INVITATION: Future Earth Townhall Meeting

Participatory workshop to map out key priorities in global change research
26 May 2015, Eurooppasali (Malminkatu 16, Helsinki), 8:30-13:00

Registration by 20 May 2015.

Challenge

Achieving sustainability in a world subject to global change requires understanding the links among environmental and societal change. Challenges related to resilience, governance models, resource efficiency, technology, business, trade, equity, and poverty are interlinked: a change in one component will cascade to many others.

Creating solutions that will lead to sustainability requires establishing a new interaction and partnership culture between researchers and society. Solutions-oriented global change research requires joint framing and co-design of research between producers and end-users of scientific knowledge.

Mission of the Townhall Meeting

Future Earth Townhall Meeting invites scientists and stakeholders from civil society, governance, and business to discuss and map out the key priorities in global change research: what is essential to understand, what kind of information do we need and in which format, how we should study the phenomena, and what is the role of stakeholders in global change research?

The workshop is organized by Future Earth Finland – national committee for global change research. The committee acts as the national platform of the new strategic research initiative, Future Earth, which is coordinated by ICSU, ISSC, three UN organisations, and the Belmont forum.

The discussion on the research priorities will use as its starting point the key challenges identified in the Future Earth Strategic Research Agenda. The Agenda will be presented by professor Heinz Gutscher from the Future Earth Science Committee.

Townhall meeting is part of the Future Earth Finland Living Lab of Global Change Research –  an interdisciplinary and multi-actor network which aims at creating an interface between research, decision-making, business, and civil society. The input from the discussions will be collected, summarized and used to develop the activities of Living Lab network.

Join the discussions and share your
thoughts for sustainable future! 

Programme
8.30-09.45: Global change: key challenges
Chair Markku Kulmala (Future Earth Finland): Future Earth Finland – Scope and Objectives
Professor Heinz Gutscher (Future Earth Science Committee): Future Earth Strategic Research Agenda
Professor Jukka Käyhkö (UTU) and Sirkku Juhola (UHEL): The links and scales of global change
Professor Jari Niemelä (Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation): Funding global change research
09.45-10.00 Coffee
10.00-11.00 Discussion in small groups on the research priorities
11.00-11.30 Lunch
11.30-13.00: Co-design of global change research
Chancellor Kari Raivio (Future Earth Engagement Committee): Stakeholder engagement in Future Earth
Panel discussion: What kind of global change research is needed in Finland?
Introduction to the panel: summaries from the group discussions
Panelists: Kari Raivio (Future Earth Engagement Committee), Jouni Keronen (Climate Leadership Council), Johanna Kohl (VTT – Technical Research Centre of Finland), Leo Stranius (The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation), Markku Kulmala (Future Earth Suomi), Petteri Kuuva (Ministry of Employment and the Economy, tbc)
Chair: Laura Höijer (Future Earth Finland, Ministry of Environment)

Future Earth Finland is supported by the Council of Finnish Academies, Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation, and University of Helsinki (Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences).