 2021 and was organised by the German DLR from Germany.

In the session, Dr Arza talked about her research on Chagas within STRINGS project, whose goal is to map Science Technology and Innovation (STI) for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on Lower and Medium Income Countries (LMIC).

Focusing on Chagas, Dr Arza said that there are needs related to SDG 3, 16, 11 and 4, and highlighted that there are mismatches with science production, mostly concentrated in SDG 3, 15 and 11 and that research collaboration was found to be key. The requirements are:

1. Interdisciplinarity, to create bridges between production of science mostly in biology and medicine and the needs in education and governance.
2. Transdisciplinarity, to better understand Chagas complexity by promoting participation of stakeholders with different experience about the problem
3. International collaboration, particularly when collaboration involves partners from countries where the disease is endemic, possibly because they have more contextual
   

As part of the STRINGS project, Rasheed Sulaiman V and Nimisha Mittal conducted an interview with Mr Shankar Patnaik, a retired school teacher from Modeigaon village of Kosagumuda block in Nabarangapur, Odisha.

Mr Patnaik and his wife Minakshi Devi started collecting, conserving (in-situ), documenting and promoting seeds of indigenous rice varieties without any external help. Shankar has been honoured with the ‘Dr Richaria Samman’ by Odisha Desi Bihana Mancha in 2017 for his contribution towards conservation of indigenous rice.

Read the full interview

Key messages

• The STRINGS projects’ unprecedented mapping of how different areas of STI relate to SDGs has highlighted the potential misalignments between countries’ research priorities and SDG challenges.
• The mapping and characterisation of published research also highlighted the stark inequalities between where the research capabilities are built and where they are most needed.
• During the side event, it was argued that funders, donors and international organisations should seek to steer research priorities to address this. Recommendations based on experiences in Brazil, Germany and South Africa were discussed.
• Measures that were discussed include: consulting with a wider range of stakeholders and reflecting the views of different communities across different contexts; improving the assessment of research’s (unequal) impact on societies; and introducing new forms of global governance to better analyse R&D allocations and STI strategies.
• STRINGS will publish a full report and recommendations from its research later this year You can receive regular updates on the project’s research and findings by joining the STRINGS mailing list.

Event summary

The STRINGS project’s side event at the UN STI Forum 2021 explored how policymakers, funders and international organisations can harness the power of science,

In a webinar for Georgia Tech Library, Dr Ismael Rafols presented STRINGS’ novel approach to mapping scientific publications to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and introduced a beta-version of an interactive tool that will allow stakeholders to scrutinise a global map of science related to SDGs.

Ismael highlighted the inconsistencies that arise when using different approaches to mapping publications to SDGs. These inconsistencies are not due to minor technical issues, but instead represent different interpretations of SDGs.

Given the variety of understandings regarding the relationship between research and SDGs, STRINGS’ approach to mapping proposes that bibliometrics analysts should not assume that there is one single, preferred or consensus way of mapping SDGs to publications.

Instead, since different stakeholders have contrasting views about the relationships between science and SDGs, the contribution of bibliometrics should be to provide a plural landscape for stakeholders to explore their own views. watch the webinar

STRINGS has launched a global survey to gather different views on how science, technology and innovation (STI) can support the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and we want to hear from you.

Billions of dollars are spent every year on STI but our understanding of how that investment supports the SDGs is limited. The survey is part of our work to improve this understanding and provide decision makers with evidence and tools to align STI with the SDGs to create a better, fairer and more sustainable world.

What does the survey involve?

In the survey we ask you to tell us which areas of STI you believe have the most potential to help achieve the SDGs. We ask you to focus on the SDGs you are most familiar with, and the survey will tailor itself to reflect your expertise.

How will it help to achieve a more sustainable world?

By taking part, you will be:

• Building a picture of which STI should be prioritised in the next 10 years to achieve the SDGs
• Making sure that different experiences, areas of expertise, disciplines and contexts are included in debates on what is funded and how, including yours!

Our findings will be shared with

The winter 2020 edition of the STRINGS newsletter is out now, including:

• Spotlight on our mapping work
• An update on our Chagas case study
• Webinar recording – How do evidence-based models contribute to the SDGs?
• Latest blogs
• Recent publications and reading recommendations from the STRINGS team.

Read the newsletter and join our mailing list to have future editions sent straight to your inbox.