Fiocruz organizes global conference on sustainability

For the first time, Fiocruz will be one of the cohosts of the Global Sustainable Technology & Innovation Conferences (G-STIC), that takes place in Brussel, Belgium, between 28 and 30 of November. Aiming to promote new technologies with the potential to solve the biggest contemporary challenges in sustainability area, the event will gather heads of state and government, opinion leaders, policy makers and internationally renowned delegates of industry, academia and UN agencies.

G-STIC is in its second year and it will have for the first time health as one of its main themes, for which Fiocruz is responsible. The other working groups will focus on water, circular economy, agroecology, energy, education and geospatial data. The point is to stimulate the development of cutting-edge technological solutions, which are market-ready and contribute to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

“It’s important that they are socially acceptable, feasible, cost-effective and profitable. In addition to having large-scale production potential”, explains Veerle Vandeweerd, former UN official and senior specialist in sustainable development. “With the technology currently available, we cannot solve the world’s problems”, he adds.

In each continent, the five co-hosts of G-STIC are non-profitable organization with an extensive history of organizing international conferences on cutting-edge technological innovations and solutions and broad societal topics within a sustainability agenda. Besides Fiocruz, the co-hosts are the Flemish Institute of Technological Research (Vito), the Energy and Resources (Teri), the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and the Indian Institute of Technology of Delhi (IITD).

“G-STIC represents an opportunity for reaching other areas in science, technology and innovation which are not linked to our traditional partners, it’s a great chance to interact with other agencies, institutes and players, especially in health”, said Paulo Gadelha, director of Fiocruz Strategy for the 2030 Agenda, who is leading the partnership.

Gadelha with WHO's Assistant Director-General for Drug Access, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals, Mariângela Simão, will present the health thematic at the semi-plenary session, on the 28th. "The role of science, technology and innovation (ST&I) in fostering healthy lives and well-being for all" will be the topic of their presentation. Then, the cross-cutting role of health in Agenda 2030 will be the theme of the speech by Lieve Fransen, senior policy advisor and former Chair of the board of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Gadelha and Fransen will talk again in the final semi-plenary, which will present the conclusions of the health session.

Representing Fiocruz, Vice-President of Production and Innovation, Marco Krieger, will open the panel dedicated to the use of innovation to solve concrete problems in health, with a lecture about the search of equity in precision medicine, on the 29th. On the same session, researcher Luciano Moreira will present the World Mosquito Programme (WMP), which uses the wolbacchia method to fight diseases transmitted by Aedes aegypti, such as zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.

In addition to programming the health session, Fiocruz had also indicated names to compose other sessions. Researcher from the institution, Marcia Chame will present at the geospatial data session the Wild Health Information System (SISS-Geo), which uses georeferenced data reported by users to monitor wildlife and the emergence of diseases. The researcher from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and executive director of the Family Agriculture and Agroecology organization (AS-PTA), Paulo Petersen will participate in the session of agroecology, with a talk about an integrative approach to the health of soils, food and people.

Read more about Fiocruz participation at G-STIC: https://agora.fiocruz.br/g-stic/