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The International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD), in partnership with UNESCO, is taking place this year on 5 June.

Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development is the ambitious program that the Member States of the United Nations have agreed on to ensure a balanced, sustainable and inclusive development of the planet.

Basic sciences have an important contribution to make to the implementation of this program. They provide the essential means to meet crucial challenges such as universal access to food, energy, health coverage and communication technologies. They enable us to understand the impact of the currently nearly 8 billion people on the planet and to act to limit, and sometimes even to reduce it: depletion of the ozone layer, climate change, depletion of natural resources, extinction of living species.

Applications of technology are easy to recognize. On the other hand, contributions of basic, curiosity-based, sciences are not well appreciated. They are nonetheless at the basis of major technological advances that stimulate innovation, as well as essential for training future professionals and for developing capacity of populations who can take part in decisions that affect their future. UNESCO is well aware of this: its Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers, revised in 2017, recalls the importance of bringing together politicians, scientists, diplomats, international organizations, entrepreneurs and every goodwill person.

The International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, that we organize in 2022 and 2023, focuses on these links between basic sciences and the Sustainable Development Goals. This is a unique opportunity to convince all stakeholders that through a basic understanding of nature, actions taken will be more effective, for the common good.

ITER Head of Communication Laban Coblentz will be delivering a talk on "The ITER Project: collaborating on basic science for a new energy future" at 18:30 Paris time (CET).

Click here for the livestream. See all information about the IYBSSD event here.

Episode 4 of The ITER World, ITER's second podcast miniseries, is now available.

What do a 14 year old in the south of France, a robot competition, and a scientist at a pioneering nuclear fusion experiment have in common? The love for coding and human collaboration!

In "ITER Robots: Connecting as Humans," host Kruti Mawani Fayot joins middle and high school students at the annual ITER Robots event, where they compete with Lego-based robots that have been designed and programmed to complete ITER-like handling tasks.

Listen to the latest episode directly on the ITER website or through the following channels: Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, PodBean, Spotify, and Tune In.  

Visit the podcast page of the ITER website for all Season 1 and Season 2 episodes.

Join fellow fusion PhD candidates from all over Europe in August in Lausanne, Switzerland!

The annual PhD Event organized by the European Fusion Education Network, FuseNet, will take place this year at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

From 23 to 25 August, meet and greet fellow fusion researchers. The event will feature high-profile keynote speakers, a top-notch scientific program and the much anticipate PechaKucha contest, where students present their research in 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide.

See all information here. Register before 14 June 2023.