Innovation Archives - Inergency https://inergency.com/amp/media/society/innovation/ An online hub for emergency and natural disaster solutions Thu, 28 Mar 2024 15:37:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://i0.wp.com/inergency.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cropped-Copia-de-inergency-logo-1.jpeg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Innovation Archives - Inergency https://inergency.com/amp/media/society/innovation/ 32 32 227046876 CES Audit Confirms Decision Makers Flocked to 2024 Show https://inergency.com/ces-audit-confirms-decision-makers-flocked-to-2024-show/ Thu, 28 Mar 2024 15:37:41 +0000 https://inergency.com/ces-audit-confirms-decision-makers-flocked-to-2024-show/ CES Audit Confirms Decision Makers Flocked to 2024 ShowThird party audit reveals 15% spike in senior executive attendance, record startup participation LAS VEGAS, March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® announced its final attendance data for CES® 2024—the world’s most powerful tech event—revealing 15% growth in the number of senior-level executives attending the show compared to the previous year. 138,739 participants […]]]> CES Audit Confirms Decision Makers Flocked to 2024 Show


Third party audit reveals 15% spike in senior executive attendance, record startup participation

LAS VEGAS, March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® announced its final attendance data for CES® 2024—the world’s most powerful tech event—revealing 15% growth in the number of senior-level executives attending the show compared to the previous year. 138,739 participants from across the globe converged in Las Vegas to explore groundbreaking technologies across 40+ categories. A record 1442 companies exhibited on the show’s startup floor, Eureka Park.

CES 2024—the world’s most powerful tech event—saw 15% growth of senior executives and 138,739 total global participants.

“Our annual show audit proves CES is where business gets done,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO, CTA. “Executives and business decision makers see the value in face-to-face meetings and access to global media, which only a show like CES can provide. Nothing can replace these moments of serendipity.”

Additional attendance numbers include:

  • 56,432 (40%) international attendees, representing 161 countries, regions and territories
  • 4312 registered exhibitors, a more than 10% increase year over year
  • 5355 members of the media
  • 302 of the Fortune Global 500 companies represented
  • 191 government guests from across the globe participated in CTA’s Leaders in Technology program

“We were thrilled not just to welcome more than 138,000 people to CES 2024, but to back up those numbers with an independent audit,” said Kinsey Fabrizio, President, CTA. “Transparency is part of our ethos as an association, and it is a best practice for the events industry as exhibitors and attendees evaluate value and impact. By every measure, CES provides an unparalleled experience.”

As one of the most transparent trade shows, CES adheres to rigorous auditing standards established by UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. To maintain the integrity of its reports, CES engages independent auditors, fostering trust among stakeholders.

The CES 2024 Audit is available here.

Read an article in Trade Show Executive on the CES audit process and an op-ed from Gary Shapiro and Kinsey Fabrizio on the value of independent audits as an events industry best practice.

CES 2025 will return to Las Vegas from January 7-10, 2025, promising another groundbreaking showcase of innovation and collaboration.

About CES
CES® is the most powerful tech event in the world – the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators. This is where the world’s biggest brands do business and meet new partners, and the sharpest innovators hit the stage. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, CES features every aspect of the tech sector. CES 2025 will take place Jan. 7-10 2025, in Las Vegas. Learn more at CES.tech and follow CES on social.

About Consumer Technology Association
As North America’s largest technology trade association, CTA® is the tech sector. Our members are the world’s leading innovators – from startups to global brands – helping support more than 18 million American jobs. CTA owns and produces CES® – the most influential tech event in the world. Find us at CTA.tech. Follow us @CTAtech.

SOURCE Consumer Technology Association



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Putting Research Integrity Checks Where They Belong – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/putting-research-integrity-checks-where-they-belong-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:39:59 +0000 https://inergency.com/putting-research-integrity-checks-where-they-belong-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Putting Research Integrity Checks Where They Belong – The Scholarly KitchenEvery research article submitted to a journal should come with a digital certificate validating that the authors’ institution(s) has completed a series of checks to ensure research integrity. Journals should not hold primary responsibility for detecting, correcting, and punishing authors for inappropriate behavior. In recent months, several “scandals” have rocked trust and confidence in journals. […]]]> Putting Research Integrity Checks Where They Belong – The Scholarly Kitchen


Every research article submitted to a journal should come with a digital certificate validating that the authors’ institution(s) has completed a series of checks to ensure research integrity.

Journals should not hold primary responsibility for detecting, correcting, and punishing authors for inappropriate behavior.

In recent months, several “scandals” have rocked trust and confidence in journals. Thousands of Hindawi papers were retracted because they most likely came from papermills. Wiley announced that their new papermill detection flagged up to 1 in 7 papers submitted to the 270 former Hindawi titles.

Frontiers published ridiculous AI generated figures. And a handful of journals from various publishers were caught publishing papers with obvious AI LLM chatbot text included.

These incidents led to mainstream press articles questioning the value of journals and SCIENCE. I’ve yet to see one that questions the value of institutions or funding of science.

There are consequences for journals that don’t seem to care about research integrity, no matter what their corporate mission statements claim. There are mechanisms for dealing with those journals — they lose indexing in important compendia, they lose their Impact Factor, they lose out reputationally and submissions drop dramatically, at least for a while. They go on lists at institutions or national funders as being restricted.

Journals have positioned themselves as being a trusted source with peer review and some level of validation of scholarship.

Journals have been increasingly expected to explain their value and for the vast majority of serious journals, rigorous peer review has been the answer along with community curation. However, forensic analysis of data sets and gel stains was never an expected task of traditional peer review. And yet, today, journal staff may be performing any number of checks including plagiarism scans, figure analysis, identity checks on claimed authors and reviewers, and at least following the data links supplied to see if data was deposited as may have been required. Now we will start having to add in papermill checks — are all the named authors real people, are they at the institutions listed on the paper, do those institutions exist, are all of the authors working in the same field, have they collaborated before, are there “tortured phrases” littered throughout the paper?

And AI detection tools, for which none have risen to the top as accurate, scalable, or integrated in any manuscript tracking systems, is a new frontier awaiting exploration by journal offices.

For every score or report on every automated integrity check, a person needs to review and decide what to do: just reject the paper based on the score or go back to the author for an explanation and if acceptable, work with them to fix the problem?

For any journal (or maybe suite of journals at a society), dealing with ethics issues requires significant staff time. Any one of these issues can be an honest error by an inexperienced author. In those cases, a journal may want to work with them to get the issue fixed and continue the paper down its peer review path. Other times, it’s bad behavior that needs to be addressed.

If a paper that fails the integrity checks is rejected, there is a good chance it will show up at another journal, wasting the time of yet another journal staffer.

These additional checks are coming at a time when the review of papers submitted to journals is expected to be fast and inexpensive and yet none of the processes above are either fast or inexpensive. And the number of papers submitted to journals is mostly increasing — though that is not the case in every discipline.

Conducting integrity checks on papers is also a Sisyphean task with little reward. The vast, vast majority of papers submitted to the vast majority of journals are written by ethical and responsible researchers. Despite the sensational headlines decrying almost 10,000 retractions in 2023, about 8,000 of them were from Hindawi journals. Context is everything.

If we remove the journals or publishers that are not actually conducting peer review (or do conduct peer review but then ignore the reviewer comments and accept the papers anyway), the number of papers with serious ethical issues is low. And yet, every publishing conference this year, last year, and next year will spend significant amounts of time addressing research integrity issues. An equal amount of time will be spent attending demos of new tools built to detect research integrity issues.

Despite the relatively low number of incidents, not checking every accepted paper puts a journal at risk of missing something and winding up on the front pages of Retraction Watch or STAT News. This is not where we want to be and it opens you up to a firestorm of criticism — your peer review stinks, you don’t add any value, you are littering the scientific literature with garbage, you are taking too long to retract or correct, etc.

The bottom line is that journals are not equipped with their volunteer editors and reviewers, and non-subject matter expert staff to police the world’s scientific enterprise.

Some have called for journals to simply retract or publish an expression of concern if questions are raised about published papers and force the institutions to conduct an investigation.

Every time a managing editor has to send a paper to an institution for investigation, a small piece of their soul goes dark. Maybe if all your papers come from US R1 research institutions you will at least be able to identify who to whom the email should be sent. I have personally spent hours hitting translate in the web browser on institution web pages searching for anything that might look like an integrity officer. Usually the best you can find is a dean without an email publicly listed.

Every time a managing editor has to send a paper to an institution for investigation, a small piece of their soul goes dark.

But large well-funded institutions are not off the hook. Their reviews and investigations are slow and not at all transparent.

There are obvious reasons not to trust an institution with policing their own research outputs; however, the use of third-party tools might help mitigate those concerns.

A solution to the problem is for institutions to take responsibility for conducting integrity checks and providing validation to the journals. The several fine companies that are trying to sell publishers the expensive technology solutions should be trying to sell enterprise solutions to institutions.

Might there be a middle ground? The technology tools can be available to individual authors that then have to get the validation and submit it with their paper. This will come with a fee.

I don’t see how journals needing to employ more and more integrity checks and human review of the results is sustainable. As “cheating the system” becomes exponentially easier with the AI tools already at our fingertips, the constant public shaming of journals for not catching issues will continue to erode trust, not only in journals, but also science.

And this is why backing the integrity review up in the timeline is crucial. Trust in science is low, like really low. The US is one election away from potentially losing most science funding. In corners of the universe, what is true is no longer relevant and several lies are believed as fact.

Instead of hoping that strapped journal offices and volunteers find the bad papers before they are published and instead of blaming the journal when one slips through, maybe the institutions — the employers of the researchers — have a significant role to play in ensuring the scientific record is clean from the start.

I welcome continuing discussion on where efforts to ensure research integrity are most efficiently deployed.

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Navigating the Retraction Minefield in China and Beyond: A Need for Systemic Changes and Increased Focus on Researcher Well-Being – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/navigating-the-retraction-minefield-in-china-and-beyond-a-need-for-systemic-changes-and-increased-focus-on-researcher-well-being-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 10:36:45 +0000 https://inergency.com/navigating-the-retraction-minefield-in-china-and-beyond-a-need-for-systemic-changes-and-increased-focus-on-researcher-well-being-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Navigating the Retraction Minefield in China and Beyond: A Need for Systemic Changes and Increased Focus on Researcher Well-Being – The Scholarly KitchenThe recent nationwide audit of retracted research papers in China has shed light on significant challenges within the academic community. This audit, initiated by the Ministry’s Department of Science, Technology, and Informatization, marks a crucial point in the pursuit of research integrity within China’s academic landscape. As one of the primary sources of research funding […]]]> Navigating the Retraction Minefield in China and Beyond: A Need for Systemic Changes and Increased Focus on Researcher Well-Being – The Scholarly Kitchen


The recent nationwide audit of retracted research papers in China has shed light on significant challenges within the academic community. This audit, initiated by the Ministry’s Department of Science, Technology, and Informatization, marks a crucial point in the pursuit of research integrity within China’s academic landscape.

As one of the primary sources of research funding in China, the government holds a vested interest in ensuring that the funds are allocated to projects that uphold the highest standards of integrity and contribute meaningfully to scientific progress. It is crucial to acknowledge this role played by government funding bodies in shaping research practices and promoting integrity. By actively initiating audits and supporting initiatives aimed at enhancing research integrity, government funding bodies send a clear message to researchers that accountability and transparency are paramount. Authors must recognize their responsibility not only to the academic community but also to those who fund their research endeavors.

This also prompts reflection on research integrity and the rising scrutiny surrounding retractions at a broader global scale. The involvement of government funding bodies in addressing integrity challenges reflects a holistic approach to research governance. It underscores the interconnectedness of stakeholders within the research ecosystem and emphasizes the importance of aligning incentives and priorities to foster a culture of integrity and accountability. Can similar efforts be applied globally to cultivate a culture of accountability and transparency?

Implications of Retractions on Trust and Collaboration

The sheer scale of retractions involving Chinese authors has raised concerns about the underlying factors contributing to this issue. While some retractions may stem from genuine errors or oversight, others may be indicative of more nefarious practices such as data fabrication or plagiarism. While addressing these challenges within China is vital, it is also equally important to recognize the global implications of retractions on trust and collaboration in research.

The repercussions of retractions extend beyond individual researchers, impacting institutions, journals, and collaborative research endeavors. Institutions risk damage to their reputation and credibility, while journals face scrutiny over their peer review and editorial processes. Researchers in collaborative projects involving Chinese scholars may also be skeptical and hesitant, hindering research and overall knowledge exchange.

While this audit may be perceived as a response to a research integrity crisis, it presents a unique opportunity for meaningful reform and for cultivating a research culture defined by transparency and accountability, not just in China, but even globally. Institutions in China and beyond, publishers, funding bodies, and industry stakeholders must seize this opportunity to not only rectify past errors, but also establish robust mechanisms that uphold the highest standards of research integrity. By doing this, academia can mitigate the impact of retractions and rebuild trust in the integrity of their research outputs.

Recently, as we address the multifaceted implications of retraction audits on researchers in China, it’s essential to acknowledge the conflict several individuals, including you, may experience. It is something that left me conflicted as well. While we don’t wish harm upon honest scientists who make genuine mistakes, the reality of fraud and its repercussions cannot be ignored. Yet, it’s equally crucial to recognize that systemic pressures often underpin fraudulent behavior, prompting us to consider systemic changes to alleviate these pressures.

What can publishers the world over do to support China in its mission to reaffirm its position as a leading contributor to research? As a market, China is increasingly important, so what can we do to better support them as they navigate this minefield?

At the same time, amidst these efforts for institutional improvement, it is crucial to recognize the psychological toll this has taken on researchers in China, especially those who probably who made genuine mistakes and had no intent to deceive. In light of this, it is important to evaluate the impact the audit has had on them and what we can do to support them. Recently, let’s examine both the systemic changes required in academia and the support needed to uphold researchers’ well-being.

Systemic Approaches

While retractions can stem from various causes, it is worth examining if there are any systemic weaknesses within the academic ecosystem in China that can be a contributor to the problem. Is the pervasive culture of pressure to publish one of the contributing factors? Does the pressure of frequent publication in high impact journals, career advancement, securing funding, and gaining recognition incentivize unethical behaviors such as data manipulation, plagiarism, and selective reporting, ultimately leading to retractions when these malpractices are uncovered? Furthermore, is this challenge unique to China, or does it reflect a broader global concern?

What can be done to make our peer review processes more robust, so that flawed or fraudulent research does not slip through the cracks?

What strategies can be implemented to encourage institutions to prioritize the quality and impact of research outputs over quantity? Will this shift incentivize authors to prioritize rigor and integrity over meeting publication quotas? Additionally, what support mechanisms can be established for career development and mentorship to help authors navigate the competitive academic landscape without succumbing to undue pressure? As China continues its efforts to improve research integrity, what support can publishers offer?

Can societies and publishers invest in training and education on research ethics and integrity to empower scholars to uphold the highest standards of conduct in their research endeavors? Will workshops, seminars, and training programs focused on research ethics and integrity help authors to recognize and address ethical dilemmas in their work, including issues related to data integrity, authorship, and publication ethics?

Should government agencies worldwide integrate considerations of research integrity into funding criteria and evaluation processes to incentivize authors to prioritize rigor and ethical conduct in their research activities, ultimately preventing misconduct and reinforcing the notion that integrity is essential in responsible research conduct?

Can publishers establish global mentorship programs that pair early-career researchers with experienced mentors across the world so that authors can navigate the publication process, handle ethical challenges, and maintain integrity in research practices?

Can institutions in China establish research integrity offices or committees tasked with providing guidance, resolving ethical issues, and promoting a culture of integrity within the institution?

Addressing the complexities surrounding retractions globally necessitates a multi-faceted approach and answers to some of these questions can pave the way for a more robust and ethically sound academic landscape.

