Online | Resilient resource use | 2-12 November 2020
Between 2 and 12 November, the Academy held its sixth Frontiers of Development symposium on the over-arching theme of Resilient Resource Use, organised in partnership with the British Academy, the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences. The event was held on a bespoke online platform tailored to encourage networking, collaboration, and brainstorming with 61 delegates from 24 countries across the globe joining the virtual symposium.
The event was co-chaired by Professor Tim Lenton, Director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter and Professor Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chair of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet & Jobs at the Internet Governance Forum, United Nations.
As the current use of resources is not sustainable, resilient, or easily adaptable to new or alternative modes of use, the event focused on the over-arching question of ‘how do we build resilience in the world of shared resources’? This broad question was explored through three lenses of the sub-themes: human resources, natural resources and economic resources.
The first two weeks were dedicated to networking, collaboration and exploring thematic content on the platform, before live sessions on 11 and 12 November. Live sessions were held in breakout rooms of up to 20 delegates before session chairs fed back to the whole symposium of 60 participants. Delegates discussed pre-recorded presentations from a diverse range of speakers as well as other over-arching questions related to the event theme and session sub-themes.
Following the event, the Academy award seed funding to new collaborative groups established at the event. For more information about these projects, visit the seed funding page.