The Nijmegen Agenda is the outcome of the annual Earth System Governance conference, which brought hundreds of researchers from around the world to Nijmegen in late October of this year. The Earth System Governance (ESG) network aims to use research to take truly sustainable steps in society. 'Researchers usually have informative discussions at such conferences, but we were aiming for a much more lasting outcome,' says Professor of Environmental Governance and Politics Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers. The Nijmegen Agenda document will be made public in January, based on the findings during and after the Nijmegen conference. 'The Nijmegen Agenda is intended to inspire and influence the overall ESG programme.'
Not only the development of such an agenda is remarkable, but so is the agenda's nature, as Visseren-Hamakers emphasises. The Nijmegen Agenda aims to separate the wheat from the chaff in the proliferation of transdisciplinary research. This kind of research, which involves collaboration between researchers and societal stakeholders, is too easily praised, she says. 'Collaboration is not an end in itself; it should lead to actual social change. Therefore, all participants must have the ambition to take fundamental steps.'
Fundamental change
As an example of first-rate cooperation, Visseren-Hamakers cites the SAFE project, a broad international consortium for animal-free research. This project, which she coordinates with Professor Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga, involves, among others, a research department at Unilever and the influential animal rights organisation PETA, to work on solutions for animal-free research. 'Animal-free studies are more reliable than research with laboratory animals, but their application runs into barriers in existing laws and regulations.'
According to Visseren-Hamakers, this difficult implementation of new solutions shows that transformation cannot be limited to knowledge acquisition alone. 'The Nijmegen Agenda therefore formulates our ambition to also develop new social structures. You cannot solve problems like climate change without fundamental change in society.' Another remarkable element of the Agenda is the involvement of parties that are still struggling to find their way in mainstream research. 'We are making room for voices that are currently being silenced, such as those of indigenous and local communities in the Amazon.'
Other research funding
The Nijmegen Agenda also advocates for radically different research funding for projects focused on societal change. According to Visseren-Hamakers, funding is now too fragmented, and moreover, requires co-financing from parties that are already struggling to make ends meet themselves. 'If a partner like Milieudefensie for example, puts time into joint research, they don't get paid for it in the existing financing schemes.' She also says that it is more effective to bring all those small grants under the umbrella of a single research question. 'All these small separate projects are less likely to have real influence; they’re all sitting on their own little islands.'
A good example of new research that is in line with the Nijmegen Agenda, according to Visseren-Hamakers, would be analyzing the lessons learned from research projects that have already been realised. 'Doing a meta-analysis of these projects would allow us to draw lessons for the future. It gives us a much better understanding of what is needed to give the solutions put forward by all those individual studies a greater chance of success.'
The Nijmegen Agenda is an initiative of the organizing team of the Radboud ESG Conference, led by professors Birka Wicke and Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers and assistant professor Sander Chan.