First workshop of the Transformations within Reach initiative's Community of Science and Practice (CoSP)

The IIASA Transformations within Reach (TwR) (phase-2) initiative is intended to provide an action-oriented synthesis for catalyzing societal transformations towards sustainability. It aspires to build on the IIASA – ISC Consultative Science Platform – Bouncing Forward Sustainably: Pathways to a Post-COVID World (phase-1) and a wealth of other similar initiatives, academic papers, and reports that have outlined necessary and possible pathways for societal transformations.

An integral part of the TwR initiative is a series of workshops involving a diverse Community of Experts and Practitioners (CoSP) in partnership with whom it seeks to achieve the objectives of the initiative. The first (online) CoSP workshop was conducted on 27 October 2022 and was attended by 17 CoSP members and other participants; it was chaired and moderated by former IIASA Deputy Director General for Science, Leena Srivastava.

In this workshop, TwR project lead Elena Rovenskaya gave an introduction to the project and IIASA researcher Pratik Patil introduced the team’s draft  framework for societal transformation. This draft framework was informed by input from several IIASA colleagues who work in sustainable development policy research. The presentation was followed by a lively round of discussions with the workshop participants who applauded this knowledge synthesis with a focus on the “how” question of societal transformations toward sustainability. They also provided extensive and constructive feedback for improving this initial synthesis.

With this promising start, the TwR team will further their work with a focus on enhancing societal decision-making to catalyze sustainable wellbeing.

To read the first Background Paper, which served as an input for this workshop, click here.

To watch Rovenskaya and Patil’s presentations, click here or watch on the link below.