Links

The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme

UNESCO is undertaking a global review of the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks membership. In this regard, UNESCO is revising the programme documents.

UNESCO recently published the new Guidelines and procedures – revised March 2022. The 27 pages long document is available here. The link to this document on the web UNESDOC Digital Library is here.

IPCC Reports

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is currently in its Sixth Assessment cycle. It is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.
The AR6 Synthesis Report will be based on the three Working Group contributions to the AR6  as well as on the three Special Reports prepared in this assessment cycle:

Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis – The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report is the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations. The link to the full report on 3949 pages is available here. Technical Summary is available here. Summary for Policymakers is available here.

Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability – The Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report assesses the impacts of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It also reviews vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change. The link to the full report on 3675 pages is available here. Technical Summary is available here. Summary for Policymakers is available here.

Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change – The Working Group III report provides an updated global assessment of climate change mitigation progress and pledges, and examines the sources of global emissions. It explains developments in emission reduction and mitigation efforts, assessing the impact of national climate pledges in relation to long-term emissions goals. The link to the full report on 2913 pages is available here. Technical Summary is available here. Summary for Policymakers is available here.

Since the IPCC was created in 1988, there have been 5 Synthesis Reports:
– The Overview of the First Assessment Report (1990)
– The IPCC Second Assessment Report Synthesis of Scientific-technical Information Relevant to Interpreting Article 2 of the UNFCCC (1995)
– The Synthesis Report of the Third Assessment Report (2001)
– The Synthesis Report of the Fourth Assessment Report (2007)
– The Synthesis Report of the Fifth Assessment Report (2014)

Open Science & Open Education Links

Citizen science is the involvement of the public in scientific research – whether community-driven research or global investigations.
A paper on citizen science in the journal Nature by Aisling, I. (2018): No PhDs needed: how citizen science is transforming research.
The Citizen Science Association unites expertise from educators, scientists, data managers, and others to power citizen science. Join us, and help speed innovation by sharing insights across disciplines.
CitizenScience.gov is an official government website designed to accelerate the use of crowdsourcing and citizen science across the U.S. government.
EU-Citizen.Science is an online platform for sharing knowledge, tools, training, and resources for citizen science – by the community, for the community. The vision for the platform is to serve as a Knowledge Hub and to become the European reference point for citizen science in aid of its mainstreaming.
MIT OpenCourseWare is an online publication of materials from over 2,500 MIT courses, freely sharing knowledge with learners and educators around the world.
TU Delft OpenCourseWare provides free and open educational resources of high-quality university‐level, organised as courses, including TU Delft OPEN textbooks for bachelor and master courses.
OASIS – A large user-friendly OER search engine that allows users to search by subject or by course material type (e.g. textbooks, simulations, audio).
OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum.
UNESCO – Recommendation on Open Science (2021) – more on this document here.
UNESCO – Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (2019) – more on this document here.

Open Textbooks:
Jill H. Slinger (2021): Building with Nature & Beyond: Principles for designing nature based engineering solutions.