PARC Seminar 2 - Heide Hackmann

In-person, followed by refreshments; and on zoom

Abstract

Since its adoption in 2015, the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have offered a powerful narrative for framing science as a global public good. This framing, accompanied by impact-oriented norms have come to permeate science policy worldwide. In Africa, the SDGs and related imperatives of open science, transdisciplinarity, equitable international collaboration, etc. are strongly reflected in continental, regional and national STI strategies and in institutional and funding policies. Their uptake has occurred despite pronounced heterogeneity across African science systems and persistent constraints in funding, infrastructure, human capital and institutional capacity, highlighting both the ambition and the fragility of SDG-oriented STI agendas on the continent.

The optimism that accompanied the launch of Agenda 2030 has given way to growing concern over inadequate progress on the SDGs and a rapidly deteriorating global context. Intensifying geopolitical competition, weakening multilateralism and the convergence of climate, health, economic and security crises are reshaping the conditions under which science operates and collaborates internationally. For African STI systems, these shifts have reinforced long-standing structural inequities in global knowledge production and governance, while also increasing pressure on already stretched systems to deliver timely, socially relevant solutions.

At the same time, this moment of polycrisis opens a critical window to rethink the public good role of science from African perspectives. It invites a move beyond the largely derivative adoption of global frameworks towards more context-responsive and strategically assertive approaches that are grounded in local societal priorities. For African science policy makers, funders and science system leaders, this creates an opportunity to strengthen the legitimacy and influence of science within African contexts and to reposition African STI as a source of intellectual leadership and practical insight in shaping more equitable and resilient global science–society relations.

About Dr Hackmann

Heide Hackmann holds a Chair in Science Futures and is Director of the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University. She holds an MPhil in Contemporary Social Theory from the University of Cambridge in the UK and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Before joining CREST she served as Director of Future Africa at the University of Pretoria in South Africa (2022-2024); as the founding CEO of the International Science Council in Paris (2018-2022); and as Executive Director of the Council’s two predecessor organizations, the International Council for Science (2015-2018) and the International Social Science Council (2007-2015).

Dr Hackmann has 25 years of international experience in science and technology policy, global science strategy and systems development, international science advice and diplomacy. She continues to serve as an advisor to the United Nations and remains active on the boards of numerous international scientific organisations and initiatives. She is a Fellow of the International Science Council (ISC), and chairs South Africa’s ISC Advisory Council.

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