GSD presentation @ European Conference on Complex Systems

Date: September 15-16 2008
Venue: JECC2008 Jerusalem, Israel
Organisers: Kristian Lindgren, Claes Andersson and Ralph Dum

The Chalmers group, together with Ralph Dum, arranged a workshop titled “How can IT help enhance uptake of scientific advice in complex policy decisions: The GSD Network” at the annual European Complex Systems meeting, which was held this year in Jerusalem. The idea was to have an opportunity to bring together several partners in the GSD consortium, but equally important to also invite others with similar research interests.  The meeting was enjoyable and stimulating and apart from the talks there was also a very active discussion following the presentations. The presentations covered a range of areas and apart from their enlightening content, they also served to give a glimpse into what different groups are working on and what issues that are viewed as important. It is clear that there exists a great deal of experience in the many aspects of policy applications of science within the network and that there are considerable benefits to be gained from bringing this experience together.
One of the main outcomes of this discussion was to communicate that the GSD is an open community intended to involve partners outside of the original constellation. It was also decided that the project website should contain some type of information repository where interested parties can list their activities so that everybody can get an overview over the work that is being done in the area. This would greatly facilitate the formation of collaborations within the community. This work has now been initiated, starting with the list of people under the link “GSD Network” at the webpage.

The speaker list was as follows:

1. Julian Hunt: “Systems Modelling Approaches for making and exploring decisions”
2. Steen Rasmussen and Diana Mangalagiu: “Initiative for Science, Society and Policy”
3. Lucian-Liviu Albu: “How new modeling and simulation techniques could improve the decisions of policy makers and public perception? Some conclusions from Romanian experience during pre- and post-accession periods”
4. Gur Yaari: “Economic Growth under the microscope: what can decision makers see?”
5. David Brée: “Energy policy: a complex systems perspective”
6. Andrzej Nowak: “Prospects for computer simulation for policy making”
7. Claes Andersson: “Methodological introspection: how to avoid talking past one another”

Chair of the event was Kristian Lindgren and chair of the discussion was Ralph Dum. It was arranged by Kristian Lindgren, Ralph Dum and Claes Andersson in collaboration with the ECCS08 staff.

Video link to Julian Hunt’s talks