Addressing Researchers’ Well-Being

If we think of it from the Chinese authors’ perspective, this audit has introduced a new layer of complexity for them. Transparent reporting and disclosure of retractions serve as fundamental pillars in this endeavor, ensuring that errors, misconduct, and corrective actions are openly acknowledged and addressed. However, it is equally crucial to prioritize scholars’ well-being throughout this process, recognizing the psychological impact that retraction audits can exact.

Many scholars are probably experiencing heightened levels of stress and anxiety as they grapple with the implications of retractions on their academic reputations and career trajectories. The fear of being implicated in research misconduct or facing disciplinary action looms large and can contribute to a pervasive sense of uncertainty and insecurity. Moreover, the audit process can evoke feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt among scholars, particularly those whose work has been subjected to scrutiny or retraction. The public nature of retractions can be humiliating and demoralizing, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and undermining scholars’ confidence in their abilities.

It is crucial to acknowledge the human aspect amidst efforts for institutional improvement. While the focus may be on rectifying systemic weaknesses and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, it is equally important to prioritize scholars’ well-being and mental health. Ignoring the psychological toll of retraction audits not only neglects the holistic needs of scholars but also undermines the effectiveness of institutional reforms.

Addressing the psychological impact of retraction audits requires a multifaceted approach that combines institutional support, peer networks, and access to mental health resources. Institutions must create a supportive environment where scholars feel safe to express their concerns and seek assistance when needed. This may involve providing counseling services, organizing support groups, and promoting a culture of openness and empathy.

Furthermore, efforts to mitigate the emotional strain of retraction audits should extend beyond institutional boundaries to encompass broader societal attitudes and perceptions. Researchers must be assured that their worth is not defined solely by their research outputs and that mistakes or retractions do not diminish their value as individuals or scholars.

Will it help if publishers and societies establish peer support networks offering researchers a sense of belonging and solidarity, enabling them to connect with peers facing similar challenges? These networks can provide a platform for sharing experiences, seeking advice, and offering mutual support. Will this supportive peer group help with some extent to mitigate the psychological toll of the retraction audits?

Recognizing the emotional impact of audits on scholars, institutions and academic organizations should consider prioritizing the establishment of support networks, counseling services, and wellness programs tailored to researchers’ needs. These initiatives provide researchers with a safe space to share their experiences, seek guidance, and access resources to cope with stress, anxiety, and other psychological challenges associated with retraction audits.

Furthermore, fostering open dialogue encourages transparency, collaboration, and mutual support within the academic community. By creating avenues for scholars to discuss their concerns, share best practices, and seek advice, institutions can promote a culture of solidarity and resilience. Open dialogue also facilitates the identification of systemic issues and the development of targeted interventions to address scholars’ well-being needs effectively.

Choosing Collaboration over Condemnation

Instead of condemning those whose papers have been retracted and instead of imposing penalties on them, let’s collaborate with them. Let’s embrace the fundamental belief in the goodness of individuals and come together to tackle integrity challenges in academia head-on. It’s crucial to recognize that research extends far beyond borders and has global ramifications. Let’s choose collaboration over condemnation, understanding over isolation, and unity over division as we navigate the path toward a more robust and inclusive research community.

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WBCSD convenes first gathering of a new Chief People Officer Network https://inergency.com/wbcsd-convenes-first-gathering-of-a-new-chief-people-officer-network/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 03:48:09 +0000 https://inergency.com/wbcsd-convenes-first-gathering-of-a-new-chief-people-officer-network/ WBCSD convenes first gathering of a new Chief People Officer NetworkTop executives overseeing people and culture from close to 30 members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have come together to explore and advance the critical role of the human resource community in driving corporate sustainability. As sustainability continues to cement itself in the mainstream, and as companies across all sectors make […]]]> WBCSD convenes first gathering of a new Chief People Officer Network



Top executives overseeing people and culture from close to 30 members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have come together to explore and advance the critical role of the human resource community in driving corporate sustainability.

As sustainability continues to cement itself in the mainstream, and as companies across all sectors make bold commitments to fundamentally transforming the way their business is conducted, WBCSD and its members have identified an urgent corresponding need to ensure that leaders and practitioners are equipped with the vital skills and qualities needed to drive action and sharpen accountability around sustainability goals. 

More and more companies are realizing that if genuine transformation in support of sustainable development is to be realized, virtually all employees throughout the business will need to be fluent in sustainable development and equipped with the right adaptive skills to support its realization.

This will be essential not only for the business’s long-term success but also to ensure that the workforces of today and tomorrow are empowered to thrive in the evolving world of work.

Meeting for the first time in March 2024, WBCSD’s new Chief People Officer Network has undertaken to explore and align around leading practice regarding how people and culture teams can maximize their potential to support the implementation of robust sustainability strategies. At the same time, the group will also scope the development of new tools and frameworks that will help to ensure the competencies needed to deliver on sustainability ambitions can be nurtured and effectively embedded into corporate culture.

The Network will also play a critical role in shaping and steering WBCSD’s offerings in the field of sustainability education, supporting the organization in its mission to empower a new generation of leaders who can drive change within their organizations and contribute to a sustainable and equitable world.

WBCSD’s Chief Education Officer, Rodney Irwin, said: “As the global demand for sustainability-related skills takes off, there is an urgent need for a workforce equipped with the knowledge and tools to effect change. WBSCD is delighted to be able to count on the leadership of its new Chief People Officer Network as we collectively work towards the realization of a world in which sustainability is embedded within mainstream business and executive education, training and learning.”

For more information or to explore the Chief People Officer Network membership, please contact gomme@wbcsd.org.

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Supporters with Vantage Position: The Role of Youth Work in the Online Lifeworld from the Perspective of Adolescents and Youth Work’s Partners https://inergency.com/supporters-with-vantage-position-the-role-of-youth-work-in-the-online-lifeworld-from-the-perspective-of-adolescents-and-youth-works-partners/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 03:05:14 +0000 https://inergency.com/supporters-with-vantage-position-the-role-of-youth-work-in-the-online-lifeworld-from-the-perspective-of-adolescents-and-youth-works-partners/ Supporters with Vantage Position: The Role of Youth Work in the Online Lifeworld from the Perspective of Adolescents and Youth Work’s Partners1. Introduction For a while now, a significant part of young people’s interactions and activities has been occurring online [1]. Consequently, the role of youth work in the digital lives of young individuals has gained importance, a trend further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is a deficiency in understanding the precise role of […]]]> Supporters with Vantage Position: The Role of Youth Work in the Online Lifeworld from the Perspective of Adolescents and Youth Work’s Partners


1. Introduction

For a while now, a significant part of young people’s interactions and activities has been occurring online [1]. Consequently, the role of youth work in the digital lives of young individuals has gained importance, a trend further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is a deficiency in understanding the precise role of youth work in an online context. Blurred boundaries between the online lifeworld and the domains of home, school, work, and leisure pose new challenges for youth work practice in fulfilling its mission in an online context [2]. The role of youth work in relation to its partners, such as parents, schools, social services, police, municipalities, and informal networks of young people, needs rethinking. The research question for this paper reads: What role in the online lifeworld is expected from youth work by adolescents and youth work’s partners?

In this study, we addressed this question through conducting group conversations with young people and semi-structured interviews with partners involved in youth work. Prior to delving into our methodology and findings, we provide an overview of the literature on the online lifeworld of young people, on offline and online youth work practice, as well as on the collaborative engagements between youth work and its partners.

1.1. Online Lifeworld of Young People

The term ‘online lifeworld’ refers to all the experiences (e.g., memories, feelings, sense of belonging, and making connections with peers) that young people have when they are connected to the Internet. In that respect, the online lifeworld is more than just a medium for communication and interaction. It is an environment that shapes young people’s daily activities, gives them a sense of belonging, and provides a territory for validating their identities, making friendships, connections, and intimacy with peers [3,4]. Some of the previous empirical studies, which are more focused on the risks of the online context (see for example [5,6]), suggest that the online environment offers young individuals opportunities for gaining experiences and shaping their identities, while also serving as a space that can increase vulnerabilities and risks. A characteristic of the online lifeworld of young people is that this phenomenon does not stand alone, but must be seen in a relation to the offline lifeworld [7]. The online and offline lifeworld intertwine where the private domain becomes public space and public space enters the private domain [8,9]. Also, the online lifeworld is not exclusively a domain of young people [7]. It simultaneously includes young people and adults. Parents have accounts on social media, they share TV streaming accounts with their children, and schools use online resources and tools for online education [7]. This hybrid environment where online and offline worlds are intertwined, and where young people interact with peers, adults, and digital media and tools, fundamentally shapes young people’s development, behaviour, and social life [10,11].

1.2. Youth Work in the Offline and Online Lifeworld

Across the world, youth work is defined by various practice features using different theoretical frameworks [12]. In the Netherlands, youth work belongs to the social work profession, with a focus on supporting young people between 10 and 23 years of age towards adulthood [13,14]. Youth work takes place in the setting where young people are in their lifeworld [15]. In this lifeworld, youth workers build meaningful relationships with young people [16,17] and respond to their developmental needs [18]. Youth work provides spaces and places for young people to express themselves, to meet peers, and to learn new skills and attitudes, especially for those from socially deprived and marginalised groups [13,19,20].
The literature suggests that online youth work is regarded as a fundamental component of the overall youth work practice, where digital media and technology are acknowledged and actively employed [21]. This use of digital media and technology is evidenced in a study [22] where youth workers perceive it as enhancing their overall practice. The aims and target group in this context align with those of offline youth work practice [23]. As an integral part of the overall youth work practice, youth work in the online lifeworld is not seen as a one-way information-sending method, but rather as a two-way process of engagement in young people’s lifeworld, which involves stimulating and influencing interactions, actions, and connections of adolescents, and responding to their developmental needs [23,24]. It represents a dynamic and ever-changing practice influenced by the intersectionality of various factors and actors, encompassing both social and technological dimensions [25]. In this respect, youth work in the online lifeworld is not just expected to use social and digital media for the dissemination of information and for the instruction of adolescents in the use of new digital tools, platforms, and media (i.e., media literacy and media education), or for the implementation of online youth care interventions. In fact, online youth work methods, in conjunction with these online educational tools or online interventions, may also be used for a variety of developmental needs and adolescent issues (e.g., dealing with online risks, peer interactions, and talent development). With the online opportunities, youth workers may reach a broader target group, and also some specific ones—e.g., adolescents from rural areas with weak support in their social environment, adolescents with a migration background, and minority groups [13]. Thus, ambitions and problems of young people can be identified and tackled at an early stage, possibly with other pedagogical actors in the online lifeworld [26].

1.3. Youth Work’s Collaboration with Partners

Depending on the circumstances and issues in which young people are involved (e.g., addiction, domestic violence, and behavioural and cognitive problems), the role of youth work can be limited and collaboration with partners is needed [27]. In this collaboration, youth work has a bridging function between adolescents, adults, and institutions. This bridging function reinforces a supportive and strong pedagogical environment for disadvantaged young people [26]. Collaboration with parents may be necessary to gain support and involvement in young people’s development, gain insight into the home situation, or resolve domestic problems [28,29]. Collaboration with schools, social services, and municipalities can be important for identifying and addressing impending or incipient problems, and directing young people to appropriate support [30,31]. Collaboration with the police is needed for the protection of young people, for example, in cases of aggression and abuse, and as a reaction to nuisance, transgressive behaviour, radicalisation, and crime [32]. Lastly, youth work collaborates with young people’s informal networks. Informal networks include individuals from the immediate environment of young people (e.g., peers, neighbours, local entrepreneurs, and sports associations) who also have an impact on their development. Collaboration with these individuals is therefore needed as it can play a meaningful role in supporting and enhancing the positive development of young people [33]. Depending on developmental needs of young people and opportunities and risks in their immediate environment, the aims, form, and frequency of the collaboration between youth work and its partners may change [27]. Such a collaboration is expected to be driven by a true partnership, by agreed and shared visions and goals [34], and by their contribution to adolescents’ positive development [35]. As role competition and role confusion may act as barriers to a good collaboration [36], it is suggested that all parties involved be well-informed about each other’s expectations and the boundaries that define their roles [37].

In the online lifeworld of adolescents, the role of youth work and its partners has not yet been widely reported. There are various practices of online youth work, but their theoretical underpinnings are still lacking. It is unclear how youth work can fulfil its aims online, what position it can take in the online context, and how it relates to other pedagogical actors in the online lifeworld. In this paper, our objective is to analyse the role of youth work in the online lifeworld from the perspectives of adolescents and youth work’s partners.

3. Results

3.1. Support Needed in the Online Lifeworld as Expressed by Adolescents

From the group conversations with adolescents conducted by the youth workers as research assistants, we tentatively distinguished four types of support young people can use from youth work professionals to meet their needs in the online lifeworld:

Adolescents indicated the need for instrumental support when dealing with various practical issues online. For example, youth workers with online presence and quick and easy online access who can help with online job searches or applications, online applications for social housing, tax payments, health insurance, and support with administrative issues with government institutions.

Young people indicated that the online step to discuss practical but urgent issues with youth workers is smaller than through the regular route: in-person offline contact.

(Insights from the group conversation with adolescents.)

Furthermore, the respondents voiced the need for instrumental support in situations where they are being harassed by strangers online, or when they are victims of exposing, grooming, or other illegal and criminal activities. They needed someone to help them block the harmful accounts, delete reshared and exposed photos, and report the harmful activities to the police. Lastly, it was also pointed out that some of the adolescents can use support in meeting peers. Some of them indicate that they might just need to be added to a WhatsApp group chat to make further contacts and friendships.

(b)

Informational support

The respondents expressed a need for informational support regarding health and well-being issues, safety, privacy, and self-presentation. For example, they needed informational support from youth workers regarding how and which aspects of their identity to present online, or which photographs are appropriate to share with a wider audience. In addition, they expressed the need for themed online meetings, discussions, and consultations on issues such as online discrimination, racism, religion, education, sexting, and drug use.

It is indicated that it might be nice to receive more information from youth workers about the danger of drug use and dealing drugs online.

(Insights from the group conversation with adolescents.)

(c)

Socioemotional support

The research assistants observed that young people need socioemotional support when coping with personal problems or when going through negative experiences in the online and offline lifeworld. They expressed the need for someone to talk to and understand their problems related to home and school, relationships, sexual identity, negative self-image, loneliness, cyberbullying, and other personal worries.

Young people pointed out the need for support from youth workers in dealing with same-sex feelings and with negative reactions from peers to it.

(Insights from the group conversation with adolescents.)

(d)

Cognitive support

The need for cognitive support was indicated for situations involving the learning of new skills and attitudes. The respondents named the following situations: discovering and developing new talents and skills through various online activities, workshops and webinars, learning online entrepreneurship, and learning how to deal with online information.

Young people who come to youth work for talent development expressed the need for activities or workshops where they can learn how to promote themselves online as artists or budding entrepreneurs.

(Insights from the group conversation with adolescents.)

3.2. The Partners’ Point of View

In this section, we describe the partners’ points of view on the four types of support young people can use from youth workers when meeting their needs in the online lifeworld. The interviewed partners indicate that youth workers have a potential role in addressing developmental needs and creating new developmental opportunities for adolescents. They point out that just as in the offline context, adolescents need support in the online lifeworld with identity development, talent development, sexual exploration, learning new skills, meeting peers, gaining self-confidence and acceptance, improving self-presentation, etc. The data indicate that supporting adolescents with these developmental needs, and creating new developmental opportunities in the online lifeworld, can be facilitated by employing the general youth work methods in an online context. For example, informational support can be offered through online information and advice services:

Youth work can organise an activity together with young people and livestream it, and then talk about various topics that young people are concerned with, such as body shaming, racism, violence, etc. It should not feel like school, but to be organised in a more creative way. Invite experts, but also young people who already have experience with these issues. I think it speaks more to the young people if there is another young person who can share their experience.

(Parent)

Further, the informational support can be combined with instrumental support where adolescents can be supported with practical issues such as applying online for a job or internship. Additionally, some of the partners pointed out that through social group work, youth workers can provide cognitive support—for example, creating learning opportunities for adolescents through online activities, webinars, and online workshops.

Youth work should particularly focus itself on advising young people about their online lifeworld. What problems are you facing online? Online phishing, exposing. But also offering online tools—for example, how to apply for a job, how to present yourself in an interview for a job or internship, etc. Also, an online possibility for face-to-face coaching, organising basic webinars, organising group discussions and workshops on gender diversity, cultural diversity, (sexual) harassment, and extortion on the Internet.

(Community team)

Moreover, the interviewed partners expressed their view on how youth workers should provide online socio-emotional support to young people who deal with personal issues, such as loneliness, having problems meeting peers, and making friendships.

It is important to focus on individual issues such as loneliness. These young people need to be supported to build up their network. For this purpose, (online) groups can also be set up. Online, for example, through WhatsApp, video calls, forums, and other apps.

(Community team)

3.3. Relation between the Online and Offline Youth Work Practice

From the data, we derived ideas about how youth work in the online lifeworld relates to the general offline youth work practice (i.e., integral part of general youth work practice) and which aspects of its role stay the same in both contexts (i.e., meaningful relationships with adolescents).

3.3.1. Integral Part of General Youth Work Practice

Besides using the general youth work methods in the online lifeworld, the partners see youth work in the online lifeworld as an integral part of the general youth work practice. In their view, it should be integrated with working in the offline lifeworld with a notion that the online and offline lifeworld reinforce and complement each other.

Linking the offline with the online work, so they become stronger.

(School)

Youth workers have their own role [in the online lifeworld] similar to the role youth workers have in public spaces.

(Municipal officer)

I think that youth work should actually seek connection with young people in the online lifeworld. That’s where the potential target groups are. It is complementary to detached youth work.

(Municipal officer)

So a complementary, kind of similar offer as young people get offline from youth work. I don’t think the offer has to be so different.

(Community team)

3.3.2. Meaningful Relationship with Adolescents in the Online Lifeworld

So far, this paper has discussed the possibilities of how youth work in the online lifeworld follows the offline youth work practice when it comes to its main goal: strengthening the personal development and social participation of young people. In addition, the respondents observed that, similar to the offline context, youth workers appear to have more online access to the online spaces and places of adolescents than some of the partners:

As a youth worker, you have a special role. As a parent, you are not included in the online lifeworld of your child. As a youth worker, you are aware of this, you are in the group apps [with young people]. Youth workers therefore know much better what is happening and can respond much better and address young people on what they see online.

(School)

The partners indicated that the main reason for this is due to parents, teachers, police, and other partners being in a hierarchical relationship with adolescents, setting the boundaries and restrictions, whereas the youth workers can approach young people on a more equal level, enabling them to think and reflect on their own needs, problems, and behaviour.

Trust between a young person and a youth worker is somewhat greater than between a parent and a young person. Youth workers engage more in a conversation, while parents say ‘that’s not allowed’, lecturing their children or getting angry. Young people don’t want that, so, they don’t tell their parents anything. Therefore, use the role you have and the bond of trust as a youth worker.

(Parent)

Youth workers are often seen as buddies, so young people are more likely to allow youth workers to see their behaviour online.

(Municipal officer)

According to the partners, youth workers continue to be in contact with adolescents online, build meaningful relationships with them and use this close contact to engage in their online lives. In comparison to the offline youth work practice, these actions in an online context may give youth workers a specific position to gain a better view of adolescents’ online lifeworld as an important part of their lives.

3.4. Specifics of Youth Work in the Online Lifeworld of Adolescents

This section describes three specific aspects of youth work’s role in the online lifeworld according to youth work’s partners: reaching new target groups, potential for fulfilling a bridging role between the adolescents and partners, and taking a preventive role.

3.4.1. Reaching New Target Groups

The online lifeworld gives various opportunities for youth work to easily connect with young people and to reach new target groups. In order to address the developmental needs of young people in their online lifeworld, partners stress that it is crucial for youth workers to also reach out and make contact with young people who are invisible in the offline setting.

[…]there is an opportunity online to connect with young people you don’t always see offline.

(School)

It is also likely to reach online a broader target group, for example, young people who do not hang out in the streets, young people who spend more time alone at home and not with friends.

(Informal network)

If you want to get in touch with young people, you can’t avoid investing digitally and, in that way, keep the connection with young people. Otherwise, you end up losing them. For a youth worker, I think it is very important to have that connection. You have to have a starting point with the youth and this is a place where they come a lot. The idea that you only meet young people on the street is outdated.

(Municipal official)

3.4.2. Bridging Role

By connecting with young people in the online lifeworld and establishing a meaningful relationship with them, youth workers also gain access to digital spaces and places that are out of reach for most other partners. This provides youth workers with valuable information about adolescents’ interests, trends, ambitions, and problems.

Nobody knows the lifeworld of young people as well as the youth workers. Not much is known [about the online lifeworld of young people] to the school or at home to parents, but youth workers come behind the symbolic closed door of young people’s online lifeworld. They can see what young people are doing, how they react, where they are, what kind of behaviour they show, and you can work preventively from there.

(Municipal official)

Because of this position, youth workers are seen as an important link in connecting young people with partners to enhance support for young people.

Youth workers play an important role by entering the online lifeworld of young people; they are more central to it than any other professional can ever be. This gives youth workers a strong information position that the city also needs in the field of prevention for example, but also a connecting position between the municipality, police, school, and all other organisations that work with young people.

(Municipal official)

Within this bridging role, the respondents also pointed out the importance of strengthening the collaboration between youth work and its partners and complementing each other for a better support of young people. Because of its position, connection, and engagement in the online lifeworld, some of the partners see youth work as complementing and stepping into cases where, for example, school or police need more detailed and accurate insights in young people’s needs and problems.

Youth workers do particularly well to supplement teachers who do not always have a good idea of what is going on in the lifeworld of young people outside of school. This allows youth workers to supplement education by working together preventively on the development of young people.

(School)

We from the police see that we have less contact [in the online lifeworld] with young people than the youth workers have. That is why we receive far fewer signals about cyberbullying, sexting, etc. We do see an increase in the number of young people who report these issues. In order to be able to prevent this, it is good to have this information at an early stage, because then we can react to it. That is why the collaboration between youth work and the police is so important.

(Police)

3.4.3. Preventive Role

Lastly, the position youth workers have in the online lifeworld gives them the possibility of picking up online information about adolescents’ interests, appearances, and statements, assessing and analysing this information, and, if needed, responding to it. As already stated, youth workers appear to have better access to young people’s online lifeworld and can therefore play an important role in preventing and de-escalating problems, such as cyberbullying, money muling, exposing, and loneliness.

I believe that youth workers should be able to monitor young people online. By this I mean that they should be able to spot, for example, cyberbullying and announcements of possible fights.

(Parent)

By finding themselves into the online lifeworld of young people, youth workers can closely monitor what is going on and what risks are lurking. Young people who are recruited as money mules or being exposed online. All kinds of risk factors that youth workers can respond to.

(Municipal official)

In addition, it is a medium where you can focus on loneliness, for example, to identify this. Schools may be able to talk about it during a class, but online it’s a little harder for them to put a finger on it.

(Police)

Youth workers can actually monitor young people online, see what young people do online, and respond to the needs that young people may encounter online.

(Municipal official)

This last quote above points out one important issue, namely the online monitoring of adolescents in relation to their needs. Youth work’s approach towards young people is always developmental, aimed at personal development and social participation. With this in mind, this quote reflects the importance of collaborative work and prevention that benefits adolescents’ development.

These findings provide novel insights regarding the support adolescents require from youth work in the online lifeworld (i.e., instrumental, informational, socioemotional, and cognitive support), the perspectives youth work’s partners hold regarding the support young people need, and the current and potential youth work’s role coming from its position in the online lifeworld. We elaborate on this further in the next section.

4. Discussion

The lead question for this paper reads: What role in the online lifeworld is expected from youth work by adolescents and youth work’s partners? The responses of the adolescents, who are the beneficiaries of youth work, mentioned four different types of support they need from online youth work: instrumental, informational, socioemotional, and cognitive support. The partners (i.e., parents, schoolteachers and mentors, young people’s informal networks, neighbourhood support teams, police, and municipal officials) confirmed these four types of support and gave their ideas on how the different types of support can be implemented in the online lifeworld. From the partners’ perspective, it appears that online youth work has a vantage position compared to them and to the offline youth work practice. This research shows that the vantage position is especially evident in the online relationship between youth workers and adolescents, as well as the access youth workers have to online information relevant for the support and development of adolescents and the early identification of their needs and problems. It was pointed out that this vantage position may potentially encourage the collaboration between young people and partners, and between the online and offline youth work practice. When collaborating with partners, the vantage position can be utilised for prudent prevention and to benefit the development of adolescents.

The online lifeworld gives young people several possibilities to ask for instrumental and informational support, and for youth workers to provide it. Because of the online opportunities and the vantage position of youth workers, they can be easily accessed by young people through low-threshold and real-time access via social media, chat services, video calls, and online meetings and consultations. Such online support can be significant for target groups that are difficult to reach in an offline setting [23] or for young people who want to stay anonymous. However, because of this easy and fast online access to youth work services, young people can have the expectation that these services should be accessible to them around the clock and prepared to assist them promptly. Due to the impracticality of consistently meeting this expectation, youth workers can be set for a challenge in dealing with this specific issue in the online context. Further, online instrumental and informational support is important for creating awareness among adolescents about opportunities, possible risks, harmful behaviours, and their consequences in the online lifeworld. An earlier study [43] shows that this kind of support can also be used as a motivational strategy, where youth workers can deliver an immediate and concrete result for adolescents and therefore motivate them for further contact and development.
Young people look for socioemotional support from peers on social media [2]. They look for other like-minded persons who might share, support, and recognise the same beliefs, concerns, or problems [44]. The literature points out that support in these online communities is favourable only if trusted individuals, who might engage and listen to other’s experiences and concerns, are present [45]. Youth work professionals often have close and meaningful relationships with young people [16]. This relationship can be experienced by adolescents as a trusted, safe, and friendly environment, where they can feel welcome to talk openly about their ambitions, aspirations, and problems [43]. Youth workers can use this meaningful relationship and their vantage position in different digital spaces to provide socioemotional support by showing interest in adolescents’ issues, showing empathy and understanding, lending a sympathetic ear, and positively encouraging their confidence. Similar to this, the cognitive online support, in contrast to the offline context, can create different learning experiences that respond better to adolescents’ needs in relation to their online lives.
The main purpose of general youth work practice in the Netherlands is to strengthen the personal development and social participation of young people [14]. The findings of our study show that this primary role of youth work practice, in the view of the interviewed partners, should not differ in the online lifeworld of adolescents. These respondents see youth work in the online lifeworld taking a role in supporting the personal development and social participation of adolescents by addressing the developmental needs of young people and by creating new developmental opportunities in the online lifeworld.
Furthermore, the findings align with previous studies [21,24], suggesting that youth work in the online lifeworld should not be seen as a method, but rather as another dimension of general youth work practice—a dimension that forms an integral part of the general youth work practice, where youth workers can continue their mission in guiding and supporting young people towards adulthood. The adolescents and partners expect youth work to support young people by employing the youth work methods in the online lifeworld. By doing so, youth work might take a role in engaging and connecting with young people in the online lifeworld, and helping them with the following: meeting other peers, relaxing and having fun, promoting healthy lifestyles and well-being, receiving practical help and guidance, finding exploration spaces for different interests and aspirations, receiving information and advice, and learning new things [2]. However, this can be another challenge, as not much evidence-based knowledge is available about how the general youth work methods can be employed in the online lifeworld. It is to be expected that these youth work methods will take on different forms and appearances in the online context. Therefore, new competences and skills can be needed in order to implement these methods. On the other hand, digital tools, platforms, and online affordances can give greater possibilities for facilitating the use of these general youth work methods. For example, WhatsApp offers a low-threshold possibility to combine the methods of social group work, peer-to-peer, and information and advice.
The findings indicate that youth work has a vantage position in the online lifeworld when it comes to important information about trends, developmental needs, transgressive behaviour of young people, and their interactions with peers and adults in the online lifeworld. The partners often lack this information and therefore need a more attuned collaboration with youth work for the benefit of the young people’s development. It is suggested that youth work, in this domain-transcending online environment, should step in and complement its partners. Our findings give us more knowledge on how youth work with its vantage position in the online lifeworld can adjust itself in a hybrid context, respond flexibly to the interactions between young people and different domains, and collaborate with different partners. For example, collaborating with schools in finding and contacting an absent pupil on social media, signalling the early stages of cyberbullying or online extortion, and collaborating with police and social services in preventing these issues. However, it can be said that this vantage position in the online lifeworld can also be challenging as it may give rise to unrealistic expectations among youth work’s partners. The question then is where the boundaries lie and at what point youth work practice transitions into a form of surveillance, law enforcement, or an extended hand of parents monitoring their children online. Considering this, the vantage position can be viewed as a contributing factor in prudent prevention. In other words, this position should benefit the support of adolescents, the early signalling of problems with respect to their privacy, the relationships built with youth workers, and the shared and agreed visions and goals between youth work and its partners [35,46].
The heightened volume of online information accessible to youth workers with a vantage position can become the primary interest of partners, potentially leading to increased pressure on youth workers to share their information about young people’s online lives and experiences. Hence, the collaboration between youth work and its partners should be conducted within the framework of safeguarding privacy and ethical codes, and in a manner that does not intrude on adolescents’ online spaces for purposes that do not align with their positive development [35,46]. In this way, the vantage position in collaboration with partners may potentially give more space for youth work in the online lifeworld in order to fulfil its bridging role between young people, its partners and the offline practice. It is a bridging role that can connect young people with different partners, connect different partners together, and reinforce the offline youth work practice for a better support of adolescents.

5. Strengths and Limitations of the Study

In this qualitative study, a relatively large number of respondents was included: adolescents N = 175 and partners N = 140. We see this as a significant strength for the study, as the number and varieties of respondents let us increase the generalisation of the findings. Additionally, youth workers were engaged in this study as research assistants. This approach not only granted us access to a challenging-to-reach target group of socially deprived young people but also provided these professionals with an opportunity to actively participate in the conceptualisation of their work. That being said, there was somewhat of a quality inconsistency in the collected data. All the interviews with partners and group conversations with young people were conducted by youth workers, and not by the authors of this study. Before the start of data collection, all the participating youth workers were trained by the first author in conducting the interviews with partners, in leading the group conversations with adolescents, and in working with a data collection protocol. The authors of the study were not present in the field during the process of data collection and had no possibility to ask additional questions or clarifications if the answers from the respondents were general, not clear or concrete enough. In addition, all interviews with partners and the majority of the group conversations with young people were conducted online via video call, chat and email services. Therefore, in a part of the data, the respondents’ answers were brief and not thoroughly elaborated and clarified.

Another limitation of this study is that the selection of the respondents might have been biased. Both the adolescents and partners were selected by the youth workers only. There is a possibility that youth workers selected the respondents with whom they have good personal contact, and who mostly have good and positive experiences in working together. This might have led the respondents’ answers to be less specific, favourable, and non-critical towards youth work and its role in the online lifeworld. Still, for an exploratory study, these kinds of respondents were of a great value. They gave us new insights in how youth work in the online lifeworld of young people collaborates with various partners, which can be further explored in the follow-up research.

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CLP Strengthens Decarbonisation Target to Power Orderly Energy Transition https://inergency.com/clp-strengthens-decarbonisation-target-to-power-orderly-energy-transition/ Tue, 26 Mar 2024 21:25:11 +0000 https://inergency.com/clp-strengthens-decarbonisation-target-to-power-orderly-energy-transition/ CLP Strengthens Decarbonisation Target to Power Orderly Energy TransitionThe CLP Group (CLP) has updated its Climate Vision 2050, the Group’s blueprint to transition the business towards its net-zero goal by mid-century. Following an extensive review of its decarbonisation targets and commitments that concluded in early 2024, CLP published a new edition of Climate Vision 2050, featuring the Group’s newly strengthened greenhouse gas emissions […]]]> CLP Strengthens Decarbonisation Target to Power Orderly Energy Transition



The CLP Group (CLP) has updated its Climate Vision 2050, the Group’s blueprint to transition the business towards its net-zero goal by mid-century.

Following an extensive review of its decarbonisation targets and commitments that concluded in early 2024, CLP published a new edition of Climate Vision 2050, featuring the Group’s newly strengthened greenhouse gas emissions intensity target for 2030.
The latest update details key actions CLP is taking to decarbonisie its business and ensure an orderly energy transition, with the Group remaining committed to its existing climate targets including phasing out coal-fired power assets before 2040, and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain by 2050.

“As a power company operating across Asia Pacific, we fully appreciate that we are at the front end of the value chain to enable reduced emissions to address climate change across a broad spectrum of the economy,” T.K. Chiang, Chief Executive Officer of CLP Holdings Limited, says in the updated Climate Vision 2050.

Integral to CLP’s broader climate strategy, the updated Climate Vision 2050 sets out the Group’s approach to climate scenario analysis and assessment of climate-related risks and opportunities, referencing requirements in the new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) S2 Climate-related Disclosures.

To enable closer alignment with international efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, CLP is committed to reviewing its climate transition plans and targets at least every three years.

The update of Climate Vision 2050 coincided with the publication of CLP’s latest Annual Report and Sustainability Report, as the Group continued to assess and disclose material topics key to its business sustainability from both the financial and impact perspectives. This is the third year in which CLP has adopted the double materiality approach.

The newly published reports were restructured to frame the discussion on sustainability-related impacts, risks and opportunities with reference to the IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures. This reflects CLP’s commitment to continuous improvement in its reporting with the aim of providing stakeholders with greater insight into the Group’s strategies to build a sustainable, purpose-aligned business in an ever-changing operating landscape.

While the Annual Report focuses on the financial effects of material topics that may affect the Group’s business, including cash flow, access to finance and cost of capital, topics that have a material impact on people, the environment and the economy are covered in the Sustainability Report.

A new dedicated chapter in this year’s Sustainability Report also focuses on how CLP manages nature-related impacts, in response to growing interest in this important topic from stakeholders.

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USD $205 billion per year needed from agrifood sector to meet climate and nature targets https://inergency.com/usd-205-billion-per-year-needed-from-agrifood-sector-to-meet-climate-and-nature-targets/ Tue, 26 Mar 2024 12:55:26 +0000 https://inergency.com/usd-205-billion-per-year-needed-from-agrifood-sector-to-meet-climate-and-nature-targets/ USD 5 billion per year needed from agrifood sector to meet climate and nature targetsLondon, 26 March 2024 – The agrifood sector must play a crucial role in keeping 1.5C within reach by urgently cutting greenhouse gas emissions and scaling up nature protection solutions through their value chains, according to a series of reports launching today from the Food and Land Use Coalition, WBCSD and We Mean Business Coalition.  The […]]]> USD 5 billion per year needed from agrifood sector to meet climate and nature targets



London, 26 March 2024 – The agrifood sector must play a crucial role in keeping 1.5C within reach by urgently cutting greenhouse gas emissions and scaling up nature protection solutions through their value chains, according to a series of reports launching today from the Food and Land Use Coalition, WBCSD and We Mean Business Coalition

The Future Fit Food and Agriculture report series argues for the adoption of ambitious action plans by agrifood companies and sector-wide investments of up to USD $205 billion per year between 2025 and 2030 to unlock up to 9 gigatons of CO2 equivalent of mitigation annually by 2030. The first report aims to help agrifood companies understand the implications of current and emerging voluntary standards and the expected trajectory of regulation for climate and nature. The second report unpacks the financial costs and benefits of implementing mitigation solutions to tackle agriculture and land-use change emissions in company value chains.

The case for urgent action is clear: agricultural production emissions must decrease ~30% by 2030 to align with the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2050.

The climate strategies of most food and agriculture companies, from input providers and food producers, through to traders and multinational companies, are not comprehensive or ambitious enough. According to the World Benchmarking Alliance, of the 350 most influential food and agriculture companies, only about half have so far disclosed Scope 3 commitments.

In light of these challenges, policymakers are increasingly mandating action on climate and nature from companies, using voluntary standards as the basis for new sustainability legislation.

Morgan Gillespy, Executive Director, Food and Land Use Coalition, commented: ‘Food and agriculture companies are facing a choice. Those striving to deliver ambitious sustainability strategies today, in close collaboration with farmers in their supply chain, will likely enjoy lower costs, stronger returns and greater agility in the face of advancing sustainability regulation. Those that stall won’t just fail to deliver on climate and nature commitments, they will face higher costs and higher supply chain risks in the long term.’

Agricultural production and land-use change emissions in company value chains account for nearly half of total food systems emissions (an estimated 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent of a total 21 GtCO2e in 2030).

Analysis from the Future Fit Food and Agriculture reports series estimates that, to mitigate up to 90% of their annual agricultural and land-use change emissions by 2030, food and agriculture companies should expect sector-wide costs of approximately USD $205 billion per year (2025-2030).
While significant, such investments are manageable for the sector as a whole and have associated co-benefits:

  • USD $205billion per year represents less than 2% of the sector’s projected USD $13 trillion average annual revenues for 2025-2030.
  • One-fifth of the USD $205 billion per year are investments in new and growing markets. These investments, estimated to be USD $40 billion per year (average annual from 2025-2030), can lead to potential additional returns of up to USD $190 billion per year by 2030.
  • Some on-farm solutions provide savings and/or increased yields worth up to USD $30 billion per year.
  • Other associated co-benefits include increased supply-chain resilience and delivery on other sustainability commitments, such as nature targets;

The burden of implementing mitigation solutions should be shared equitably across value chains. In general, the more upstream a value chain participant is, the lower its margins tend to be — farmers in particular tend to have the lowest margins of any value chain participants. It follows that companies across the value chain must work together to determine transition economics and arrive at a transparent, fair and equitable distribution of costs and benefits. They also stand to benefit from making more unified policy asks to government on what it can do to alleviate the costs for all and enable acceleration.   

The second Future Fit Food and Agriculture report shows that the costs for mitigation, as a percentage of revenues, change very significantly depending on where actors sit along the value chain. The report shares three examples to illustrate this point, including the case of a Brazilian beef farmer, for whom mitigating 30% of their Scope 1 emissions can cost as much as 17% of their revenues – an unrealistic expectation given farmers typically achieve profit margins of less than 20%.

Overcoming inequity requires food and agriculture companies to reassess how they partner with other actors in the value chain, particularly farmers, and how they engage with policymakers to incentivize and accelerate action.  Some companies are already leading the way on this, with several working together through the likes of WBCSD to identify where they can problem solve collectively, raise ambition levels, drive harmonization, and accelerate the implementation of critical solutions.

Diane Holdorf, Executive Vice President, WBCSD, said: “Food system transformation is a central solution to climate change and agrifood companies have a critical role to play. To meet net-zero targets, businesses must take concerted and ambitious action to de-risk the transition for producers and ensure the costs and benefits of mitigation are shared equitably across the value chain.”

Through the Agriculture & Food pathway, WBCSD enables members to accelerate accountability for climate and nature impacts in order take meaningful action in value chains and landscapes and influence and leverage the enabling environment. For example:

  • WBCSD scope 3 land-based emissions workstream supports companies to accelerate emissions reductions and removals associated with land-use, building on opportunities identified in the scope 3 action agenda for agri-food.
  • WBCSD Nature Positive Roadmap provides ‘how to’ guidance to support corporate nature positive strategy development, implementation and disclosure.
  • WBCSD is convening 50 members and 27 partner organizations, impacting 1100+ businesses in total – to drive convergence on holistic, outcome-based regenerative agriculture metrics.

To coincide with the Future Fit Food and Agriculture reports, WBCSD has published The Business Case for scope 3 GHG action in agriculture & food value chains which provides perspectives and case studies of different value chain actors regarding the financial costs and benefits. Based on workshops with WBCSD members, this summary report showcases the business case for individual companies in the sector to take action to decarbonize in line with the Paris Agreement and the importance of collaborative action to mobilize finance to implement scope 3 activities.

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Tracking Research Facilities in Science: A CSIRO/CHORUS Pilot Sets Sail – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/tracking-research-facilities-in-science-a-csiro-chorus-pilot-sets-sail-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Mon, 25 Mar 2024 10:35:33 +0000 https://inergency.com/tracking-research-facilities-in-science-a-csiro-chorus-pilot-sets-sail-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Tracking Research Facilities in Science: A CSIRO/CHORUS Pilot Sets Sail – The Scholarly KitchenIncreasingly, scientific inquiry requires larger and larger technological investments to push the bounds of discovery. Research facilities, such as satellites, particle colliders, specially-equipped airplanes,or research vessels, and supercomputer centers are all examples of large-scale investments that make new research discovery possible. Dozens or hundreds of researchers at any given time can share the use of […]]]> Tracking Research Facilities in Science: A CSIRO/CHORUS Pilot Sets Sail – The Scholarly Kitchen


Increasingly, scientific inquiry requires larger and larger technological investments to push the bounds of discovery. Research facilities, such as satellites, particle colliders, specially-equipped airplanes,or research vessels, and supercomputer centers are all examples of large-scale investments that make new research discovery possible. Dozens or hundreds of researchers at any given time can share the use of these resources. The lifecycle of these facilities can extend into decades and cover the careers of more than one generation of researchers. Tracking these investments over this timescale to fully capture the resulting impact can be as difficult a task as getting the initial funding to build the infrastructure at the outset.

Australian research vessel RV Investigator ©CSIRO cc-by

There are several reasons why one might want to track the use of scientific infrastructure. The most obvious interest in this data is among those that fund that infrastructure. Investments of millions, or even billions of dollars are made and those behind these decisions want to ensure that the money is being usefully deployed, understand how nationally funded facilities are being used globally, and be sure that the return on investment is warranted. Researchers may want to track the developments taking place worldwide. When considering new projects and investments, examining the outputs of related infrastructure worldwide can provide direction for new discoveries. Gaps in capabilities might be more easily discerned and might support additional investments. Tracking the investments over time can also lead to sustained maintenance of the facility. Despite their impact, some facilities have fallen into disrepair and even collapsed. Perhaps if their impact were more easily tracked and demonstrated, sustained maintenance resources can have extended the life of the facility. 

 The ability to track the output related to these large-scale investments can, hopefully, signal their initial value and ongoing worth. Importantly, these investments must often be measured over years or even decades of scientific outputs. Previously, there was no easy way to connect those investments directly back to the facilities that made the research possible. In 2017, a team led by Laurel Haak, formerly at ORCID, including CHORUS, US Department of Energy (US DOE) Labs, and publishers conducted a pilot to capture the awarding of researcher access to US DOE Lab user facilities and produced a report on opportunities to identify and track facilities in research. That project advanced efforts leading to extensions of various metadata schema to support facilities and grants, adjustments in the JATS specification, research resources in ORCID records, and other improvements to the publication infrastructure. Building upon the lessons learned by the ORCID project, a new team formed in 2022 has developed a pilot approach and workflow to capture the basic information so that it can be aggregated and analyzed.

 The lead partners on the project are CSIRO and CHORUS. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) is Australia’s national science agency, focusing on impact-driven research in a broad range of domains. CSIRO funds numerous research facilities such as the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, the Australian Synchrotron, and the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure. CHORUS provides necessary metadata infrastructure and governance to minimize open access compliance burdens while increasing access to literature and data. CHORUS combines support for existing infrastructure, while promoting collaboration and innovation, and provides a forum for dialogue between publishers, funders, service providers and other stakeholders.

They have convened a working group consisting of seven major publishers, Australian research facilities, infrastructure support organizations, Crossref and ORCID, as well as NISO. The publishers participating in the project are: American Chemical Society; American Physical Society; Elsevier; Institute of Physics Publishing; Oxford University Press; Springer Nature; and Wiley. Two CSIRO research facilities are also participating in the project, the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) and the Marine National Facility (MNF) that operates the research vessel, RV Investigator, shown above.

 This working group began meeting in early 2023 and worked to develop plans for a pilot to address this problem. After nearly a year of discussing potential models, workflows, and resourcing, a pilot was launched this January. The pilot will run through the rest of the year and 2025. It potentially will expand to additional CSIRO research facilities. 

The proposed workflow begins when a research team requests the use of a research facility. The team is instructed to use a funder identifier from the Open Funder Registry assigned to the research facility, as well as a Crossref Grant DOI identifier for their project in the acknowledgements of any research paper outputs. (Note: Crossref will be deprecating the Open Funder Registry and transitioning it to RORs over the course of this project, which will be monitored and incorporated into this project.) These identifiers will then be entered into the production process of the paper at manuscript submission. When the article is published, the publisher will include the name of the facility, its Funder ID, and the research project’s Crossref Grant DOI (if applicable) in the article metadata. These data are then sent to Crossref and other applicable indexing services. This will allow publications to be matched to the facility and the specific research project. CHORUS will monitor article output during the pilot. Although not specified directly, the use of RORs (for institutions), and ORCIDs (for people) will also support more robust tracking of the teams and organizations involved in these research activities.

The participating publishers will deploy this workflow for approximately 50 journals where CSIRO output has been published recently. Journals were identified specifically for their relevance to research teams using ATNF and MNF during the past two years. Included are journals of the American Astronomical Society, American Geophysical Union, Royal Astronomical Society, and several other learned societies, which are supported by the participating partners. Ideally, once developed, this infrastructure and workflow will support tracking research facilities around the world by all types of research funders. As the pilot progresses, regular updates of its results will be provided by the team.

A lot has been written over the past couple of years about the value of the infrastructure of persistent identifiers (PIDs). A growing pool of research has shown that their adoption can improve discovery and reduce administrative burden on researchers, save them time, and thereby reduce overall costs. Last fall, Phill Jones and Alice Meadows further synthesized this point as they described the value of the investments in PIDs in a Scholarly Kitchen post. Work to improve this infrastructure in the US and around the world is ongoing. This pilot is a concrete example of the opportunities that are possible based on a robust PID infrastructure. Ideally, when completed it can be another illustration of how PIDs and their associated metadata infrastructure can be used to improve tracking of research outputs and ultimately improve research itself. 

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Reflections on UNEA 6 and Key Takeaways for the Business Community https://inergency.com/reflections-on-unea-6-and-key-takeaways-for-the-business-community/ Fri, 22 Mar 2024 12:31:00 +0000 https://inergency.com/reflections-on-unea-6-and-key-takeaways-for-the-business-community/ Reflections on UNEA 6 and Key Takeaways for the Business CommunityThe sixth United Nations Environmental Assembly Conference (UNEA 6) in Nairobi, Kenyaclosed on 1st March 2024 with mixed results. As the world’s preeminent forum for environmental decision-making, UNEA convened under the banner theme: “Effective, inclusive, and sustainable multilateral actions to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.” Over 7,000 delegates representing 182 UN member states, alongside 170 ministers, gathered in the Kenyan capital for the […]]]> Reflections on UNEA 6 and Key Takeaways for the Business Community



The sixth United Nations Environmental Assembly Conference (UNEA 6) in Nairobi, Kenyaclosed on 1st March 2024 with mixed results. As the world’s preeminent forum for environmental decision-making, UNEA convened under the banner theme: “Effective, inclusive, and sustainable multilateral actions to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.” Over 7,000 delegates representing 182 UN member states, alongside 170 ministers, gathered in the Kenyan capital for the five-day Conference.

