International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development 2022

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming the Year on 2 December 2021.

International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development 2022

The Year helps highlight the crucial role of basic sciences for sustainable development, and emphasize their contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These aims are strongly aligned with the ISC’s mission to increase evidence-informed decision-making on urgent global challenges, and its vision of science as a global public good. The IYBSSD complements nicely the ISC initiatives to support the 2030 Agenda.

The proposal for the Year was developed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), under the leadership of Michel Spiro, IUPAP President, with the encouragement and support of the ISC and its many members, partner institutions and UNESCO.

Watch the Opening Ceremony of the International Year

Ministers in charge of Scientific Research, Higher Education and Innovation debated with scientists about the importance of basic sciences in addressing the challenges set up by the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Scientists from different parts of the world explained what they are already doing, and discussed what they could do better, so that their work, and the way they conduct it, build a more sustainable future.

This opening ceremony was an important step in the journey that scientists, citizens and policy makers will take together throughout this International Year to ensure that basic science plays a full role in efforts to achieve more sustainable development around the world.

About IYBSSD 2022

The Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development is the ambitious program that the Member States of the United Nations have agreed on to ensure a balanced, sustainable and inclusive development of the planet.

Basic sciences have an important contribution to make to the implementation of this program. They provide the essential means to meet crucial challenges such as universal access to food, energy, health coverage and communication technologies. They enable us to understand the impact of the currently nearly 8 billion people on the planet and to act to limit, and sometimes even to reduce it: depletion of the ozone layer, climate change, depletion of natural resources, extinction of living species.

“Basic sciences provide the essential means to meet crucial challenges such as universal access to food, energy, health coverage and communication technologies.“

Michel Spiro, President of IUPAP

Applications of technology are easy to recognize. On the other hand, contributions of basic, curiosity-based, sciences are not well appreciated. They are nonetheless at the basis of major technological advances that stimulate innovation, as well as essential for training future professionals and for developing capacity of populations who can take part in decisions that affect their future. UNESCO is well aware of this: its Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers, revised in 2017, recalls the importance of bringing together politicians, scientists, diplomats, international organizations, entrepreneurs and every goodwill person.

The International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, that we organize in 2022, focuses on these links between basic sciences and the Sustainable Development Goals. This is a unique opportunity to convince all stakeholders that through a basic understanding of nature, actions taken will be more effective, for the common good.

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