On September 23, 2010, a group of international networks (known as the Big Tent group[i]) working on the community-university research and Engagement issues released the first Global Communiqué on the “Enhancement of North-South Cooperation in Community University Engagement”.  On October 8, 2011, the Big Tent Group released the second global dialogue communiqué on “A Scenario for Community-University Engagement in 2030”.   In May of 2012 the Big Tent Group released a global communiqué on Sustainability, Knowledge and Democracy.  The Big Tent Group will release a 4^th Global Communique during the Barcelona International Conference on Knowledge, Transformation and Social Responsibility being organised by the Global University Network for Innovation May 12-15, 2013. As with the earlier communiqués, this statement will be open source and will be owned by all who participate with the rights to re-distribute and share within all networks.

Coordinator of the 4^th Global Communique: Norbert Steinhaus, International Coordinator, Living Knowledge Network, Bonn Science Shop, Germany

First Draft of Big Tent IV:

in Bonn, Germany May 9-12. The dialogue will begin in advance; an intensive consultation will take place between  May 8-11, with the draft final communiqué to be read aloud at the final closing session of the Living Knowledge Network meeting on May 12th. A final text version will be formatted and distributed through the Big Tent networks and other social media.

Groups of university and community networks have been coming together since 2010 to share information and call for further action to enhance community-university engagement. These discussions have been framed as 'Big Tent' dialogues and you can read more about these in a 'Links' section.

The 'Big Tent IV' group representing the Global Alliance on Community-Engaged Research and many other networks now ask:

How can the necessary social, scientific and technological innovations in small communities, in municipalities or councils be brought to people's minds to a level so that they really can contribute to a comprehensive social change, to the Great Transformation?

The Grand Challenges and the Great Transformation

The impact of the grand challenges is not limited to specific areas of our lives. With their social, cultural, economic and psychological implications, they represent a shift towards a new era, which concerns all levels of the global community: markets and mindsets, global cooperation and democracy.

Grand challenges involve a combination of major public and private interests, are seen as key for realising  future  economic growth, and are concerned with important social  and/or environmental problems. Grand challenges are not to be defined, assessed or solved by any single scientific or technological discipline or within one specific sectoral policy framework. Societies are facing complex, interlinked, global and local challenges. For challenges like healthy aging and climate change it is evident that we need new policies,  new governance models,  new innovation  solutions and  strategies , and new investment  models . But the necessary holistic or generic approach also includes the need for highly specialized knowledge and highly specific technological  and organizational solutions. Grand challenges involve many different stakeholders, are multidimensional, transdisciplinary, systemic and they require new ways of thinking which go beyond traditional frameworks and disciplines . And they lead to a need to re - think research and innovation policy. It is expected that the way politics, business and society handle these grand challenges will strongly affect the economy and society in the coming decades, both in Europe and worldwide.  But the broad societal risks and problems represented by the challenges are at the same time  also  providing opportunities for new activities, goods and  services and for moving towards a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.[1]

The major transformations which took place in the past were generally the uncontrolled outcome of evolutionary change. By contrast, the forthcoming transformation requires forward-looking and knowledge-based management.

Scientific knowledge is an indispensable element of modern governance and is becoming increasingly important in our ever more complex world. This applies particularly to the present transition, which is beset by considerable uncertainties. The key to successful transformation lies in the linkage between invention, innovation and diffusion processes and the acceleration of these processes to make best use of the limited time available.

Policy can't rule and specify how science is performed, but policy can predetermine themes. On the other hand Scientific advice can make an important contribution to policy-making, by analysing the wealth of complex information, offering integrated solutions, exploring opportunities, and communicating the results effectively. The task of the scientific community is therefore to identify policy options; it is a matter for the democratically elected decision-makers to decide on the appropriate course of action.[2]

Civil Society' Requests towards Science and Research Policy[3]

Education should help to create problem awareness and promote systemic thinking, thus empowering people to participate in and shape the transformation process. Transdisciplinarity in this context means to learn the different languages for the dialogue.

Die Wissenschaftspolitik war in der Vergangenheit ein von den Verbänden der Zivilgesellschaft wenig beachtetes Politikfeld. Hier deutet sich eine kraftvolle Änderung an, weil die Zivilgesellschaft den Eindruck hat, dass sich das Wissenschaftssystem den drängenden gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen wie Klimawandel, Ressourcenverknappung, Urbanisierung oder bezahlbare Gesundheit in einer alternden Gesellschaft, also den so genannten „Grand Challenges", nicht in ausreichendem Maße und zum Tell mit untauglichen Mitteln annimmt.

Die nachfolgenden Zivilgesellschaftliche Forderungen an die Wissenschafts- und Forschungspolitik spiegelt einen ersten Konsens der zívilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen. Die vorliegende Version wurde in plenaren Workshops mehrfach diskutiert und weiter entwickelt.

Key Questions

• How should the science and research system to be organized in 2025?
• What type of science and research is needed to be implemented to make a shift to the "Great Transformation"?
• What needs to happen for the Great Transformation to succeed and enter a turn in the kind of research?
• What are the challenges at individual, organizational or societal level? How can we overcome this?
• What kinds of obstacles can make the transformation of science and research fail?
• How can the guiding principle of sufficiency strengthen the leading concepts in shaping research programs and research institutions?
• What resources are needed for the transformation of research?
• What specific contribution can you or your civil society organisation make?

Big Tent IV: The Global Communiqué

The following working hypotheses and requirements will be made transparent in a participatory process to the public and discussed. They then will be published as the  4th Global Communiqué to all networks.

1. Allow more civil society participation in research through participation of civil society organisations in the formulation of research questions and programs and representation in bodies of publicly funded scientific institutions.
2. Establish a science forum and a civil society research fund
3. Foster capacity building in science policy
4. Develop and implement  transparent agenda processes for the list of priorities of public research funding
5. Expand significantly research programs and activities for future topics and transdisciplinary research
6. Integrate Civil Society in problem formulation, integration of practical knowledge in and implementation of research projects
7. Strengthen the establishment of community-based, participatory institutions such as Science Shops or Community Based Research centers.
8. Support disciplines overarching structures of sustainable science at universities and existing non-university centers of excellence to promote transdisciplinary sustainability research.
9. Give free access to research results and further develop fundamentals and quality standards of transdisciplinary sustainability research
10. Provide one billion Euros annually for more transdisciplinary sustainability research.
11. Ensure adequate equipment for universities for basic research and teaching, in particular by increasing the basic ratio