Out of the initially proposed 19 resolutions, members finally agreed to adopt 15 resolutions, two decisions, and a ministerial declaration. A notable absence is the resolution on the circular economy, initially proposed by the EU but finally withdrawn because of the lack of consensus. The wording of this resolution included the reference to the work being undertaken by WBCSD and One Planet Network (OPN) on the Global Circularity Protocol(GCP), which aims to create a voluntary framework to address key accountability and policy roadblocks to scale circularity. 

While the adoption of resolutions at UNEA 6 was heralded by several as a testament to the enduring strength of multilateralism, the reality is more nuanced. Geopolitical tensions loomed large over several negotiation sessions, casting a shadow on the proceedings. In addition, divides between the Global North and Global South, as well as between sustainability advocates and perceived “laggards,”further complicated discussions and impeded consensus. The adopted resolutions, while notable, largely feature diluted language compared to their initial proposals. 

 

WBCSD’s engagement

As a co-chair of the Business and Industry Major Group (BIMG), WBCSD has been active in coordinating the activities of the Group, coordinating the work on joint statements, and delivering the statements in plenary. WBCSD also co-organized a BIMG high-level dinnerthat featured more than 100 participants, including Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, and Dennis Francis, President of the UN General Assembly. During the dinner, the Beacon Projects Report was launched. This report compiled by BIMG members and their networks, aims to emphasize the vital contribution of businesses towards advancing the UNEA-6 theme. The report showcases BIMG’s members’ projects that advance sustainability through collaborative and innovative business-led partnerships on both global and local scales.

WBCSD showcased and promoted the work on the GCP and strengthened partnerships with various stakeholders. At the 31st IRP meeting, we discussed the main Protocol’s principles and received valuable feedback to refine our future efforts. At the 10YFP Board and SCP Partner meeting, a panel of experts discussed how the business community can make a key contribution—through the GCP—to sustainable consumption and production. We jointly decided to expand the name of the GCP to Global Circularity Protocol for Business to stress the Protocol’s primary target of addressing business accountability gaps on circularity.

WBCSD signed the Memorandum of Cooperation with the Ministry of Environment of Japan, which lays the groundwork for future collaboration and secures the participation of Japan’s government and private sector in the Protocol development process. The partnerships created can enlarge the GCP’s outreach and incorporate small and medium businesses into itsdevelopment. 

WBCSD co-organized a side event on soil health with the Moroccan government and our member company, OCP. In addition, numerous meetings with stakeholders helped position our work on circularity and enabled us to strike new partnerships and discuss potential collaboration on COP 29, nature action, agriculture, and negotiations on the UN Treaty on Plastics Pollution.  

 

So, what does this all mean for the business community?

As we look forward to a year that will host three COPs (The Climate- COP 29Biodiversity- Cop16, and Desertification- COP16) and the Summit of the Future during New York Climate Week, ambition from the business community needs to increase sufficiently to meet the multiple challenges we face. As the three major reports (Global Resources Outlook 2024Global Waste Outlook, and Used Heavy Duty Vehicles and the Environment – A Global Overview of Used Heavy-Duty Vehicles: Flow, Scale, and Regulation) launched during UNEA 6, demonstrate, we are overstepping six of nine planetary boundaries and our lives and livelihoods will dramatically change unless we act fast. 

In Nairobi, only a few businesses and members participated in person. We met with some of them to discuss and engage. We believe UNEA needs more involvement from the ambitiousbusiness community to promote future, more ambitious outcomes. After all, UNEA meetings often lay the mandate for UN treaties (as was the case for the UN Treaty on Plastics Pollutionnegotiations) or are precursors to the development of regional or national policies. If the idea of shaping future sustainability trends appeals to you, consider participating in the upcoming UNEA Conference.

 

UNEA-6 sent a message that “business as usual” is no longer an option. Businesses that embrace sustainability and contribute to solving environmental challenges will be more successful in the future. Embracing the change and seizing the first mover opportunity can significantly contribute to raising competitiveness and improving the business case for sustainability. Businesses will face increasingly stricter environmental reporting requirements to ensure transparency in their supply chains and environmental impact, and the work of WBCSD on developing the Corporate Performance and Accountability System (CPAS) for Carbon, Nature, Circularity, Plastics, and Equity will lead the way in this regard. 

We hope to have a more ambitious resolution on circularity containing a clear reference to the GCP work gaveled by the incoming president, H.E. Mr. Abdullah bin Ali Al-Amri from Oman, at the Upcoming UNEA 7 Conference in December 2025. This gives us at WBCSD a clear mandate and anorth-star to work on for the upcoming period while using intermediate global events as welcome checkpoints on that road.

Game on! 

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SSP’s Generations Fund Exceeds 75% Mark – Pulls Close to Goal – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/ssps-generations-fund-exceeds-75-mark-pulls-close-to-goal-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Fri, 22 Mar 2024 11:05:30 +0000 https://inergency.com/ssps-generations-fund-exceeds-75-mark-pulls-close-to-goal-the-scholarly-kitchen/ SSP’s Generations Fund Exceeds 75% Mark – Pulls Close to Goal – The Scholarly KitchenSSP Thanks 373 Individual & Organizational Contributors The Generations Fund is celebrating its next milestone achievement—officially surpassing the three-quarters mark of its goal of $500,000. To date, 337 individuals and 36 organizations have donated to the Generations Fund, pushing the fund past the halfway mark to $386,000. The fund is an endowment that will provide sustainable […]]]> SSP’s Generations Fund Exceeds 75% Mark – Pulls Close to Goal – The Scholarly Kitchen


SSP Thanks 373 Individual & Organizational Contributors

The Generations Fund is celebrating its next milestone achievement—officially surpassing the three-quarters mark of its goal of $500,000. To date, 337 individuals and 36 organizations have donated to the Generations Fund, pushing the fund past the halfway mark to $386,000.

The fund is an endowment that will provide sustainable funding for the Society for Scholarly Publishing’s FellowshipMentoring, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility programs far into the future. After we reach our $500,000 goal, these programs are supported by the endowment’s invested funds without future fundraising. This will provide long-term, dependable resources for programs that advance workforce development and inclusion in the scholarly communications profession.

Most recently, significant Promoter Level commitments from Origin Editorial and Wiley have helped the Generations Fund close in on the $400,000 mark. Wiley and Origin Editorial join CCC and Springer Nature as the fund’s top supporters.

Nearly 100 new individual donors joined these organizations last year, swelling our community support to 373 members and friends. SSP will honor several of these generous donors at the upcoming 46th Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

“Why did LibLynx support the Generations Fund? We had two reasons,” shares LibLynx CEO Tim Lloyd. “Firstly, because we directly benefit from the programs it supports. We hired an SSP Fellow. Secondly, we need to be intentional. Investing in the future of our industry doesn’t happen by default. It happens because we explicitly choose to do so. I encourage you to invest intentionally in the SSP Generations Fund.”

We might like to extend special acknowledgment to the following supporters:

Individuals

Leaders

Susan & Richard Kesner

Counsels

Alison Mudditt

Jennifer Pesanelli

Jean P. & Mark Shipman

Madelene Sutton

Advisors

Todd Carpenter

Angela Cochran

October Ivins

Byron Laws

Alice Meadows

William Wakeling

Visit the Generations Fund recognition page for a complete list of individual supporters!

Organizations

Promoters ($15,000-29,999)

Contributors ($5,000-14,999)

American Chemical Society

American Psychological Association

Atypon

Cabells

Cell Press/Elsevier

Delta Think

HighWire

MDPI

PLOS

Research Solutions

Silverchair

Wolters Kluwer Health

Patrons ($1,000-4,999)

Access Innovations

American Geophysical Union

American Physical Society

Aries Systems

Cadmore Media

Clarke & Esposito

CLOCKSS

Crossref

Emerald Publishing

Frontiers

Impact Journals

Kriyadocs

LibLynx

Lumina Datamatics

Newgen North America

Open Athens

Royal Society of Chemistry

SPIE

Straive

Virtusales Publishing Solutions

You can join the generous organizations and individuals who have already pledged their support for the future of scholarly communications in a way that fits your lifestyle:

Generations fund banner

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WBCSD Opens New Office in Wuhan to Accelerate Sustainable Transformation of Chinese Businesses https://inergency.com/wbcsd-opens-new-office-in-wuhan-to-accelerate-sustainable-transformation-of-chinese-businesses/ Thu, 21 Mar 2024 12:27:03 +0000 https://inergency.com/wbcsd-opens-new-office-in-wuhan-to-accelerate-sustainable-transformation-of-chinese-businesses/ WBCSD Opens New Office in Wuhan to Accelerate Sustainable Transformation of Chinese Businesses21 March 2023: The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) today announced the opening of a new office in China against the backdrop of East Lake of Wuhan in the Hubei Province. WBCSD’s investment and commitment to support sustainable development in China reflects the importance of the country, both locally and in a global […]]]> WBCSD Opens New Office in Wuhan to Accelerate Sustainable Transformation of Chinese Businesses


21 March 2023: The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) today announced the opening of a new office in China against the backdrop of East Lake of Wuhan in the Hubei Province. WBCSD’s investment and commitment to support sustainable development in China reflects the importance of the country, both locally and in a global context.

The region of Hubei also has strategic significance in terms of transportation, resource allocation and the Chinese economy, highlighted this month as Hubei’s imports and exports reached 102.03 billion yuan in the first two months of 2024, up 12.7 percent year on year. Five of the industries based there – optoelectronic information, new energy / intelligent connected vehicles, life and health, high-end equipment and BeiDou satellite systems – are particularly influential and relevant to sustainable development, both in China and globally.

The new office opening ceremony, held earlier this week during the ‘Cherry Blossom Viewing: Business Cooperation & Fortune 500 Dialogue with Hubei’ event, featured speeches from the Vice-chairman of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Mr Erkenjiang Tulahong, and WBCSD Vice President, Mrs. Stephanie de Heer. Mr. Joe Phelan, Executive Director of WBCSD Asia Pacific, received the registration certificate from the leadership of the Hubei Public Security Department. Stephanie expressed gratitude to Hubei Provincial Government, Hubei Public Security Department, Hubei Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT Hubei), and other relevant entities on behalf of WBCSD.

On the same day, she also met with the Vice Governor of Hubei Province, Ms Chen Ping, and discussed an upcoming event, “Two Lake Forum” proposed by WBCSD and CCPIT Hubei, which will aim to form a new bridge for business collaboration on green industrial transformation.

In early March, a delegation led by Peter Bakker, President and CEO of WBCSD, visited China to finalize plans for WBCSD’s presence and new office opening. “As the world is turning to businesses for sustainability solutions, WBCSD’s ability to promote sustainable development and collaborate across industrial and commercial sectors will expand our reach with our presence in Wuhan,” commented Mr Bakker. “We also anticipate that bringing together innovative technologies and working practices will provide more effective solutions for global challenges, such as climate change and nature loss.”

Mr. Zhou Weidong, who is the Chief Representative of WBCSD China Representative Office, believes that following WBCSD’s establishment, it will continue to introduce advanced international sustainable development concepts and practices into China. Simultaneously, it will also promote Chinese businesses to share innovative solutions from China on the international stage and actively participate in promoting major international agendas.

CCPIT Hubei, as a core partner of WBCSD in China, has provided substantial support for the opening of WBCSD’s new office. CCPIT Hubei Director Hu Zhonghai said, “We believe in WBCSD’s vision and development strategy, and hope to cooperate closely with WBCSD in the future. This should allow Chinese businesses to accelerate transformation towards sustainable development, strengthen capacity building and attract innovative sustainable development technologies to invest and develop in Hubei.”

The WBCSD Hubei Office opening highlights Hubei’s global position in green development. It will attract international resources to drive the province’s green transformation, supporting high-level opening-up and high-quality development.

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A Roadmap for Developing a US National PID Strategy – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/a-roadmap-for-developing-a-us-national-pid-strategy-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Thu, 21 Mar 2024 11:07:24 +0000 https://inergency.com/a-roadmap-for-developing-a-us-national-pid-strategy-the-scholarly-kitchen/ A Roadmap for Developing a US National PID Strategy – The Scholarly KitchenThis week a collaborative team working in partnership with the various open research organizations released a report that seeks to advance interoperability, simplify output tracking, and improve the overall process of scholarly research communication by focusing on the need for a US national strategy for persistent identifiers (PIDs). Utilizing the frameworks created by the Research […]]]> A Roadmap for Developing a US National PID Strategy – The Scholarly Kitchen


This week a collaborative team working in partnership with the various open research organizations released a report that seeks to advance interoperability, simplify output tracking, and improve the overall process of scholarly research communication by focusing on the need for a US national strategy for persistent identifiers (PIDs). Utilizing the frameworks created by the Research Data Alliance, the Developing a US National PID Strategy report was created in collaboration with members of the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS Open) community and the Community Effort on Research Output Tracking workstreams group organized by the Open Research Funders Group (ORFG).

Developing a US National PID Strategy Cover

Scholarly communications have advanced significantly in the past two decades. Looking over the landscape and the diversity of resources that are now shared, we have collectively moved well beyond an ecosystem where journal articles and books were the primary vehicles of scholarly communication for which researchers are recognized. Supporting this diversity is a maturing network of infrastructure, systems and data exchange protocols. A robust network of repositories for data, for software, for preprints, for methods and research protocols, as well as other grey literature has developed. Researchers can now connect several of these items with specialized persistent identifiers for these outputs, as well as linking them back to their professional profiles. These tools already provide important increases in productivity, in the FAIR-ness of the resources, in research assessment, and ultimately in the pace of scientific discovery.

Yet several gaps remain. New systems are needed for remaining elements of the network, such as for software, projects, protocols, and research facilities. Extensions must be made to numerous systems. Data quality needs to be improved. Implementation and adoption should become universal. Integrations to take advantage of the interoperability need to become commonplace. Investments will need to continue over the long term. As awareness of the critical role of supporting this infrastructure has grown, a recognition that consistent application of data and identifiers along with interoperable systems are vital to a well-functioning environment.

Despite its often dominant role in scholarly communications, unfortunately, the US has not been a first mover when it comes to adopting a national PID strategy. Outside the US, Alice Meadows described last year in the Scholarly Kitchen Why PID Strategies are having a moment” and that momentum has only continued to grow. Just last week, the Australians via ARDC released their finalized National PID Strategy and Roadmap. The UK, Canada, Finland, and the Netherlands, among others, have also released national strategies.

Several barriers have existed to developing a consistent approach in the US. One of the unique challenges of the American research landscape is its diversity and heterogeneity. Research takes place in a variety of organizations, from public and private research institutions at the state and local levels, companies, government agencies, as well as the public at large. Funding is provided by federal agencies, state governments, institutions themselves, as well as a vast network of philanthropic organizations. Few are empowered to set forward a consistent strategy or are positioned to develop the consensus necessary for broad implementation. Those organizations in positions of influence have been reluctant to state definitive guidance in defining explicit identifiers to be used across the ecosystem, not wanting to unduly influence community direction or adoption.

In an effort to move the US research community forward and building upon guidance from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), a collaboration of more than 30 volunteers organized by the ORFG began work to outline a National PID strategy in late 2022. Utilizing the framework created by the RDA National PID Strategies Interest Group, and building on federal implementation guidance, as well as the outputs of other national strategies initiatives, the group set out principles and actions the community should take. The report describes a framework for evaluating PID infrastructure and describing their use cases and benefits, rather than simply listing a set of proscribed identifiers. These principles should be aligned with national strategies described in various OSTP memos, as well as guidance from other forums, and consistent with the goals of open science that are generally agreed to be beneficial.

