November: The second European Science Foundation (ESF)
Science Policy Conference and Assembly will be held from 26-28 November 2008, in
Stockholm, Sweden, and will be organized around the theme “Global Challenges
and the Need for Cooperation: Lessons Learnt from Global Change.”

The ESF is an association of 77 member organizations devoted to scientific research in 30
European countries that coordinates pan-European scientific initiatives. The
Conference aims to provide generalized lessons learnt from global change
research for policy making. Participants will discuss global research
cooperation, including examples of large-scale cooperation and ways to promote
it, expectations from the research community in meeting the global challenges,
and the response of research institutions to global research challenges of an
interdisciplinary nature.
Special Conference sessions will be devoted to
experiences in addressing global challenges in other research fields such as
medicine, food and food security, and astronomy. Several speakers from UN
institutions will address the conference, including: Joyeeta Gupta, UN
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Water
Education; John Christensen, UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) Risoe Centre on
Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development; and Jean-Pascal van Ypersele,
Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). [Conference
Programme]