{"id":1372,"date":"2019-08-22T13:12:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T12:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/?p=1372"},"modified":"2019-08-27T10:10:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T09:10:39","slug":"global-challenges-summit-2019-highlights-role-of-north-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/2019\/08\/22\/global-challenges-summit-2019-highlights-role-of-north-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Challenges Summit 2019 highlights role of North East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Elle Young, MA student in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/postgraduate\/courses\/degrees\/international-development-education-ma\/#profile\">International Development &amp; Education<\/a>, Newcastle University<\/p>\n<p>Newcastle University hosted the fourth annual Global Challenges Summit in Newcastle. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/\">Global Challenges Academy<\/a>\u00a0at Newcastle University works in close partnership with Northumbria and Durham Universities, in supporting the <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainabledevelopment.un.org\/?menu=1300\">United Nations Sustainable Development Goals\u00a0(SDGs)<\/a> to seek peace and prosperity for all people and the planet by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Fostering research and international partnerships to realise the SDGs, are the core values of the Global Challenges Academy, which encourages challenge-based and regional focused research networks to find evidence-based solutions for the world\u2019s most pressing development challenges.\u00a0The integrated \u2018web\u2019 of challenges that impact society and environment, inevitably require global partnerships to achieve these goals together.<\/p>\n<p>The Summit aimed to explore the collaboration opportunities that are involved with international development and global challenges research within the North East and beyond, whilst reinforcing the overarching theme of \u2018innovation and creativity for international development\u2019.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>International collaborations essential to success<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Summit started with\u00a0\u2018A good use of international\u00a0aid?:\u00a0What can global challenges research realistically achieve?\u2019. Chaired by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northumbria.ac.uk\/about-us\/our-staff\/b\/matt-baillie-smith\/\">Professor Matt Baillie Smith<\/a> from Northumbria University, <a href=\"https:\/\/cureindia.org\/\">Dr Renu Khosla<\/a> from the Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence, <a href=\"http:\/\/hss.iitd.ac.in\/faculty\/ravinder-kaur\">Dr Ravinder Kaur<\/a>, IIT Delhi and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shekhar_Seshadri\">Professor<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shekhar_Seshadri\">Shekhar Seshadri<\/a> from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences\u00a0in\u00a0India. The session explored the difficulties involved in defining global challenges. Discussion acknowledged the significance of collaboration between universities to research and build solutions to address the complexities of global challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Progressing into the Summit\u2019s facilitated networking session, the interactive nature of the project enabled academics, NGO representatives and university students alike to discuss\u00a0their\u00a0understandings of the\u00a0SDGs. The session emphasised \u2018collaboration\u2019 as a key component of both the activity but also working to achieve the global goals.\u00a0Interesting insights emerged from the student panel, which aimed to explore how \u2018new voices\u2019 are able to engage with the global challenges research agenda to\u00a0take appropriate action.<\/p>\n<p>An important message emerged from Durham University Postgraduate student\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.durham.ac.uk\/GCRF-CDT\/nyaboke-patricia-omwega\/\">Nyaboke\u00a0P.\u00a0Omwega<\/a>\u00a0in her presentation on \u2018Transport as Gendered Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa\u2019,\u00a0that reinforces\u00a0gender equality as the key to sustainable development.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Global Challenges Summit 2019\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/349626884?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8216;People-centred&#8217; approach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Reflections on the Global Challenges Research Fund\u2019 drew on perspectives from leading academics of Durham, Northumbria, Newcastle and Jadavpur universities. It also celebrated the roles and intentions of professional services within university institutions that enable research into global challenges. The session encouraged panel members and the audience to think about \u2018our impact\u2019\u00a0and\u00a0accountability in global challenges research.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dur.ac.uk\/geography\/staff\/geogstaffhidden\/?id=788\">Professor Louise Bracken, Director of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at Durham University,<\/a> added that \u2018we have to think about scales of successes and learn from our failures\u2019. Nonetheless, whilst this session highlighted the relevance of interdisciplinary and co-production of knowledge as an essential component of the global challenges research agenda,\u00a0a\u00a0crucial question remains regarding \u2018who assesses our successes\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>As the day started to draw to a close, <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/in\/alison-vipond-65170073\">Dr Alison Vipond<\/a>, Lorna Wilson and Sumana Banerjee discussed the re-occurring theme of the day: \u2018people and\u00a0partnerships\u2019\u00a0within the global challenges discipline. Alison explored the responsibility of professional services and academic staff in order to bring a \u2018people-centred approach\u2019 that enables people to work together, establish links within communities and ensure representation and engagement with research.<\/p>\n<p>Sumana highlighted the importance of including young people in\u00a0the exploration of\u00a0global challenges, suggesting that \u2018we need more informal outputs for research that reach out to a wide variety of audiences, especially\u00a0students\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>For the \u2018Pecha-Kucha\u2019 session,\u00a0there where thirteen participants from the collection of universities who each gave three-minute presentations based on global challenges research. During a tense 40 minutes, we watched a wealth of presentations, from Hannah Brown discussing her research on \u2018Epidemics and Disease Control in Africa\u2019, \u2018International Migration and Inclusive Development in India\u2019 from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northumbria.ac.uk\/about-us\/our-staff\/t\/professor-steve-taylor\/\">Dr Steve Taylor<\/a>, through to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northumbria.ac.uk\/about-us\/our-staff\/a\/joanna-allan\/\">Dr Joanna Allan<\/a>\u2019s presentation on \u2018Powering Conflict, Fuelling Resistance, Resisting Energy Colonialism in Western Sahara\u2019, just to name a few.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Global development powerhouse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on what was a successful day at the Global Challenges Summit, Professor Matt Baillie concluded that the \u2018Global Challenges Research Fund helps us work in new, collaborative ways within and\u00a0beyond\u00a0the region\u2019. The echo of \u2018people and partnerships\u2019 as an underlying theme of the Summit, reinforces the requirement to expand on existing North East\u00a0relationships\u00a0that work across sectors, disciplines and national borders\u00a0in order\u00a0to create cutting-edge, impactful research that has the capacity to change the world for the better.<\/p>\n<p>The Summit truly acknowledged the North East as a \u2018global development powerhouse for collaborative research\u2019 emphasised by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/research\/support\/people\/profile\/elisalawsonnclacuk.html#background\">Dr Elisa Lawson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/ecls\/staff\/profile\/paulinedixon.html#background\">Professor Pauline Dixon<\/a>, the co-directors of the Global Challenges Academy. The North East is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with, now and\u00a0in\u00a0the future for the Global Challenges Research Agenda.\u00a0It will certainly be interesting to see progress over the next 12 months and new lessons from the 2020 Global Challenges Summit.<\/p>\n<p>Conversations about the 2019 Global Challenges Summit can be followed online through the hashtag <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/gcsummitne19?lang=en\">#GCSummitNE19<\/a> on Twitter. You can also join the conversation on Twitter through #NCLGlobalChallenges, or follow <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nclgca\">@NCLGCA<\/a>. For more information about global challenges and international development research by Newcastle University, please visit the Global Challenges Academy website:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/\">https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elle Young, MA student in International Development &amp; Education, Newcastle University Newcastle University hosted the fourth annual Global Challenges Summit in Newcastle. The Global Challenges Academy\u00a0at Newcastle University works in close partnership with Northumbria and Durham Universities, in supporting the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/2019\/08\/22\/global-challenges-summit-2019-highlights-role-of-north-east\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5836,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[88,130,132],"class_list":["post-1372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-globalgoals","tag-newcastle-university","tag-sustainability","tag-sustainable-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5836"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/globalchallenges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}