The working group that developed this plan has included representatives from a wide swath of research, infrastructure, and funding organizations. The report they produced and released on Tuesday, Developing a US National PID Strategy includes background on the US research landscape as well as related Federal guidance on open science that relates to PIDs, a proposed set of users, values, and recommendations for how to advance PID use in research communications.

The report outlines the benefits of PIDs, their associated metadata, and the systems that connect them in advancing open scholarship goals in the United States. It provides information on the research and policy landscape associated with PIDs, discusses the value of PID infrastructure, and offers recommendations for effective utilization of PIDs in connecting and tracking research outputs.

Most importantly, it offers a set of recommendations regarding persistent identifiers that can be applied to numerous elements of the research landscape across the US, including governmental entities, infrastructure providers, research institutions, public and private funding bodies, publishers, content providers, and other stakeholders. Ideally, this guidance will be widely adopted by organizations throughout the research ecosystem in the US and potentially adapted globally in other national contexts around the world, as part of a growing movement to deploy national persistent identifier strategies. By proffering this set of proposed recommendations, the group seeks to engage in this global conversation on how the network of parties engaged in research support can scholar’s work more seamlessly.

Furthermore, the document provides some context about the policy environment in the US as well as the role of PIDs in the US and International ecosystems. It then progresses to describing stakeholders and outlines the benefits of embracing PIDs. The report then turns to highlighting desirable characteristics of PID systems, recommendations on evaluating PID infrastructures, and strategies for supporting this ecosystem. It also includes sections for supporting this infrastructure, areas for additional investment, and guidance for measuring success.

After a period of public review and discussion, the core recommendation components of the report will be moved to a consensus process within National Information Standards Organization (NISO) to develop the report into a national standard, which can further its adoption and implementation. A proposal to begin this process at NISO is expected to be submitted later this spring and, if approved, with a subsequent working group to formalize the document beginning its work later this year.

For those who might like to engage in a conversation about the report, a discussion thread has been organized on the PIDForum website. There is also a separate discussion thread as part of the RDA PID National Strategies Working Group where feedback is also welcome. The team encourages discussion of the report and welcomes community input and feedback on its guidance as the project moves forward to its next stages.

 

Disclosure: I served as co-chair of this ORFG PID Strategies working group along with co-chair John Chodacki from the California Digital Library. The full list of working group members is included in the report. Thanks to all those that contributed to the report and all that will implement its recommendations.

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Soft Commodities Forum: Delivering Action in the Cerrado https://inergency.com/soft-commodities-forum-delivering-action-in-the-cerrado/ Wed, 20 Mar 2024 19:04:40 +0000 https://inergency.com/soft-commodities-forum-delivering-action-in-the-cerrado/ Soft Commodities Forum: Delivering Action in the CerradoIn a high-level report published on February 29, 2024, the World Economic Forum outlined a set of recommendations for the economic development of the Brazilian Cerrado. The “Cerrado: Protection and Production” white paper encourages key stakeholder groups, including collaborative private sector platforms like the Soft Commodities Forum (SCF), to monitor land conversion and secure funding […]]]> Soft Commodities Forum: Delivering Action in the Cerrado



In a high-level report published on February 29, 2024, the World Economic Forum outlined a set of recommendations for the economic development of the Brazilian Cerrado. The “Cerrado: Protection and Production” white paper encourages key stakeholder groups, including collaborative private sector platforms like the Soft Commodities Forum (SCF), to monitor land conversion and secure funding for large-scale sustainable agriculture and conservation efforts.    

Hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the SCF welcomes the proposals formulated by the World Economic Forum, highlighting their relevance and further contextualizes them with learnings from field-level and value-chain engagement programs deployed in the Cerrado, South America’s second largest biome, in Brazil.  

 

Recovering degraded pastureland   

 There are up to 38 million hectares of degraded pastureland in the Cerrado – an area larger than Gerseveral. Soy expansion over degraded pastureland supports agricultural growth without converting native vegetation, fostering economic growth, restoring soil health and sustainably intensifying low-productivity land.   

 As highlighted by Solidaridad Network’s Director for Brazil, (link to Solidaridad interview article), the lack of technical knowledge and upfront investment are key challenges for producers to restore degraded pastureland. In collaboration with Solidaridad Network and Parque Vida Cerrado, two implementing partners of the Farmer First Clusters (FFC) initiative, the SCF is actively engaged in restoring degraded pastureland. This encompasses restoring 300 hectares per year of native vegetation on soybean farms in Western Bahia and conducting training sessions on sustainable farming for producers and rural extensionists in degraded agricultural land across Tocantins. 

   

Promoting integrated crop-livestock-forestry production Systems (ICLFS)  

ICLFS (ILPF in Portuguese) are multi-functional agricultural systems that optimize land use, enhance overall productivity, improve soil fertility, diversify income streams, and promote the ecological resilience of a farm. Rede ILPF, a public-private organization formed by agribusinesses and EMBRAPA, advances ICLF implementation in the Cerrado by providing training on integrated farming to producers, rural extensionists, and financial sector representatives.   

 Through the FFC initiative, Rede ILPF’s partnership with the SCF is expected to provide such training to 40 producers, 20 rural extensionists, and 19 financial sector representatives annually. Quantitative results and qualitative learnings from field implementers are available here (link to FFC implementation map).  

   

Avoiding native vegetation conversion  

The Cerrado has close to 100 million hectares of intact natural habitat, of which a quarter are within privately owned properties that can legally be cleared and are suitable for soy production. The biome has around 50 million hectares of land already cleared and suitable for soy that can be an opportunity for further expansion if the right incentives are in place (Agrosatélite 2020 Geospatial Analysis of Soy Crop study).  

With IPAM’s CONSERV mechanism, a financial compensation payment delivered to producers who commit to preserving their surplus legal reserve, the FFC will protect 7,000 hectares of surplus native vegetation for three years through ecosystem services payments, deployment of public policy action, and the development of a long-term business model to incentivize Cerrado soy producers.  

By securing funding for large-scale conservation efforts, the SCF implements farmer-led programs that contribute to the emergence of regenerative and forest-positive landscapes. These endeavors demand field expertise and support from producers who act as stewards of their land. The vision outlined in the World Economic Forum’s paper is aligned with the SCF’s actions in laying the groundwork for increased investment and enhanced engagement with key stakeholder groups committed to safeguarding the Cerrado’s ecological integrity and fostering its economic development. 

  

Building Partnerships for Forest Positive Landscapes 

The SCF’s FFC is an essential initiative in the transition to forest-positive landscapes in the Cerrado. Partnering with various local implementers, including IPAM, Parque Vida Cerrado, Produzindo Certo, Solidaridad Network and Rede ILPF, the SCF combats deforestation and conversion in soy landscapes. The FFC offers a mix of solutions adapted to the local environmental and socio-economic context, including financial incentives, technical support and capacity-building measures that help preserve native vegetation, restore degraded land, and promote sustainable agricultural practices.  

The FFC serves as a catalyst to explore and implement viable solutions and models, but broader collaboration is essential for regenerative and forest-positive landscapes. The SCF welcomes co-funding and investments from value chain partners and other sector players. The SCF is also open to collaboration with a diverse range of stakeholders committed to protecting the Cerrado’s natural environment and fostering sustainable economic progress. 

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CP Group – CP Foods Takes Steps to Ensure Sustainable Corn Sourcing with Zero Deforestation and Crop Burning https://inergency.com/cp-group-cp-foods-takes-steps-to-ensure-sustainable-corn-sourcing-with-zero-deforestation-and-crop-burning/ Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:13:15 +0000 https://inergency.com/cp-group-cp-foods-takes-steps-to-ensure-sustainable-corn-sourcing-with-zero-deforestation-and-crop-burning/ CP Group – CP Foods Takes Steps to Ensure Sustainable Corn Sourcing with Zero Deforestation and Crop BurningCharoen Pokphand Group’s Feed Ingredients Trading Business Group (FIT) and Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods) have successfully implemented a corn traceability system to verify the sourcing of maize for feed production, which is free from forest encroachment and stubble burning. This system enables the company’s operations in Thailand to source 100 percent […]]]> CP Group – CP Foods Takes Steps to Ensure Sustainable Corn Sourcing with Zero Deforestation and Crop Burning



Charoen Pokphand Group’s Feed Ingredients Trading Business Group (FIT) and Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods) have successfully implemented a corn traceability system to verify the sourcing of maize for feed production, which is free from forest encroachment and stubble burning. This system enables the company’s operations in Thailand to source 100 percent of corn from deforestation-free areas, in line with international standards. CP Group has also expanded the system to its key overseas operations, including Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.

Paisarn Kruawongvanich, CEO of FIT, emphasized that CP Group and CP Foods have always prioritized building a sustainable food production chain, while also mitigating transboundary haze pollution. FIT is committed to purchasing raw materials only from plantations that do not encroach on forest areas, in line with their “No forest [encroachment], no [Crop] burning, we buy” corn purchasing principle. Since 2017, FIT has developed the Corn Traceability system to ensure that all corn used in CP Foods’s animal feed business in Thailand can be traced back to its origin plantations.

FIT, in collaboration with CP Myanmar, CP Group’s overseas operation, has deployed the traceability system for corn sourcing in Myanmar since 2020. Maize growers in Myanmar have registered and verified their plantation area documentation and GPS tracking, and 100 percent of the corn to be used in CP Myanmar’s feed operations has been verified as coming from plantations with zero deforestation.

Mr. Paisarn stressed that the company’s commitment to source environmentally friendly agricultural raw materials in accordance with its Sustainable Sourcing Policy ensures consumer trust. The company also encourages farmers to cultivate legal plantations and promotes business partners to collaborate to protect and restore forests and eliminate haze pollution sustainably.

CP Foods encourages maize growers in Thailand to register and verify their identity through the “For Farm” application. Additionally, FIT has adopted Blockchain Traceability Technology, which has increased transparency and confidence in Thailand’s maize for animal feed traceability system, linking the data from the plantation to the feed mill. The Company has always strictly adhered to the principle of conducting business with social and environmental responsibility, in accordance with global trade regulations.

Apart from the corn traceability system, FIT shares plantation knowledge and techniques with corn farmers to increase output and quality while simultaneously reducing dust generated during agriculture. This is part of the “Self-Sufficient Farmers, Sustainable Corn Project,” which provides farmers with in-depth information to improve their farming efficiency and produce higher-quality corn to meet market demand. The project also encourages corn farmers to engage in zero crop burning and increasing the value of corn stubble.

To combat haze pollution from the agriculture sector, the company has applied a satellite imaging system to map the burning point and harvest areas. This enables FIT’s staff to advise farmers to stop crop burning and make use of the stubble.

FIT has partnered with CP Myanmar, a subsidiary of CP Group, to implement a maize traceability system since 2020 to ensure that all corn in Myanmar can be traced back to legal plantation areas. Currently, 100 percent of purchased corn in Myanmar is traceable. All farmers that sell produce to FIT must register their land deeds and GPS tracking information in advance to confirm that the corn source does not come from forest areas.

CP Group and CP Foods are committed to ensuring a better future for farmers, a sustainable environment, and communities, with innovative traceability systems and sustainable farming practices.

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The Latest “Crisis” – Is the Research Literature Overrun with ChatGPT- and LLM-generated Articles? – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/the-latest-crisis-is-the-research-literature-overrun-with-chatgpt-and-llm-generated-articles-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Wed, 20 Mar 2024 10:50:09 +0000 https://inergency.com/the-latest-crisis-is-the-research-literature-overrun-with-chatgpt-and-llm-generated-articles-the-scholarly-kitchen/ The Latest “Crisis” – Is the Research Literature Overrun with ChatGPT- and LLM-generated Articles? – The Scholarly KitchenElsevier has been under the spotlight this month for publishing a paper that contains a clearly ChatGPT-written portion of its introduction. The first sentence of the paper’s Introduction reads, “Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic:…” To date, the article remains unchanged, and unretracted. A second paper, containing the phrase “I’m very sorry, […]]]> The Latest “Crisis” – Is the Research Literature Overrun with ChatGPT- and LLM-generated Articles? – The Scholarly Kitchen


Elsevier has been under the spotlight this month for publishing a paper that contains a clearly ChatGPT-written portion of its introduction. The first sentence of the paper’s Introduction reads, “Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic:…” To date, the article remains unchanged, and unretracted. A second paper, containing the phrase “I’m very sorry, but I don’t have access to real-time information or patient-specific data, as I am an AI language model” was subsequently found, and similarly remains unchanged. This has led to a spate of amateur bibliometricians scanning the literature for similar common AI-generated phrases, with some alarming results. But it’s worth digging a little deeper into these results to get a sense of whether this is indeed a widespread problem, and where such papers have made it through to publication, where the errors are occurring.

Several of the investigations into AI-pollution of the literature that I’ve seen employ Google Scholar for data collection (the link above, and another here). But when you start looking at the Google Scholar search results, you notice that a lot of what’s listed, at least on the first few pages, are either preprints, items on ResearchGate, book chapters, or often something posted to a website you’ve never heard of with a Russian domain URL. The problem here is that Google Scholar is deliberately a largely non-gated index. It scans the internet for things that look like research papers (does it have an Abstract, does it have References), rather than limiting results to a carefully curated list of reputable publications. Basically, it grabs anything that looks “scholarly”. This is a feature, not a bug, and one of the important values that Google Scholar offers is that it can reach beyond the more limiting inclusion criteria (and often English language and Global North biased) content of indexes like the Web of Science.

But what happens when one does similar searches on a more curated database, one that is indeed limited to what most might consider a more accurate picture of the reputable scholarly literature? Here I’ve chosen Dimensions, an inter-linked research information system provided by Digital Science, as its content inclusion is broader than the Web of Science, but not as unlimited as Google Scholar. With the caveat that all bibliometrics indexes are lagging, and take some time to bring in the most recently published articles (the two Elsevier papers mentioned above are dated as being from March and June of 2024 and so aren’t yet indexed as far as I can tell), my results are perhaps less worrying. All searches below were limited to research articles (no preprints, book chapters, or meeting abstracts) published after November 2022, when ChatGPT was publicly released.

A search for “Certainly, here is” brings up a total of ten articles published over that time period. Of those ten articles, eight are about ChatGPT, so the inclusion of the phrase is likely not suspect. A search for “as of my last knowledge update” gives a total of six articles, again with four of those articles focused on ChatGPT itself. A search for “I don’t have access to real-time data” brings up only three articles, all of which cover ChatGPT or AI. During this same period, Dimensions lists nearly 5.7M research articles and review articles published, putting the error rate for these three phrases to slip through into publications at 0.00007%.

Retraction Watch has a larger list of 77 items (as of this writing), using a more comprehensive set of criteria to spot problematic, likely AI-generated text which includes journal articles from Elsevier, Springer Nature, MDPI, PLOS, Frontiers, Wiley, IEEE, and Sage. Again, this list needs further sorting, as it also includes some five book chapters, eleven preprints, and at least sixteen conference proceedings pieces. Removing these 32 items from the list suggests a failure rate of 0.00056%.

While several might argue that this does not constitute a “crisis”, it is likely that such errors will continue to rise, and frankly, there’s not really any excuse for allowing even a single paper with such an obvious tell to make it through to publication. While this has led several to question the peer review process at the journals where these failures occurred, it’s worth considering other points in the publication workflow where such errors might happen. As Lisa Hinchliffe recently pointed out, it’s possible these sections are being added at the revision stage or even post-acceptance. Peer reviewers and editors looking at a revision may only be looking at the specific sections where they requested changes, and may miss other additions an author has put into the new version of the article. Angela Cochran wrote about how this has been exploited by unscrupulous authors adding in hundreds of citations in order to juice their own metrics. Also possible, the LLM-generated language may have been added at the pageproof stage (whether deliberately or not). Most journals outsource typesetting to third party vendors, and how carefully a journal scrutinizes the final, typeset version of the paper varies widely. As always, time spent by human editorial staff is the most expensive part of the publishing process, so several journals assume their vendors have done their jobs, and don’t go over each paper with a fine toothed comb unless a problem is raised.

Two other important conclusions can be drawn from this uproar. The first is that despite preprints having been around for decades, those both within and adjacent to the research community clearly do not understand their nature and why they’re different from the peer reviewed literature, so more educational effort is needed. It should not be surprising to anyone that there are a lot of rough early drafts of papers or unpublishable manuscripts in SSRN (founded in 1994) or arXiv (launched in 1991). We’ve heard a lot of concern about journalists not being able to recognize that preprints aren’t peer reviewed, but maybe there’s as big a problem much closer to home. The second conclusion is that there seems to be a perception that appearing in Google Scholar search results offers some assurance of credibility or validation. This is absolutely not the case, and perhaps the fault here lies with the lack of differentiation between the profile service offered by Google Scholar, which is personally curated by individuals and its search results which are far less discriminating.

Going forward, I might hope that at the journals where the small number of papers have slipped through, an audit is underway to better understand where the language was introduced and how it managed to get all the way to publication. Automated checks should be able to weed out common AI language like this, but they likely need to be run at multiple points in the publication process, rather than just on initial submissions. While the systems in place seem to be performing pretty well overall, there’s no room for complacency, and research integrity vigilance will only become more and more demanding.



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Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: Collaborative Care Model https://inergency.com/promoting-the-integration-of-primary-and-behavioral-health-care-collaborative-care-model/ Tue, 19 Mar 2024 22:20:47 +0000 https://inergency.com/promoting-the-integration-of-primary-and-behavioral-health-care-collaborative-care-model/ Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: Collaborative Care ModelShort Title: PIPBHC-CoCM Initial Announcement Back to the Grants Dashboard Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) NOFO Number: SM-24-011 Posted on Grants.gov: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Application Due Date: Monday, May 20, 2024 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 93.243 Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372): Applicants must comply with E.O. 12372 if their state(s) participates. Review […]]]> Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: Collaborative Care Model


Short Title:
PIPBHC-CoCM

Initial Announcement
Back to the Grants Dashboard

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

NOFO Number:
SM-24-011

Posted on Grants.gov:
Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Application Due Date:
Monday, May 20, 2024

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number:
93.243

Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372):
Applicants must comply with E.O. 12372 if their state(s) participates. Review process recommendations from the State Single Point of Contact (SPOC) are due no later than 60 days after application deadline.

Public Health System Impact Statement (PHSIS) / Single State Agency Coordination:
Applicants must send the PHSIS to appropriate State and local health agencies by application deadline. Comments from Single State Agency are due no later than 60 days after application deadline.

Description

The purpose of this program is to support implementation of the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM). The CoCM is an evidence-based, integrated care approach that addresses mental and substance use conditions in primary care settings. Care is provided by a primary care team and includes a case manager, consulting psychiatrist, and other mental health professionals. Recipients will be expected to work with at least three primary care practices to develop the staffing and systems necessary to implement the CoCM. With this program, SAMHSA aims to increase the identification and treatment of mental health conditions for individuals who access care through primary care practices that too often go untreated and cause disability.

Eligibility

Eligibility for this program is statutorily limited to a state or appropriate state agency. Appropriate state agencies include the State Mental Health Authority, the Single State Agency (SSA) for substance use services, the State Medicaid agency, or the State Health Department. State agencies participating in this program will work with at least three primary care practices to develop the staffing and systems necessary to implement the CoCM.

Award Information

Funding Mechanism:
Grant

Anticipated Total Available Funding:
$5,200,000

Anticipated Number of Awards:
5

Anticipated Award Amount:
$900,000 per year

Length of Project:
Up to 5 years

Cost Sharing/Match Required?:
No

Proposed budgets cannot exceed $900,000 in total costs (direct and indirect) in any year of the proposed project. Annual continuation awards will depend on the availability of funds, grantee progress in meeting project goals and objectives, timely submission of required data and reports, and compliance with all terms and conditions of award.

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Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: Collaborative Care Model https://inergency.com/promoting-the-integration-of-primary-and-behavioral-health-care-collaborative-care-model-2/ Tue, 19 Mar 2024 22:20:47 +0000 https://inergency.com/promoting-the-integration-of-primary-and-behavioral-health-care-collaborative-care-model-2/ Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: Collaborative Care ModelShort Title: PIPBHC-CoCM Initial Announcement Back to the Grants Dashboard Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) NOFO Number: SM-24-011 Posted on Grants.gov: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Application Due Date: Monday, May 20, 2024 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 93.243 Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372): Applicants must comply with E.O. 12372 if their state(s) participates. Review […]]]> Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: Collaborative Care Model


Short Title:
PIPBHC-CoCM

Initial Announcement
Back to the Grants Dashboard

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

NOFO Number:
SM-24-011

Posted on Grants.gov:
Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Application Due Date:
Monday, May 20, 2024

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number:
93.243

Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372):
Applicants must comply with E.O. 12372 if their state(s) participates. Review process recommendations from the State Single Point of Contact (SPOC) are due no later than 60 days after application deadline.

Public Health System Impact Statement (PHSIS) / Single State Agency Coordination:
Applicants must send the PHSIS to appropriate State and local health agencies by application deadline. Comments from Single State Agency are due no later than 60 days after application deadline.

Description

The purpose of this program is to support implementation of the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM). The CoCM is an evidence-based, integrated care approach that addresses mental and substance use conditions in primary care settings. Care is provided by a primary care team and includes a case manager, consulting psychiatrist, and other mental health professionals. Recipients will be expected to work with at least three primary care practices to develop the staffing and systems necessary to implement the CoCM. With this program, SAMHSA aims to increase the identification and treatment of mental health conditions for individuals who access care through primary care practices that too often go untreated and cause disability.

Eligibility

Eligibility for this program is statutorily limited to a state or appropriate state agency. Appropriate state agencies include the State Mental Health Authority, the Single State Agency (SSA) for substance use services, the State Medicaid agency, or the State Health Department. State agencies participating in this program will work with at least three primary care practices to develop the staffing and systems necessary to implement the CoCM.

Award Information

Funding Mechanism:
Grant

Anticipated Total Available Funding:
$5,200,000

Anticipated Number of Awards:
5

Anticipated Award Amount:
$900,000 per year

Length of Project:
Up to 5 years

Cost Sharing/Match Required?:
No

Proposed budgets cannot exceed $900,000 in total costs (direct and indirect) in any year of the proposed project. Annual continuation awards will depend on the availability of funds, grantee progress in meeting project goals and objectives, timely submission of required data and reports, and compliance with all terms and conditions of award.

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Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: States https://inergency.com/promoting-the-integration-of-primary-and-behavioral-health-care-states/ Tue, 19 Mar 2024 21:35:07 +0000 https://inergency.com/promoting-the-integration-of-primary-and-behavioral-health-care-states/ Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: Collaborative Care ModelShort Title: PIPBHC-States Initial Announcement Back to the Grants Dashboard Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) NOFO Number: SM-24-003 Posted on Grants.gov: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Application Due Date: Monday, May 20, 2024 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 93.243 Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372): Applicants must comply with E.O. 12372 if their state(s) participates. Review […]]]> Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care: Collaborative Care Model


Short Title:
PIPBHC-States

Initial Announcement
Back to the Grants Dashboard

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

NOFO Number:
SM-24-003

Posted on Grants.gov:
Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Application Due Date:
Monday, May 20, 2024

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number:
93.243

Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372):
Applicants must comply with E.O. 12372 if their state(s) participates. Review process recommendations from the State Single Point of Contact (SPOC) are due no later than 60 days after application deadline.

Public Health System Impact Statement (PHSIS) / Single State Agency Coordination:
Applicants must send the PHSIS to appropriate State and local health agencies by application deadline. Comments from Single State Agency are due no later than 60 days after application deadline.

Description

The purpose of this program is to (a) promote full integration and collaboration in clinical practices between physical and behavioral health care; (b) support the improvement of integrated care models for physical and behavioral health care to improve overall wellness and physical health status; and (c) promote the implementation and improvement of bidirectional integrated care services, including evidence-based or evidence-informed screening, assessment, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and recovery services for mental and substance use disorders, and co-occurring physical health conditions and chronic diseases through integrated care. State recipients are expected to partner with qualified community programs, health centers, rural health clinics, or Federally Qualified Health Centers to develop and implement an integration program plan. With this program, SAMHSA aims to improve the health outcomes for persons with behavioral health conditions by supporting the adoption and improvement of integrated care models for behavioral and primary physical health.

Eligibility

Eligibility for this program is statutorily limited to a State or appropriate State agency. Appropriate state agencies include the State Mental Health Authority, the Single State Agency (SSA) for substance abuse services, the State Medicaid agency, or the State Health Department. Applicants must collaborate with one or more qualified community programs, as described in section 1913(b)(1) of the PHS Act (including community mental health centers, child mental health programs, psychosocial rehabilitation programs, and mental health peer-support or consumer-directed programs); one or more health centers [as defined in section 330(a)]; one or more rural health clinics (as defined in section 1861(aa) of the Social Security Act); or one or more Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) (as defined section 1861(aa) of the Social Security Act).

Award Information

Funding Mechanism:
Grant

Anticipated Total Available Funding:
$6,000,000

Anticipated Number of Awards:
3

Anticipated Award Amount:
$2,000,000 per year

Length of Project:
Up to 5 years

Cost Sharing/Match Required?:
No

Award Information: Proposed budgets cannot exceed $2,000,000 in total costs (direct and indirect) in any year of the proposed project. Annual continuation awards will depend on the availability of funds, grantee progress in meeting project goals and objectives, timely submission of required data and reports, and compliance with all terms and conditions of award.

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Marelli presents its new Interior Innovation Center in Yoshimi, Japan, for next-generation vehicle interiors https://inergency.com/marelli-presents-its-new-interior-innovation-center-in-yoshimi-japan-for-next-generation-vehicle-interiors/ Tue, 19 Mar 2024 16:42:54 +0000 https://inergency.com/marelli-presents-its-new-interior-innovation-center-in-yoshimi-japan-for-next-generation-vehicle-interiors/ Marelli presents its new Interior Innovation Center in Yoshimi, Japan, for next-generation vehicle interiorsMarelli presents its new Interior Innovation Center in Yoshimi, Japan, for next-generation vehicle interiors DETROIT, March 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Marelli has unveiled its new Interior Innovation Center (IIC) in Yoshimi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, picking up the experience of the previous Miyahara location. This integrated facility will be strategic in fostering design-led innovation at speed […]]]> Marelli presents its new Interior Innovation Center in Yoshimi, Japan, for next-generation vehicle interiors


Marelli presents its new Interior Innovation Center in Yoshimi, Japan, for next-generation vehicle interiors

DETROIT, March 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Marelli has unveiled its new Interior Innovation Center (IIC) in Yoshimi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, picking up the experience of the previous Miyahara location. This integrated facility will be strategic in fostering design-led innovation at speed for the creation of new vehicle interiors solutions aimed at present and next-generation vehicles.

“The establishment of the new innovation center for Interior Experience is an important step for our team.” said Tsukasa Fujii, President of Marelli’s Interior Experience division. “This advanced facility will be key in further enabling innovative value creation with our customers and partners, with a sense of speed.”

The location, that hosts a team of engineers and designers, is implementing three key initiatives inspired by the theme “What’s next? Innovation for the new era”

The Interior Innovation Center has established a hybrid team structure, integrating interior engineering, electrical engineering, material engineering, and interior design: experts from different fields collaborate, and inspire each other to generate new ideas and solutions.

The Center is an environment focusing specifically on innovation: it is independent from the development and production units, while cooperating effectively with them to enhance creativity. 

It applies manufacturing based on “3 Reals Theory” (principle to determine everything based on 3 realities at place, product and situation): equipped with clay modeling facilities, prototype workspaces, and Virtual Reality technology, the Interior Innovation Center creates realistic innovation, taking into account the realization at the actual production lines.

The progress achieved through the new center has already led to the creation of the cockpit concept ‘Digital Detox,‘ which was exhibited at CES 2024. Following this concept, the cabin is realized to offer a comfortable ‘living room’ environment, with high-quality and sustainable materials. To ensure a relaxing personalized space, digital screens and buttons, when switched off, can become invisible, concealed under stylish panels or stored under the console. Necessary information is displayed when needed, ensuring a functional and enjoyable experience.

The aim of the Interior Innovation Center is to create next-generation cockpit solutions through the combination of innovative ideas and technologies. To realize this vision, it promotes a series of strategic initiatives.

Firstly, it deepens the collaboration with innovation teams in America, Europe, China, and other Marelli global locations, by conducting workshops and facilitating the exchange of knowledge across borders, bringing together diverse perspectives and technologies.

In addition, it promotes open innovation, as it actively collaborates with OEMs and other industries, aiming to create new value through the fusion of inter-industry technologies and ideas. It also integrates the latest electronic technologies with sustainable material engineering to promote eco-friendly innovation.

Finally, the Interior Innovation Center fosters a culture that encourages creative thinking and experimental challenges, providing an environment where members can freely propose ideas and fearlessly explore new solutions.

Through the fusion of technology and design, global collaboration, open innovation, and a focus on sustainability, Marelli’s Interior Experience team aims to push the boundaries of interior design and technology, creating the next generation of personalized interior experiences.

About Marelli

Marelli is a leading mobility technology supplier to the automotive sector. With a strong and established track record in innovation and manufacturing excellence, our mission is to transform the future of mobility through working with customers and partners to create a safer, greener, and better-connected world. With around 50,000 employees worldwide, the Marelli footprint includes 170 facilities and R&D centers across Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2366351/Marelli.jpg

SOURCE Marelli

For further information: Contact Details: Maurizio Scrignari – maurizio.scrignari@marelli.com – M + 39 335 7577830; Daniela Di Pietrantonio – daniela.dipietrantonio@marelli.com – M + 39 338 6731792

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SAMHSA’s 20th Prevention Day: Leading with Science, Improving Lives https://inergency.com/samhsas-20th-prevention-day-leading-with-science-improving-lives/ Tue, 19 Mar 2024 15:15:51 +0000 https://inergency.com/samhsas-20th-prevention-day-leading-with-science-improving-lives/ SAMHSA’s 20th Prevention Day: Leading with Science, Improving LivesWe’re building on the momentum of SAMHSA’s 20th Prevention Day and looking ahead to National Prevention Week (May 12-18). About 4,300 prevention professionals, researchers, and advocates from across the country attended SAMHSA’s 20th Prevention Day held outside of Washington, D.C., on January 29, 2024. This was the largest Prevention Day gathering to date, offering 83 […]]]> SAMHSA’s 20th Prevention Day: Leading with Science, Improving Lives


We’re building on the momentum of SAMHSA’s 20th Prevention Day and looking ahead to National Prevention Week (May 12-18).

About 4,300 prevention professionals, researchers, and advocates from across the country attended SAMHSA’s 20th Prevention Day held outside of Washington, D.C., on January 29, 2024. This was the largest Prevention Day gathering to date, offering 83 sessions with about 200 speakers ― leading with science, advancing the prevention of substance use and misuse, and enhancing lives. The prevention field’s synergy and positive energy were palpable.

The opening plenary featured:

Then, to tell the story of prevention, I started with data. The data show us a few things.

  • First, the SUD prevention field should be proud of our successes. Youth substance use has declined significantly over the past 20 years, as indicated by the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Monitoring the Future survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health also shows that the vast majority of adolescents are not using substances.
  • At the same time, there are significant challenges that call us to action, including rising alcohol-attributable deaths and drug overdose deaths, the changing epidemiology of populations at elevated risk (with a particular focus on disparities and inequities), the increasingly dynamic landscape of substance use (and an increasingly toxic illicit drug supply), and the link between mental health issues and substance use.

