Belmont Forum's 10 Year Anniversary

This October, Tayanah and Eleanor had the pleasure of attending the Belmont Forum’s 10 Year Anniversary celebration and annual plenary in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Belmont Forum is an international funding consortium which enables transdisciplinary sustainability research projects, named Collaborative Research Actions. These projects are undertaken by a multi-national consortium, ensuring that Collaborative Research Actions create evidence for advancing sustainability that is relevant across a range of contexts.

Reflecting on the past decade and then looking to the next 10 years; national representatives, researchers (both senior and at the beginning of their career) and Forum elders participated in a range of panels on critical issues. In the opening panel, Tayanah emphasised the critical need to ensure that Indigenous perspectives and knowledges were genuinely involved as standard practice in sustainability science. Eleanor, on the closing panel on training the cohort of the future, put forward the notion that when beginning their career, sustainability scientists and practitioners could use more training in strategic thinking to ensure that their research has the best possible uptake. Other panels included communicating our science, examining how to deepen and broaden the inclusion of perspectives from the Global South and meaningful collaboration in projects.

Tayanah has subsequently represented Australia’s contribution to defining the next directions for Belmont projects at this year’s Plenary. An array of new proposals for research collaborations have been put forward, on urban transformation, soils and groundwater, sustainability and peace, and migration among others.

Future Earth Australia will be partnering with the Belmont Forum and Future Earth US Global Hub to host the Sustainability Research and Innovation (SRI) 2020 Congress over 14-17 June 2020 in Brisbane. We invite you to contribute and attend to connect with global research funders, thinkers and innovators. Visit www.sri2020.org for all the information.