
(In Partnership with the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
Merton College, Oxford
17 - 23 September 2007
John Elkington | Founder and Chief Entrepreneur, SustainAbility |
The science: on what should policy-makers be focusing?
Professor Nebojsa Nakicenovic | International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Vienna |
Business: how are corporations reacting to the climate change debate?
Emily Farnworth | The Climate Group |
Dr Paul Kielstra | 21st Century Trust |
The economics: how far has the Stern Review changed the paradigm of debate?
Dr Ottmar Edenhofer | Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research |
Venture capital and investing in the battle against climate change: what will its trajectory be?
David Stevenson | The Rocket Science Group, London, and contributor to the Financial Times’ Investors Chronicle |
Russell Pullan | Director of New Energy and Clean Technology Ventures, Nomura International plc |
The BRIC countries: what will be the impact of emerging economies?
Susannah Simon | Head, Climate Change and Energy Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office |
Case study: China
Isabel Hilton | Editor, chinadialogue.net |
Technology: what are the prospects for the rapid development and take-up of mitigation technologies?
David Vincent | The Carbon Trust |
The longer-term view: technologies and global consequences
Dr James Martin | Business consultant, author and lecturer, and founder of the James Martin 21st Century School, Oxford University |
After Kyoto: what should be the international architecture responding to climate change?
Professor Steve Rayner | Director, James Martin Institute, University of Oxford |
Governments and peoples - ministers, governors, mayors and communities: what will be the most dynamic sources of change?
Professor Stacy Vandeveer | University of New Hampshire |
Advertised Synopsis
Even with the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report making ever clearer the scientific consensus about humanity’s contribution to global warming, the severity of its impact remains highly uncertain – world temperatures, for example, could increase anywhere from 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius, and any given rise within this range also has consequences which can only be predicted with a wide degree of variability. Also, these consequences may unfold steadily and slowly, or there may be ‘tipping points’ when change occurs in a critical or even catastrophic way. This conference will consider the difficulties of making policies to address the problems of global warming within a context of such uncertainty. How effectively do scientists on the one hand, and economists and policy-makers on the other, communicate with each other and how can that be improved? How far have initiatives, such as the UK’s Stern Review, changed the paradigm of debate? What approach, or combination of approaches, is most likely to bring the highest ecological, social and economic benefits: attempts to reverse climate change, to mitigate partially its effects, or to adjust societies to new realities? What will be the hard choices – the increased use of nuclear power, for instance? How is the role of business changing, especially given growing concern over investment horizons and regulatory uncertainty? Reviewing lessons learned in recent years, from the working of the Kyoto Treaty to initiatives at the level of state governments such as California, or cities and communities, what can be best achieved at the international, national or sub-national levels? In what ways are the newly emerging economies, such as China and India, transforming the problem? How can policies and measures achieve the dynamic necessary to meet the challenge while being sufficiently differentiated to fit the needs and resources of diverse economies, or the various industrial sectors? Moreover, how does one address issues of international equity when it is difficult to judge ahead of time the particular degree of damage any particular country will face, and when the human activity causing global warming – in the IPCC’s opinion – goes back to the 1750s. This conference will use a scenario-building approach to try to examine different outcomes in these areas in order to help participants better grasp the nature of the long-term challenge which will face us over the coming decades. How we deal with them may affect the planet for centuries.
(In Partnership with the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock)
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock
28 October - 3 November 2007
What major demographic changes are likely in the coming decades and what are the implications for health care?
Professor Dr James Vaupel | Executive Director, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research |
What does “old” mean?: the science of ageing
Professor Thomas Kirkwood | Co-director, Institute of Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle |
The new challenges: changing disease loads and perceptions of disease in an ageing society
Professor Dr Gabriele Doblhammer-Reiter | Co-Director, Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change |
Rhys Edwards | Executive Director, Royal Hobart Hospital Redevelopment Project |
The patient as consumer: the death of deference and new demands on health care
Professor Dr Hilke Brockmann | Professor of Sociology, International University of Bremen |
Where will medical research focus and how will medical care advance?
David Rose | Science Journalist, The Times |
Funding of health systems for an ageing population: finding the best mix of public and private
Richard Smith | United Health Europe |
The politics of health care in an ageing society: public demands and conflicting priorities
Professor Rita Süssmuth | Former Speaker of the Bundestag, Former Minister of Health |
International cooperation in health: Avian Flu as a case study
Dr Heidi Meyer | Paul Ehrlich Institute for Sera and Vaccines |
Globalization and health care
Dr Paul Kielstra | 21st Century Trust |
Advertised Synopsis
Populations are ageing worldwide with few exceptions: the world percentage of those over 65 is set to rise from 6.9% to 12% by 2030, with the developing world, if anything, experiencing changes to an even greater degree. This will induce societal shifts on a grand scale – from the political issues most resonant for voters, through the nature of business markets, to the areas of deepest focus for NGOs and society at large – which will tax the ingenuity of the current and rising generation of leaders and thinkers. Among a host of areas, health care, already undergoing technology and cost upheavals, will see some of the biggest changes. Pressing relevant issues include: the degree of demographic shift; its real impact as older individuals might be healthier and behave more like younger ones; changing disease loads, both the shift to chronic care, and the arrival of new viruses from HIV/AIDS to bird flu; increasing demands from better informed patients which in some cases expand the boundaries of medicine itself; finding resources to pay for already rocketing medical costs, especially when a smaller percentage of the population remains in full-time employment; the changing roles of public and private sectors both in developed countries and in fast-developing ones which are likely to see rapid expansion of the latter; the effects on medical provision of technological advance, globalization and the rise of the Asian economies; and the ongoing challenge of finding enough trained medical personnel. This conference will use a scenario-building approach to try to examine different outcomes in these areas in order to help participants better grasp the nature of the long-term challenge which will face us over the coming decades. On the skillful navigation of these challenges – by both current leaders and their successors – will depend our physical and even financial health.
