REMIT researcher Katerina Yordanova represented both her institution and REMIT Research at the United Nations General Assembly Science Summit. There she took part of a panel discussion on digital cooperation, governance and regulation, organized and hosted by The People-Centered Internet.
Katerina, who does her everyday work in KU Leuven as a Senior Legal Expert, was one of 9 speakers at the webinar-style panel discussion. The hour-and-a-half long event gathered more than 150 participants and was home to lively discussion.
Of her experience at the prestigious event, Katerina says: “The panel discussion involved a diverse group of speakers from around the world, spanning from India (Arvind Gupta, Head, Digital India Foundation) to Brazil (Mr Virgilio Almeida, Faculty Associate, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University). They shared various observations on technology governance, artificial intelligence, and regulatory sandboxes, reflecting their unique expertise and the hurdles they encounter in their work.
Nevertheless, there was one point on which we all agreed, and it represented the need of better, comprehensive engagement of society as a stakeholder not only in technology governance and AI legislation, but also in the implementation of concrete tools such as regulatory sandboxes. This engagement was determined to be vital for the successful achievement of the SDGs and reaffirmed by the discussion in the other panels throughout the whole event.
To quote another distinguished panellist, Professor Moshe Vardi: ‘Power to the people!’”
Watch the recorded panel via the People-Centred Internet website.
The Science Summit at the UN General Assembly has is origins in the Global Science Summit which was hosted by the Europan Parliament under the Chairmanship of Sean Kelly MEP in 2013. Later transferring to the UN General Assembly, The Science Summit is convened by ISC Intelligence in Science.
The Science Summit ’s main objective is to develop and launch science collaborations to demonstrate global science mechanisms and activities to support the attainment of the UN SDGs, Agenda 2030 and Local2030. The 9th edition of the Science Summit around the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78) on 12-29 September 2023, were held around the central theme of discussing the role and contribution of science to attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The meeting also prepared input for the United Nations Summit of the Future, which will take place during UNGA79 in 2024.