Good evening
It is a great pleasure to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences to co-organise this Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data with the Brazilian Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental, the National Academies and the Committee on Data for Science and Technology - CODATA. The relevance of this meeting had been immediately understood by many organisations, and some of them are sharing the honour to co-sponsor it. Amongst the sponsors it is worth to mention the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - FAPESP, the International Council for Science - ICSU, the National Science Foundation - NSF, and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
Though the Brazilian Academy is well known by their honorific actions it is progressively increasing its scientific and adviser roles, both for society and for governmental organisations. Therefore, it is most than appropriate that this Academy of Sciences get involved with activities concerning the organisation and management of environmental data in Brazil. These activities are important not only for the sake of the scientific improvement, I mean, the enhancement of the knowledge basis over the natural resources and their relationship with physical and social factors, but also for building up technical and scientific capacities to manage information and knowledge that are of critically important to strengthen sound decision making processes.
At the national level, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences has organised and supported scientific meetings, workshops and seminars and also co-ordinated studies and appraisals in areas that are of high importance to the national development. Examples of these areas are biodiversity, ecology, global and climate change, micro-gravity, drug development, science education and national scientific memory.
At the international level the Brazilian Academy is the national focal point of relevant programmes as the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the International Human Dimension Programme, the International Geological Correlation Programme, as well as it is responsible for representing Brazil in international scientific organisations such as the International Council for Science, the Inter-Academy Panel on International Issues, the Inter-Academy Council, and the Independent World Commissions on the Oceans.
Regarding the advisory role, there are three aspects of ultimate importance for including this issue in the agenda of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. The first is related to how science, technology and innovation have influenced social, environmental, economic and political activities. Societies that have been successful in propitiating its citizens with high standards of life, as well as and public and social security have heavily and continuously invested in science, technology and innovation.
The second aspect is related to the straight connection between the development of knowledge (basic science) and its practical configuration, expressed in the implementation of new productive processes, new products, and, mainly, new advances in the production of food and in medicine. Currently, the period of time elapsed between the development of knowledge and its practical application has been significantly reduced. This fact has demanded that efficient control and evaluation of the newly developed technologies and innovations are undertaken in order to assure that the possible impacts of its use will cause only benefit to Society.
The third aspect is the understanding that science, technology and innovation are nowadays present in all aspects of the quotidian life. All areas of modern economy are influenced by technologies rooted in scientific knowledge developed in the last century. Notwithstanding, at the same time that ST&I play an important role in the development of societies, it has become an instrument of domination, mainly if access to knowledge and information is restricted.
This explain the active engagement of our Academy in national and international activities and debates on issues such as social equity, sustainable development, science education, fair use of the natural resources, innovation policies, chemical weapons, amongst other issues that are relevant to modern society and for the future of humankind. Moreover, in order to make this involvement effective, the Academy understands the importance of widening and consolidating partnerships with different sectors of society, in order to foster the ideal that science, technology and innovation do contribute to the improvement of the living condition of all peoples.
These aspects led our Academy to collaborate with the creation of the Inter-Academy Panel on International Issues, which is a global network of more than 90 science academies designed to help its members to develop tools that they need to participate in science, technology and innovation policy discussions. The Inter-Academy Panel was established in 1993, and its general objective is to act as an independent international forum to discuss the scientific and technological aspects of problems of global concern, making common statements on major global issues and providing mutual support to member Academies.
Since its establishment, the Inter-Academy Panel has issued statements on population (1994), urban development (1996), and sustainability (2000), and last December five statements were issued as its General Conference in Mexico City. It has also organised international conferences, supported the realisation of seminars, and served as a permanent forum for discussions and exchange of experiences among the Academies.
Our Academy of Sciences has also been actively involved with the Inter-Academy Council. This Council acts in a complementary manner to the Inter-Academy Panel, and is mostly devoted in the development of studies on scientific and technological issues that are relevant on a global dimension. In the beginning of 2004, the Inter-Academy Council launched a report called “Inventing a Better Future”, which is a call for global movement to build science and technology capacities in all nations. It addresses the general public and specifically decision makers - in national and local governments, international intergovernmental organisations, the research communities, national academies, science and technology organisations, foundations, the private sector, non-governmental organisations, and the media. The purpose of that report is to raise awareness among all those parties and to trigger actions, recommending ways in which interactions among them could be effectively used. The growing sense of co-operation among scientific and technological communities of different countries and regions is highlighted as critically important in making these ideas and paths more practical now than ever before.
Taking into account those reasons and actions the Brazilian Academy of Sciences has received with honour the invitation made by CODATA, to jointly with CRIA and the National Academies, organise this workshop that addresses an issue we do consider relevant both for its scientific dimension and for its role in making better decisions.
It is vitally important that we all disseminate the relevance of boosting capability for creating, manipulating, disseminating, and using digital scientific and technical data, mainly due to the opportunities that arise in data intensive research and applications, in the integration of heterogeneous data for new results and in making vast amount of factual information available for a broad spectrum of users.
More specifically, we are also conscious that for Latin America interests and responsibilities, along with other regions of the world, the capacity building in managing environmental science data is presently a considerable scientific and technical challenge, which must be addressed through national initiatives and through regional and international co-operation.
In bringing together well-known researchers, data managers, and institutional representatives, we do consider that this workshop represents a positive step to foster the identification of common needs and opportunities for collaboration.
To conclude I would like to welcome all of you, to wish a successful work, and to look forward we could soon get together in other initiatives like this one.
Thank you very much
Dr. Eduardo Moacyr Krieger
President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences