Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator

Introducing the GESDA Anticipation Gateway (©GESDA/von Loebell)

A new “Anticipation Gateway” and high-level talks on democratizing science literacy were the focal points on the final day of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipation Summit.

The three-day GESDA Summit, held for the second year in a row in the CERN Science Gateway, highlighted the intersection of diplomacy, science, and technology. 

GESDA’s fourth annual Summit wrapped up on Friday with the launch of three anticipatory initiatives meant to connect the general public with science diplomacy.

The new GESDA Anticipation Gateway includes three parts: a global curriculum, a public portal, and an anticipation observatory.

The Global Curriculum for Anticipatory Leadership (GCAL) initiative, launched by Swiss Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis and Enrico Letta, Chair of the GESDA Diplomacy Forum, will prepare leaders globally for transformations driven by science and technology.

“The program of the last two days has made it clear that anticipation is needed more than ever,” said Letta, a former Prime Minister of Italy. “The knowledge about science breakthroughs and its early uses needs to be democratized for all levels of our society.”

The curriculum, supported by the Wellcome charity, emphasizes the integration of science and diplomacy through training and partnerships with universities, international organizations, public sector and industry.

It will offer five regional leadership programs with local host institutions in Istanbul (Sabancı University), Madrid (IE University), Pretoria (Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa), San José (INCAE Business School) and Singapore (National University of Singapore).

A second part of the Anticipation Gateway is the Geneva Public Portal to Anticipation, an interactive installation to democratize access to emerging science and technology.

It invites citizens to project themselves into the future through an immersion into art, science, and diplomacy. The Portal will debut as a key attraction in the Swiss Pavilion at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, and this year’s GESDA Summit  offered a live demo of the interactive installation that is based on the science trends of the GESDA Science Breakthrough Radar®.

“Visualize a future where the collective imagination of the public unites forces with the brightest minds in science to co-author an emerging world,” said Sarah Kenderdine, Director of the Laboratory of Experimental Museology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technlogy Lausanne (EPFL), while introducing the new project.

The third piece was the introduction of the Anticipation Observatory, which aggregates validated data to track emerging scientific trends and assess their potential impacts on diplomacy, business, and society.

It filters scientific advancements through the lens of prosperity and development, peace and security, and human rights, countering misinformation and fake news.

“What we have been discussing for the past three days at this summit, and over the last three or four years at the summits, is how science and technology have actually overwhelmed politics and diplomacy and society. We are somehow behind most of the time,” said Fernando Espinosa, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations Office at Geneva. “So now we have a game changer.”

Enrico Letta presents the global curriculum (©GESDA/von Loebell)

Ministers discuss how to democratize science literarcy

Cassis, the Swiss Foreign Minister, hosted a panel discussion examining ways of spreading the knowledge and use of anticipation and science diplomacy.

The talks included Baiba Braže, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia, P. Kumaran, the Special Secretary of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Adriana Mira, the Vice Minister of El Salvador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Omran Sharaf, the Assistant Foreign Minister of Advanced Science and Technology for the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Andrzej Szeptycki, an Undersecretary of State in Poland’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Cassis also had a bilateral meeting with Braže on the sidelines of the Summit.

 “Things are moving fast, and so is GESDA,” Cassis said. “Following last year’s launch of the Open Quantum Institute, GESDA now presents a second product: the Anticipation Gateway Initiative, a second poineering project entering a three-year prototyping phase.”

“New technologies are reshaping relationships between people, between organizations, and between our environment. While this is not new, the pace of progress now far exceeds human evolution, creating deep divides in our societies,” he continued.

“Given Switzerland’s history of innovation and mediation, we believe it’s crucial to focus on preventing and managing conflicts that may arise from emerging technologies. This is actually the aim of GESDA, and the reason why Switzerland created it together with the cantonal state of Geneva and municipality of Geneva.”

GESDA Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe closed the Summit looking forward to the work of transforming the “rich input” from all of the discussions into more action. “So now it’s up to GESDA to transform them very quickly into further concrete projects of collaborations, and prove once more that GESDA is not just a think tank. GESDA is also a very efficient do tank.”

Ignazio Cassis, left, hosts a high-level discussion (©GESDA/von Loebell)

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe closes the Summit (©GESDA/von Loebell)