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No country can achieve sustainable development without also building its strength in science and technology. This implies inexorably a need to reinforce science education, to train a critical mass of researchers, to create research infrastructures facilitating an environment in which innovation can thrive, and more.

The task is enormous: Governmental policies, financial backing, strategies, and well-defined priorities to seed and development of STI are all needed. Furthermore, universities and scientific centers must fund research and development, create inclusive avenues to ensure that the talent pool incorporates women, and establish robust education policies that can stand the test of time. And it must be done in countries where resources are scarce—in which fundamental needs such as food, water, and education compete with R&D for funding.

The advice of scientists, including leading scientists of TWAS, must be heard as we define our priorities in the face of urgent challenges in our developing nations and particularly in the UN-identified Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Science diplomacy offers important ways and tools through which researchers, including TWAS Fellows, may acquire these resources, and that is the focus of this edition of the TWAS Newsletter. We highlight our programme centred on how scientists and diplomats can join forces across borders to find mutual benefits through research and technology, and build stronger international relationships in the process.

It is impossible to meet the great challenges of today’s world if scientists are not heard, and science does not have a seat at the policymaking table. As Quarraisha Abdool Karim wrote in the Editorial of the 2023 TWAS Annual Report, critical and urgent challenges demand "a granular understanding of key drivers, with specialized skillsets and local brains trusts to identify and address local and regional challenges for the present and the future."

Without science, from ancestral knowledge to the most modern technologies, it is not possible to eradicate hunger, protect health, and improve education. Countries such as my home country of Cuba can attest to this, having leveraged the power of biotechnology to develop pharmaceutical products, produce vaccines and therapies for cancer, to name just a few accomplishments.

Other examples have been the countries that have bet on digital transformation, research and development of information, and communication technologies. Technology and innovation are gaining speed in many of the LDCs, particularly in Rwanda and Bangladesh. And some countries, such as Bhutan, see it as key to expanding their economies through e-commerce.

Seeding sciences—not only applied sciences or assimilated knowledge, but also the basic sciences—in the developing world must be at the core of policies, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. TWAS and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) incarnate this spirit. They have made key contributions to the training of scientists and shoring up of institutions of excellence in the developing world.

In mathematics in particular, basic knowledge and mathematical culture among citizens and decision makers is essential, and not only for solving numerical problems. Mathematics is the language of physics and engineering, at the very core of STEM—and maths education can no longer be seen as something that is only appropriate for a handful of students. Mathematics education should be understood as a right for all students, no matter their nationality, economic class, skin color, or gender.

Gender perspective cannot be set aside as a minor issue. Women are still significantly underrepresented in STEM in LDCs. In fact, the issue still persists in both developing and developed countries.  Women constitute about 50 per cent of a country’s potential scientific talent and this valuable resource must not be wasted as we pursue sustainable development. There are still profound barriers: a lack of attention paid to science-minded girls, limited exposure to role models, a very low presence of women in Academies of sciences, and few women leading high-level S&T organizations. This is true both in higher education and in the earliest stages of elementary education, where the next generation of scientists are being seeded.

We, in the international scientific community, have a moral and ethical responsibility to join forces and address the urgent crises of the world, from climate change to hunger. TWAS is here to provide the time and space for concrete ideas and build a road map for action, because it is not enough to simply understand the real world nowadays: It is critical to help transform it.

Lilliam Alvarez Díaz

TWAS Secretary General