(In Partnership with the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
Potsdam, Germany
2 - 8 December 2007
Shereen El-Feki | MIT Technology Review |
Dr Jason Pontin | MIT Technology Review |
What is innovation?
Dr Jason Pontin | MIT Technology Review |
Simon Daniel | CEO, Moixa Group & Moixa Energy - USBCELL |
What is the role of government in supporting science and what are its limits?
Mark Lewis | Director of Commodities Research, Deutsche Bank AG |
Dr Susie O’Connor | Principal Policy Officer, Cabinet, Innovation and Opportunity Group, Government of South Australia |
Dr Jonathan Radcliffe | Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, UK Government |
Science education and public engagement: what should be the underlying principles?
Professor Graham Farmelo | Senior Research Fellow, The Science Museum, London, and Adjunct Professor of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston |
Dr Ekkehard Winter | Executive Director, Deutsche Telekom Foundation |
How should the public accountability of science be undertaken? How are the limits to innovation best set?
Tore Tennøe | Director, Norwegian Board of Technology |
Out of the lab and into the market: translating innovation to the real world (I) Case study: Metanomics
Dr Arno Krotzky | CEO and Managing Director, Metanomics GmbH |
Out of the lab and into the market: translating innovation to the real world (II)
Dr Jason Pontin | MIT Technology Review |
Information, Innovation, and the Open Source Dilemma: How the Nature of Information and the Democratization of Knowledge Society Challenge Public Policies in the United States
Dr Patrick Mendis | Vice-President of Academic Affairs, the Osgood Center for International Studies, Washington, DC |
Scientific creativity and innovation in the emerging economies
Dr James Wilsdon | Demos, London |
Dr David Dickson | Director, SciDev.net |
How do you manage knowledge resources equitably and for the greatest global benefit?
Jamie Love | Director of Knowledge Ecology International, Washington DC |
Open Source: what have been the achievements of Open Source and how will it likely evolve?
Maureen O'Sullivan | National University of Ireland, Galway |
IPR: what does business need to flourish in the ‘knowledge economy’?
Professor Graham Dutfield | University of Leeds |
Free and frank exchange: what is the significance for innovation of open access publishing and blogging?
Dr Catriona MacCallum | PloS (Public Library of Science) |
Advertised Synopsis
Societies and governments have over centuries developed a variety of means to encourage and reward creativity, from honours and university positions to exclusive, temporary patents on innovations. Such inducements co-existed comfortably because of accepted conventions about the type of research and recompense appropriate to different sectors of society. The advent of the knowledge society, however, is challenging this modus vivendi on a number of levels, by breaking down the distinction between pure and applied knowledge (making both of economic value) and by throwing up possible new models of innovation, in particular in areas such as software and biotechnology. As well as case studies of innovation in Germany and in Singapore, this conference will examine: How far are current arrangements truly encouraging research and creativity in a variety of fields and where are they failing? What are the tensions in the social contract under-pinning intellectual property rights and how can they be best resolved? What sort of alternative structures, legal or otherwise, might be better? What are the strengths and weaknesses of alternative methods of harnessing innovation, such as the Open Source movement, and how broadly applicable might they be to other areas? What is the appropriate role of government in encouraging scientific creativity, and what sort of reward should public institutions expect when such work is used by commerce? How can the democratic accountability of science best be facilitated? What role can science and technology play as an engine of development in the South? What distinguishes scientists as a group - why is the gender balance so skewed? - and what incentives most encourage their creativity?
Columbia University School of Social Work, New York
27 - 28 April 2007
What’s new about the New Philanthropy?
Matthew Bishop | Chief Business Writer/American Business Editor, The Economist |
Chris Page | Senior Vice President, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors |
Theresa Lloyd | Consultant on strategic planning and fundraising to the non-profit sector, author of Why Rich People Give |
How can philanthropy be scaled up further? What are the obstacles to be overcome?
Diana Aviv | President and CEO, Independent Sector |
Lord Moser | Chairman, British Museum Development Trust, 1993–2003 |
Russell Willis Taylor | President and CEO, National Arts Strategies |
What do business entrepreneurs bring to philanthropy? What are their greatest challenges in the sector?
