Third BRIDGES meeting

BRIDGES network unites representatives of 12 international research infrastructures: the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Space Agency (ESA), European XFEL GmbH, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Organization, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Square Kilometre Array Organisation (SKAO), and Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME). IIASA Director General Albert van Jaarsveld delivered opening remarks, which were followed by an overview of recent activities of the network, including BRIDGES session at the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF2020) on 3 September 2020. The BRIDGES session at ESOF2020 introduced the network to the wider science diplomacy community and discussed with the audience emergent relevant issues.

Participants of the Third BRIDGES meeting made roundtable presentations on their respective organizations’ stakeholders mapping. They also discussed readiness, willingness, and preparedness of the scientific community to actively engage in setting up bridges between policy, science, and diplomacy, as well as policies on open access to scientific knowledge. Relevant findings on open access of the IIASA-ISC Consultative Science Platform "Bouncing Forward Sustainably: Pathways to a post-COVID World" and its latest recommendations were reported during the event.