NEW DATE - COVID-19 recovery: Towards a just and sustainable society (public lecture)

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed societal vulnerabilities and highlighted the compound and cascading nature of existing and emerging global risks. Alongside the pandemic governments have faced a range of extreme events including earthquakes, flooding, and social unrest, straining the agencies responsible for dealing with such disasters. Fragmented approaches to governance and science have hampered responses to these crises. 

Watch the recording of the lecture:

Enhanced systems thinking would greatly benefit the design of responses to these multifaceted challenges, with the focus on interlinked and interdependent consequences and solutions, so enabling a more holistic and balanced approach to the objectives of resilience, sustainability, and equity.

With this in mind, in 2020 the IIASA-International Science Council (ISC) Consultative Science Platform brought together over 300 international experts from academia, business, NGOs, and government to pool their knowledge to identify systemic changes triggered by the pandemic and make recommendations to guide recovery towards long-term sustainable development. The initiative focused on four interlinked areas: governance, science, energy, and food.

In this public lecture Sir Peter Gluckman will draw on the findings and recommendations from the IIASA-ISC consultations to focus on issues of governance, the misaligned incentives within the science system, and the need to enhance the interfaces of science -policy and science-diplomacy. He will outline lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis and suggest pathways to move forward towards the transformative changes needed for a sustainable future.

Program 

Welcome Remarks

Albert van Jaarsveld | Director General and CEO, IIASA

Christian Köberl | Chair, Austrian IIASA Committee and University of Vienna 

Lecture and Discussion

Sir Peter Gluckman | Director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, University of Auckland

COVID-19 Recovery: Towards a Just and Sustainable Society

Moderation: Christian Köberl | Chair, Austrian IIASA Committee and University of Vienna

About Sir Peter Gluckman

Professor Sir Peter Gluckman ONZ KNZM FRSNZ FMedSci FRS is Director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is chair of the International Network of Government Science Advice (INGSA) and president-elect of the International Science Council (ISC).

During 2009-2018 he was the first Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister. He has written and spoken extensively on science-policy,science-diplomacy, and science-society interactions. 

Contacts for Logistics

Marie Franquin, External Relations Officer, Communications and External Relations Department, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

T: +43 676 83 807 349

DI Dr. Viktor Bruckman, NMO Secretary, Austrian IIASA Committee

Austrian Academy of Sciences

T: +43 1 51581 3200

Last edited: 22 April 2021