Sabina Leonelli, Richard Williams, and Joyce Koranteng-Acquah participated in the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) Summit at CERN. Over the past year, Sabina and Richard wrote the “Science Lens” as part of the 2026 GESDA Radar. During the summit, Sabina was part of the “Rethinking Discovery” panel alongside Maria Leptin (President, European Research Council), Karthik Ramani (Professor of Engineering, Purdue University), Magdalena Skipper (Editor-in-Chief, Nature), and Mehran Gul (best-selling author) and discussed how geopolitics and national priorities are transforming how science is governed. Sabina discussed how the dominance of private funding of scientific research allows private corporations to largely set the agenda for scientific research. However, a lack of shared agenda setting may result in highly instrumental relationships where private organizations largely extract research outputs from public organizations for commercial uses and public organizations use private organizations as sources of funding.
With GESDA’s overarching commitment to robust research, Sabina talked about the value of many voices when research agendas are set and how to give a more effective voice to various publics—including the scientists themselves and lay publics. In return, this may help to house the convenience and short-term wealth creation that private corporations typically prioritize within a richer dialogue that aims at well-being creation and gives environmental health, social inequities, and sustainable inclusive growth a fair hearing. So, national governments may aspire to facilitate more shared agenda setting among public and private organizations on what basic aims scientific research should pursue and how to pursue them.
Later, Sabina and Richard participated in the GESDA Science Breakthrough Radar High-Level Review Workshop with Stephen Toope (President, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research), Markus Gabriel (Director of Center for Science and Thought, University of Bonn), Anne Glover (President, Royal Scottish Geographical Society), Hiroaki Kitano (Executive Deputy President, Sony Group Corporation), Lise Korsten (President, African Academy of Sciences), Alondra Nelson (Professor, Institute for Advanced Study), Carolina Torrealba Ruiz-Tagle (Vice-Rector of Research, Andrés Bello University), Michael Hengartner (President, ETH Board), Magdalena Skipper (Editor-in-Chief, Nature), Ayaka Suzuki (Director of Strategic Planning and Monitoring Unit, United Nations), Christian Happi (Director, Institute of Genomics and Global Health, Redeemer University) and Robin Lovell-Badge (Principal Group Leader in Stem Cell Biology, Francis Crick Institute) where we discussed the “Science Lens” and how anticipated future science can and should shape the present research ecosystem. Please check the following link to watch the “Rethinking Discovery: Who Shapes the Future of Research?” panel.
