27 March 2018: The University of Geneva (UNIGE) announced the launch of the Geneva Science Policy Interface (SPI). The initiative aims to identify and accelerate opportunities for collaboration between academia and international organizations (IOs) to deliver “rapid and original” solutions to global challenges.

SPI seeks to facilitate exchange among IOs, academia, and NGOs, and provide support for innovative collaborative processes. For example, the initiative will seek to address bottlenecks that hinder the development of collaborative projects between academia and IOs, such as mismatches between academic research cycles and IO policymaking cycles, and disjunctures between challenges on the ground and research outcomes.

UNIGE designed the SPI as a global network that can benefit from Geneva’s international diplomatic community, which includes more than 99 IOs, programmes, institutes and funds, 246 permanent missions and delegations, and 250 NGOs. SPI also will host other universities and centers of expertise with a focus on multidisciplinary approaches.

UNIGE first announced the SPI during the 48th World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2018. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) supports the SPI.

Also working to foster collaboration among actors in Geneva is the Geneva 2030 Ecosystem, which aims to “mobilize the capacity, skills, experience, ideas and motivation of Geneva-based actors towards realizing the 2030 Agenda.” The Geneva 2030 Ecosystem is co-convened by IISD and the SDG Lab at the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG), and supported by FDFA. [UNIGE Press Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub story on WEF] [Geneva 2030 Ecosystem]