The global challenges of addressing growth and prosperity whilst ensuring we tackle extreme poverty, leave no one behind, and deal with environmental sustainability are immense.
There will inevitably be both winners and losers, with great potential for conflict of different kinds, and great need for sensitive policy design.
Securing meaningful sustainable development for all will need things to be done differently. Research has a critical role to play in breaking down existing ways of thinking about sustainability, development and conflict/fragility, and reformulating them in ways that could prove transformative.This will require approaches that transcend traditional boundaries – geographic, disciplinary, and methodological – as well as strong new alliances that bridge the research/practice divide. Such research may be higher risk but also have potential to radically change thinking and action.
Workshop to scope £2.5m research call
On Monday 7 March 2016 the ESRC and DFID will host a workshop at the Royal Society, London to help scope a £2.5m research call focused on the intersections between sustainability, poverty and conflict/fragility.
Part of ESRC-DFID’s Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research, the new call will fund innovative, strategic and catalytic research that offers new ways to tackle the challenges posed by these intersections head-on.
The workshop will run from 13.30 to 17.00, followed by a networking drinks reception.
Speakers
Simon Maxwell (CBE), former director of ODI and former president of the Development Studies Association, is the call director and will be hosting this collaborative event. Keynote speakers including Nick Mabey (E3G), Johan Schot (University of Sussex) and Frances Stewart (University of Oxford) will address the transformational challenge of climate change for sustainable development, how conflict and fragility intersect with this, and how innovation in research can be fostered and translated into policy.
The interactive workshop will be of interest for those who want to learn more about and debate the topic, as well as those who may be interested in bidding for funding.
To attend
For more information on the event and how to apply to attend, please visit the ESRC website.
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Image credit: with thanks to Paul Chapman on flickr.
