Stockholm university

A week with Stockholm +50 – and much more

President’s blog 6 June, 2022

When I look back on the past week, I can confirm that it has probably been the most intense week of the term for me. One highlight was the Inauguration and Conferment Ceremony for doctors and professors from the academic year 2019–2020 – a bustling and joyful party at City Hall after several years of waiting.

Stockholm University also organized, together with University College London, a well-attended webinar on open science, with 450 registered participants from no fewer than 28 countries. I myself had the pleasure of giving an introductory speech about the transition to open access, where I emphasized that the academy must reassume the responsibility for scientific publication presently held by commercial actors. In his speech, Wilhelm Widmark emphasized that the period of transformative agreements risks becoming permanent. Numerous speakers from different quarters proceeded to shed light on these extremely complex issues from different perspectives. International dialogues of this kind are necessary for change to occur.

Juridicum has organized several international conferences during the week. Within the framework of its well-developed collaboration with the Institute of European and Comparative Law in Oxford, the Stockholm Center for Commercial Law arranged a joint conference, Global Trends in Arbitration. With a first-rate programme the conference attracted leading figures in the field to Stockholm. The Stockholm Environmental Law and Policy Centre organized the Symposium on the Law for Security and Sustainable Development, focusing on highly topical issues, including environment and sustainability in armed conflicts, and which I had the pleasure of inaugurating – one of the official pre-conferences of the Stockholm +50 conference. No one present in Stockholm this week likely missed the fact that the UN conference was being held to commemorate the Stockholm Conference of 1972.

On the occasion of Stockholm +50, the Stockholm University Sustainability Forum was also organized under the direction of Johan Kuylenstierna, this time together with KI, KTH and the Stockholm Environment Institute, and was one of the official pre-conferences with the theme “Sustainable Planet – Sustainable Health – How Science-Based Solutions can Drive Transformative Change.” Numerous researchers were present, of course, but also with a wide range of other speakers, such as Botswana’s President Dr Mokgweetsi E.K Masisi and Noura Berrouba, president of the National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations (LSU). At this conference, the initiative Stockholm Trio for Sustainable Actions was also launched, a multi-year joint initiative to strengthen collaboration on the basis of the universities’ various profiles for a globally sustainable society – an important initiative to concretize our tripartite cooperation in a shared priority area for all of us that is also socially vital. To attend Stockholm +50, President Teruo Fujii of the University of Tokyo made his first visit to Stockholm. It provided us with a welcome opportunity to renew the important strategic partnership agreement between the University of Tokyo and the Stockholm trio for an additional five-year period at an official signing ceremony.

Participants at Stockholm+50

From various quarters, Stockholm +50 has been criticized for failing to formulate sharp messages, and thus risking being an empty symbol rather than a step towards necessary change. Criticism is easy. Yet, I have once again been convinced that meetings and international dialogue provide a good and necessary basis for joint action. Åsa Persson, research leader at the Stockholm Environment Institute, emphasized, for example, the important discussions on accountability, which presupposes transparency, as well as the tangible proposal for a global roadmap for circular economy, something that requires international cooperation. I hope that all these good initiatives will spread like ripples on water – and our University has a key role to play by virtue of our core missions: research, education and collaboration.

Astrid Söderbergh Widding
President

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Astrid Söderbergh Widding
Photo: Eva Dalin