Sally Osberg | President and CEO, the Skoll Foundation |
Lance Laifer | Co-founder, “Hedge Funds vs. Malaria” |
Mario Morino | Co-founder and Chairman, Venture Philanthropy Partners |
Jacqueline Novogratz | CEO, Acumen Fund |
What impact will the New Philanthropy have on long established foundations, and on the non-profit sector in general?
Dr Judith Rodin | President, the Rockefeller Foundation |
Robert Dufton | Director, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation |
How can social investment best be targeted? How can outcomes best be measured?
Jamie Cooper-Hohn | President, Children's Investment Fund Foundation |
Stephan Gutzeit | Co-Chair, Executive Board, Stiftung Charité |
Vanessa Kirsch | President and Founder of New Profit Inc. |
What is the global reach of the New Philanthropy?
Thomas Eymond-Laritaz | President and CEO, Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Ukraine |
Mike Green | UK Department for International Development |
Noosheen Hashemi | President of the HAND Foundation and Chairman, PARSA Community Foundation |
Trevor Neilsen | Partner, the Endeavour Group, and formerly Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS |
Description
Philanthropy has never been bigger business. It hit the headlines in summer 2006 when the $31 billion which Bill Gates had handed over to his foundation was more than doubled by Warren Buffett, and there may be more to come from Bill Gates’ remaining personal wealth, estimated at $50 billion. This dwarfs all previous philanthropy, even on the scale of the Rockefellers or the Fords. The new philanthropy is not just new in scale, but in type. Many entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates, who have made their fortunes before reaching middle-age are directly supervising their own charitable endeavors rather than awaiting old age or death before bestowing their cash. How far can they transfer their entrepreneurial skills from their businesses to their foundations, boosting not just the numbers but the impact of the dollars spent? What will be the significance of a small but growing feature, ‘venture philanthropy’, where donors take risks traditionally shunned by major foundations, aiming for loans to be repaid through growing social enterprise and a virtuous cycle of investment and growth? This entails more successes, but also more failures: how well can charities adapt to ‘creative destruction’ in this way? And what will happen to charities’ relationships with governments, with civil society at large, and with each other?
These developments in the scale and approach of philanthropy may lead to a step change in tackling hitherto intransigent global problems, such as poverty or HIV/AIDS. But the new philanthropy brings also a new set of problems. Wealthy foundations already find it difficult at times to identify enough worthy projects to support, despite the apparently limitless demand, and this could grow even more problematic as giving is scaled up. With scale will come keener questions of accountability and democracy which already beset the NGO world. And with scale and accountability come bureaucracies, which may cramp entrepreneurial approaches, for all the reasons they can in business and more. Success and failure may be tricky to assess; the problems philanthropy seeks to tackle are complex and outcomes often hard to measure, especially in the shorter term. What will ensure that the new philanthropy is working optimally and really changing the world for the better?
Château Klingenthal, near Strasbourg
15 - 17 June 2007
Why is there a new emphasis on national identities?
Neal Ascherson | Author and commentator |
Ethnicity, the nation state and foreign policy
Professor Christopher Coker | London School of Economics |
Making peace, keeping the peace: Case study I - Northern Ireland
Alan Whysall | Northern Ireland Office |
Making peace, keeping the peace: Case study I - Bosnia
Toby Vogel | Democratization Policy Council |
The future of national identities and identity politics in a globalizing world
Dr Henry Farrell | George Washington University |
The national identity dilemma: who am I and where do I belong? What does this mean for my host country?
Andjela Jurisic | Consultant for Europe, Middle East and Africa, HTSPE International Development Consultancy |
Description
The last fifteen years has seen a dramatic resurgence of identity-based conflict, including the several civil wars in the interconnecting Balkan crises. This brought to the fore questions of national identity and how that relates to ethnic or other culturally distinct groups within a state. With the rapid development of globalization - including increased migration and also the impact on ‘imagined communities’ of electronic communication - these questions have taken on a new significance in a much broader range of countries. This conference will explore how ethnic and cultural rivalries have been managed, or mis-managed, the prospects for peace and conflict these pose for the future, and how anxieties about national identities may be best addressed in public policy in different countries.
Kneze, Korcula, Croatia
2 - 5 August 2007
International Law, Islamic Law, and the Rule of Law: identifying common values, defining common goals
Omar Dajani | Assistant Professor of Law, University of the Pacific |
Western intervention in Islamic countries: perceptions and consequences
Minna Järvenpää | Senior UN Co-ordinator of the board overseeing the implementation of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy |
How to change the zero sum game: issues of security and dignity
Karim Sadjadpour | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |
Muslim communities in the West and the idea of a citizenship pact
Edward Mortimer | Director of Programs, Salzburg Global Seminar |
History, myth and identity
John Lotherington | Director, 21st Century Trust |
Dialogue in the age of satellite channels - a new approach
Ezzat Ibrahim | Al-Ahram |
Conclusions
Carl Bildt | Foreign Minister of Sweden, Former Prime Minister of Sweden |