🆕🗞️ Our organisation is growing! This October, Southern Voice is proud to announce the welcoming of 11 new affiliate-members to the network, growing our community from 71 to 82 think tanks, now reaching 40 different countries across the Global South. The new additions reflect at a time when the network is expanding in geographic reach, thematic areas of coverage, and methodological diversity. This is also the first time we are introducing an affiliate program for new members. Please join us in welcoming, from each region: 🌍 Africa: @BotsThinkTank @ForEnterprises @SIDRAInstitute @the_nsi 🌏 Asia: @irim_mongolia @SIPG_NSU 🌎 Latin America and the Caribbean: BRICS Policy Center, @CIOdDUCR @fundarpoliticas @FundarMexico @transversal_t Learn more about our new members and affiliate process! 🔗 southernvoice.org/southern-v…

🇺🇳 Why does Inclusive Science matter, and what is Southern Voice bringing to this conversation? Ahead of joining the @ScienceBoard_UN retreat on October 1-2, our Executive Director @MargaritaGomez_ reflects on the importance of giving researchers and institutions in the Global South greater agency to set priorities, lead research and shape where resources go. At Southern Voice, we believe that who sets the research agenda matters for inclusive science, and that research is more useful for policy when it reflects local priorities. In this video, Margarita shares how Southern Voice is contributing to address knowledge asymmetry and move equity from principle to practice.

🗽🇺🇳 The way research is funded can shape what actually gets researched, and what doesn't. Funding influences everything about research: the questions that are asked, the priorities that receive attention, who gets to lead and who is simply a bystander. Because of this, reliance on external funding can give funders significant influence on key choices, with implications for whose priorities and realities are reflected in the research agenda. For science to be truly inclusive, Global South institutions need greater power to set and to lead research based on their own priorities and realities. This means having a genuine role in determining even what gets researched rather than overlooked, how research is designed and where resources go. Southern Voice believes that building a more inclusive global scientific system requires greater agency for researchers and institutions in the Global South to shape the research agenda. Follow our participation in the @ScienceBoard_UN next week to see how we bring this conversation to the table!

🗽🇺🇳 What are the main barriers to inclusive science? Preparations are still underway for our participation at the @ScienceBoard_UN retreat on October 1–2. Our Executive Director @MargaritaGomez_ shares some reflections on the structural inequalities that continue to shape how research is funded, conducted and validated. Funding, academic incentives and publishing systems can reinforce existing imbalances in who sets research priorities, who leads partnerships and whose knowledge gains visibility. In this video, Margarita discusses these barriers and why addressing them requires changes across the research system.

🗽🇺🇳 What needs to change to make science more inclusive? The @ScienceBoard_UN Retreat is starting TODAY, and our Executive Director @MargaritaGomez_ has some reflections on what it takes to move towards a more inclusive global scientific system. Making science more inclusive means creating greater space for researchers and institutions from different contexts to shape research agendas, lead partnerships and bring their knowledge and priorities to the table. It also means strengthening local leadership and creating more equitable approaches to collaboration. In this video, Margarita names some of the changes that could help make inclusive science a reality.

🗽🇺🇳 We are now in the second and final day of the @ScienceBoard_UN retreat, soaking in many rich conversations on what it takes to build a more inclusive global scientific system. We are bringing forward our vision, grounded in a simple idea: who gets to shape science matters. The opportunities to produce knowledge, set research priorities and benefit from scientific progress are not equally distributed, and addressing these inequalities requires changes in how the full global scientific system works. What is all this Inclusive Science conversation telling us so far, you ask? ⚪ Science is a powerful accelerator of progress towards sustainable development. Yet barriers to accessing, participating in and benefiting from it continue to limit its impact ⚪ A truly inclusive scientific system must address structural barriers. This means confronting the systems and practices that exclude people and institutions (mainly from the Global South) from the core of scientific enterprise ⚪ Diverse contributions strengthen science. Bringing together different knowledge, perspectives and lived experiences can improve the rigour, relevance, creativity and impact of scientific inquiry as a whole ⚪ Whose knowledge shapes future knowledge matters. Persistent disparities in whose knowledge informs the development of further knowledge are a key part of the challenge we need to address ⚪ The benefits of scientific progress must be shared equitably. We see this as a human right, including equitable access to the benefits of scientific discovery ⚪ Science is a global public good. Realising this vision requires broadening access to scientific materials and ensuring that scientific advancement can benefit people and communities more widely These are some of the main ideas and principles shaping Southern Voice’s contribution to the retreat, and to the conversation on inclusive science. Stay tuned for more to come!

🗽🇺🇳 Last week, Southern Voice was present at the @ScienceBoard_UN and our Executive Director @MargaritaGomez_ joined discussions on how to make science more inclusive, taking that inclusion beyond symbolic access. Science and frontier technologies are powerful accelerators of progress, but they do not emerge or operate in equal societies. The question of frontier technologies is also a question of inequality and power. While the capacity to develop frontier technologies is highly concentrated, their consequences are not, and disproportionately impact the Global South. Gaps in income, connectivity, infrastructure and research capacity shape who can benefit, and who is left even further behind. Artificial Intelligence, for example, can reproduce and further deepen existing inequalities. At Southern Voice, we raise some key questions: 💬 Who develops these technologies? 💬 Who owns the infrastructure? 💬 Who sets the rules? 💬 Whose knowledge counts? And who gets left out? 💬 Who bears the social and environmental costs? Across our network of 82 think tanks in 40 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, we work to strengthen the ability of Southern researchers and institutions to produce knowledge, set priorities and shape the decisions that affect them.