Social IAP Conference

The Triennial Conference of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) and the Worldwide Meeting of the Young Academies will take place at Biosphere 2, Arizona, USA, and online on 1-3 November 2022.

The theme of the conference will be 'Inclusive Excellence: Harnessing knowledge for sustainable societies' and will be hosted by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) and co-organized by IAP, the Global Young Academy (GYA), the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, RSC, the RSC College, and the NAS New Voices Program. To attend online register at https://nasem.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2T_qNKgtTdWb794BHxtxgA 

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.

This conference, which will bring together the world’s leading senior and young science academies, provides a significant opportunity to rethink our research structures – from involvement to engagement. Inclusive excellence is a concept that promotes equitable and sustainable research processes. It recognizes that the prosperity and wellbeing of communities, particularly when facing major challenges, depends on valuing, engaging, and including the rich diversity of all members. Attacks on the legitimacy of science (all disciplines) during the present pandemic have thrown into sharp relief our need to rethink research processes in ways that make them more inclusive, responsive, and productive.

Our 2022 hybrid meeting will unite a range of delegates from over 100 countries, and this gathering offers us an incredible opportunity to consider – in critical ways – how the present research structures exclude valuable voices and knowledge systems. Enabling the diversification of our research communities needs to be prioritized. The young academy movement is an important illustration of inclusive excellence, and within many of them are good examples of how we might imagine new research frameworks that make space for those traditionally excluded.

Thus, this conference will enable us to explore how to achieve greater diversity of our research circles. We must lead by example and engage with the core principle of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN’s SDGs) – leaving no one behind. Making inclusive excellence a priority for the global research community will eliminate the barriers to research, development, and innovation.

In addition to dedicated sessions focused on major IAP and GYA/young academy projects, there will be 4-5 sessions selected from proposals, submitted from senior and young academies, that provide concrete examples of the power of inclusive excellence frameworks to help address global challenges such as climate change, pandemic preparedness, and improving human health and education accessibility. Session proposals that illustrate how inequities in our academic institutions may be addressed are also sought. Proposals should address at least one aspect of inclusive excellence, such as diversity, inclusion, sense of belonging, equity, accessibility, community engagement and open access to data/science/information. Proposals that include several academies, including collaborative proposals from young and senior academies are encouraged. The format of the session could be a panel with Q&A or an interactive moderated discussion.

Please contact the IAP secretariat (secretariat@iapartnership.org) with any questions.

Conference draft programme [Link]