We need to:

  • Use the data to inform our messaging. This includes the use of data on non-use of substances, as part of a social norms approach (which emphasizes the impact of peer communities on substance use).
  • Look at how we’re engaging with diverse communities ― ensuring they are at the table ― and approaching this work through an equity lens.
  • Practice prevention across the lifespan, not just among youth.
  • Partner with those addressing mental health, who can be champions for substance use prevention. (It is worth noting that several of those with substance use also have co-occurring mental health conditions).
  • Involve more youth in prevention programming* ― such as problem-solving, communications skills, and broader prevention programs that address healthy relationships, connectedness, and safety.

I also took the opportunity to share the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention’s (CSAP’s) new vision, mission, strategic priorities, guiding principles, and a comprehensive path forward. CSAP’s key imperatives are:

  • Lift up the prevention conversation and tell the prevention story including prevention’s positive impact on communities across our country.
  • Support a holistic approach to prevention addressing the full spectrum of risk and protective factors (at the individual, family, school, community, and society levels).
  • Increase the number of communities exposed to proven prevention strategies.
  • Identify and develop innovative strategies to build and translate science-based and practice-based evidence.
  • Build new and strengthen existing partnerships and collaborations.
  • Create opportunities for multi-directional input from grantees, partners, and the field to inform our work.
  • Provide outstanding customer service to grantees and the field.

Ultimately, we aim to prevent use in the first place, prevent the progression of use, and reduce harm. And we have the prevention playbook to do so.

We then transitioned to a panel with former CSAP directors (Dona Dmitrovic, Johnnetta Davis-Joyce, Frances M. Harding, and Beverly Watts Davis). During a Q&A, they reflected on their prevention journeys and shared pearls of wisdom:

  • Prevention is foundational ― you can build everything else (mental health promotion, violence prevention, etc.) on it.
  • There are so several heroes in the prevention field, who fill our hearts with joy.
  • We’ve come so far, with the use of prevention science and young people going into prevention will drive the field forward.
  • Preventionists know how to connect the dots and are strong.
  • Prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery, and mental health promotion are now working together.
  • Prevention needs you. Look around your community; for example, go into the vape shops when kids get out of school.
  • Start now with prevention, no matter what your age, or where you are in life.
  • One day can change your life. One moment can change someone else’s life.

Later, Dr. Delphin-Rittmon hosted an “Ask the Assistant Secretary” meeting with youth, at which she shared resources for youth preventionists and answered a range of questions.

Throughout the day at the Prevention Action Center (CSAP’s interactive learning hub), attendees took part in activities and learned about SAMHSA’s campaigns.

In the closing plenary, Tom Coderre, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of SAMHSA, emphasized that SAMHSA’s doors are open and made one request to the audience: go back to your communities and share the value of prevention with potential new partners. Thanks to you, prevention is working.

The next day, for the SAMHSA Power Session at CADCA’s National Leadership Forum, Mr. Coderre joined the directors of SAMHSA’s centers for prevention, treatment, and mental health services, showcasing our collaborative work in advancing the nation’s behavioral health.

Reflecting on our 20th Prevention Day, I walked away with a strong feeling of hope and community, energized by the voices of thousands of people who share the common goal of helping individuals, families, and communities to thrive. That is the work of prevention.

We look forward to your participation in National Prevention Week (May 12-18, 2024), and to seeing you at the next SAMHSA Prevention Day on February 3, 2025.

*See NSDUH Table 3.9B: “Participated in a Prevention Program or Group in Past Year”

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Festivals and Youth: An Educational Cultural Route to Festivals https://inergency.com/festivals-and-youth-an-educational-cultural-route-to-festivals/ Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:00:36 +0000 https://inergency.com/festivals-and-youth-an-educational-cultural-route-to-festivals/ Festivals and Youth: An Educational Cultural Route to Festivals1. Introduction Festivals are an emerging object of study in the social sciences. New disciplines such as popular musicology make them a privileged field of study, from transdisciplinary theoretical approaches that take contributions from anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, semiotics, cultural and communication studies, postcolonial studies, gender and feminist studies [1]. This approach is supported by scholars […]]]> Festivals and Youth: An Educational Cultural Route to Festivals


1. Introduction

Festivals are an emerging object of study in the social sciences. New disciplines such as popular musicology make them a privileged field of study, from transdisciplinary theoretical approaches that take contributions from anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, semiotics, cultural and communication studies, postcolonial studies, gender and feminist studies [1]. This approach is supported by scholars who have significantly contributed to the understanding of festivals [2,3].
Festivals have shown a long-lasting impact on generations (such as Woodstock) and become relevant events in the contemporary history of occidental societies. In the context of accelerated social change, they become traditions and heritage. They have been integrated as cultural traditions, reflecting historical and modern influences amidst rapid social changes. Particularly, festivals focusing on 20th century popular music have significantly attracted young audiences. These events serve as platforms for youth engagement, where the attendees interact with a spectrum of social values, displaying trends that encompass both conservative and progressive ideologies [2,3].
Recently, festivals transcend their traditional musical roots, embracing a wide array of artistic expressions, including the visual arts. Celebrations like WOMAD and BOOM have transformed various venues—from the historic streets of Cáceres (Spain) to a village’s lake in Idanha-a-Nova (Portugal)—into centers of both visual and auditory artistry. The Burning Man festival is a prime example of this fusion [4]. This amalgamation of artistic disciplines represents a deeply personal engagement with the arts [5]. These festivals captivate audiences by offering a comprehensive sensory experience that transcends mere auditory enjoyment. This integrated approach is essential in fostering a deeper connection between the audience and the art forms presented. Modern festivals are increasingly incorporating visual elements, such as elaborate stage designs and interactive installations, creating environments where the artistic boundaries are blurred [6].
The impact of such immersive and integrated artistic experiences is profound, enabling personalized and meaningful engagement with the arts. Festivals have evolved from places of passive consumption to dynamic environments of active participation in a rich tapestry of creativity. This aspect of festivals highlighted emphasizes their significance in the contemporary cultural landscape [5]. They offer spaces where art becomes personally meaningful, not just through passive observation, but through engaging, dynamic, and transformative interactions.

Only very recently, musicologists have begun to appreciate the rituals of music consumption from a spatial approach. This approach, which is convergent with contemporary cultural geography, allows for a more nuanced understanding of how physical spaces, from concert halls to urban streets, influence and are influenced by musical activities. The importance of geography in the development of musical genres, the distribution of music scenes, and the varied cultural significance of music in different communities are central to this analysis. Additionally, the historical evolution of music spaces and the impact of technology on expanding music consumption spaces, from traditional venues to personal and mobile environments, are considered. This comprehensive approach, encompassing not just sound but also physical, social, and cultural contexts, enriches our understanding of music as an essential component of human geography. With the spread of Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and their accessibility to the public, music mapping, that is, the geolocation and representation of performances, performers, and venues in historical and contemporary contexts, has begun to develop worldwide. This technological advancement has deepened our understanding of the spatial dimensions of music, revealing patterns in cultural exchange, socio-economic influences, and urban development. By using GIS tools to map musical genres and their distribution, researchers can explore cultural diffusion and the impact of globalization on music. Additionally, public access to GIS tools democratizes musicological research, inviting contributions from enthusiasts, academics, and musicians. This integration of spatial analysis into music study has revolutionized the way we explore and understand the geography of music, its trends, histories, and cultural interactions.

In this work, through reviewing the scientific literature on festivals and conducting our fieldwork on festivals in the city of Cáceres in Spain, we aim to develop educational dimensions and elements that can be included in a narrative following a cultural itinerary addressed mainly to youths.

Based on its educational purposes, this itinerary includes interactive elements and points of reflection on the historical urban landscape of the city. It also contains global elements from the history and anthropology of festivals and local elements, such as the impact of the Irish music festival (Irish Fleadh) in the city’s music landscape and agenda, in which every week, a “fleadh” takes place in the main square (Plaza Mayor).

1.1. Musical Routes

In the academic literature, the concept of a ‘musical route’ has been interpreted in three distinct ways. The first interpretation views it as a personal journey to acquiring or developing musical skills. The second definition associates it with the progression of a musician using various styles or instruments. The third interpretation, which is the focus of this paper, considers it as a spatio-temporal journey, emphasizing locations that are significant within educational or touristic discourses [7]. We also emphasize the communal and participatory aspects of music, shedding light on how musical routes can foster community engagement and cultural understanding. Building on this, the concept of ‘musicking’ [8] highlights the act of engaging with music as a dynamic process that contributes to personal and communal identity formation, suggesting that musical routes can also be seen as pathways through which individuals and communities negotiate their identities.
Most commonly, musical routes are centered around musicians, including performers, composers, and even luthiers. These routes often trace the life story of an individual from their birthplace to their final resting place. Additionally, applied research has created musical routes themed around historical periods, such as the Renaissance, ethnic and geographical elements like the African diaspora in Europe [9], and specific instruments [10]. Musical routes contribute to the construction of cultural identities and cross-cultural dialogues and encompass not only physical journeys, but also the migration of musical traditions and their adaptation in new cultural contexts, enriching the global soundscape and fostering intercultural understanding [11,12]; music’s role in everyday life reinforces the idea that musical routes extend beyond physical journeys, serving as a medium through which individuals construct their social worlds and identities [13].

The soundscape and music landscape are continually evolving due to sociocultural changes. Nowadays, in almost every city across the globe, music is predominantly played in places like gyms or ‘wellness centers’, becoming a daily part of life for several.

In Spain, the emergence of a ‘festival culture’ in the 1990s has significantly altered musical consumption habits. The live music scene, once dominated by local venues and epitomized by ‘la movida’, along with concerts in theaters and pavilions, has shifted towards festivals. These festivals prioritize open, urban spaces, transforming them with the rhythms of music and the festive spirit of an audience. The inclusion of Hesmondhalgh’s [14] critique on the cultural industries’ role in festival economies adds a critical perspective on the commercialization of music festivals and its implications for cultural production and consumption. Feld [15] provides insights into how festival cultures modify the urban soundscape, contributing to a vibrant public space where music serves as a catalyst for communal activity and cultural expression. To further elaborate, Kahn’s [16] exploration of the environmental aspects of sound art and soundscapes examines how festivals can influence ecological awareness and foster a deeper connection to places through sound.
Music serves as an effective tool for intercultural exchange, acting as a primary conduit with other cultures. Its universal language surpasses traditional belief systems, positioning it as a suitable channel for cultural introduction. Turino [7] underscores music’s power in mediating intercultural experiences, highlighting the transformative potential of music engagement in understanding and celebrating cultural diversity. Intercultural music engagement (IME) serves as a subtle, yet significant, approach to exploring and understanding the traditions of different cultures [17]. Building upon this idea, “rich intercultural music engagement (RIME)” constitutes a more interactive approach to cultural exchange. RIME extends the experience beyond basic auditory involvement, integrating tangible and performative aspects that facilitate deeper cultural immersion. The inherent capacity of music to promote intercultural comprehension allows individuals to connect effortlessly with diverse cultural backgrounds. Engaging in this manner broadens one’s cultural viewpoint, providing a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the varied mosaic of global cultures.
In our current social and cultural context, education about diversity emerges as a crucial element, representing an axis of the route, highlighting “the role that festivals play as sites of conviviality, cross-cultural encounters and solidarity—especially for school-aged young people” [18].
Cultural festivals have grown in diversity, scale, and popularity in several migrant-receiving societies in recent years and schools have increasingly become involved in supporting intercultural exchange and celebration [18]. In fact, festivals enable us to observe how a local culture is created by adding new elements to old ones [19]. This is interestingly useful to educate people on diversity and global citizenship.

1.2. History and Anthropology of Festivals

The term “festival” originates from the Latin “festivalis”, denoting religious celebrations or “feasts”. This etymological root points to the ancient nature of festivals, which are deeply ingrained in human history [20]. However, contemporary festivals characterized by large gatherings for amplified music and extended camping are a phenomenon that blossomed in the 20th century and continues to evolve into diverse forms today [21]. Anthropological studies have been pivotal in dissecting the complex nature of festivals, examining them from cultural, socio-political, and economic perspectives. Other scholars have emphasized the critical roles of audiences, political undercurrents, and economic implications inherent in festivals [22]. Recent research has expanded our understanding of festivals, exploring attendees’ motivations and the environmental and community impacts [23,24]. A spectrum of motivations for festival participation has been identified, ranging from cultural exploration and novelty seeking to rest and rejuvenation, socializing within known groups, seeking external interactions, and strengthening familial bonds [25]. Expanding on this notion, festivals, which are viewed as rituals and spectacles, provide profound insights into their transformative influence on both individuals and communities. This perspective contends that festivals transcend mere entertainment venues, serving as critical platforms for expressing and reinforcing social values and collective identities. They act as catalysts for community engagement and cohesion, showcasing the intricate ways in which cultural practices shape and reflect societal norms and aspirations [21].
The Festivalization of Culture [26,27] deepens this exploration by examining festivals as a cultural phenomenon that transcends mere entertainment, embedding itself into the fabric of society and contributing to a dynamic cultural identity. This reference underscores the transformative impact of festivals on both individual identity and community cohesion, illustrating how festivals serve as arenas for cultural expression and negotiation.
This anthropological inquiry also delves into the relationship between festivals and carnival traditions. Fournier explores this, centering around the concept of “communitas”, an ephemeral community existing within an alternate time and space where daily norms are suspended [22]. The intertwining of festival and carnival, characterized as “carnavalesque”, exemplifies a culture of human expression, echoing Bacchanalian traditions [18].
Event Studies [28] further supports the view that festivals are multifaceted events with significant socio-cultural and economic dimensions. This work provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the planning, impact, and legacy of festivals, emphasizing their role in fostering social bonds and cultural heritage.
Understanding the role of festivals in culture, anthropology probes the deep meanings these events hold. The term “festival-goer” carries nuanced connotations across cultures. In Spanish, the term “festivalero” possesses a deeper significance, encapsulating the very essence of being a “festival-being”, which more aptly captures the profound impact of festivals on one’s identity. The performative dimension, a focus of contemporary ethnomusicology, highlights the dynamic interaction between artists and audiences. Turner [29] differentiates between participant and presentational settings. In participant settings, the audience is directly involved in the performance, contributing as performers themselves. In contrast, presentational settings create a divide, with the audience as complicit observers. This distinction is crucial in understanding the varying dynamics of festivals. The trend of audience participation has become increasingly prominent in festivals like Burning Man in the USA or the Secret Garden Party in the UK. Here, the attendees are not mere spectators, but active contributors to the festival’s creation [30,31]. This shift underscores the transformative power of audience engagement in the festival experience.
Music Festivals and Regional Development [32] provides an empirical study on the economic and cultural impact of music festivals, highlighting how they contribute to regional development and cultural sustainability. This reference complements the discussion by demonstrating the tangible benefits of festivals in promoting cultural heritage and supporting local economies.
The history and anthropology of festivals unveil an intricate tapestry of human culture and expression. This exploration highlights the multifaceted nature of festivals, from their cultural significance to their impact on identity and the dynamic interplay between artists and audiences [26].

1.3. Festivals in the City of Cáceres

Cáceres, which is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage City, exhibits a unique duality in its urban landscape. On one hand, its historic center, which is among the most uniform in Spain, has evolved into a sought-after setting for medieval-themed film and television productions, such as the renowned “Game of Thrones”. On the other hand, Cáceres stands out as a vibrant center for cultural festivals, establishing itself as an epicenter of musical and artistic expression. The city’s festival calendar is replete with events throughout the year, catering to a wide array of musical tastes and cultural interests, as detailed in Table 1.

This festive atmosphere not only reflects the city’s passion for celebrations, but also significantly contributes to its cultural and economic vitality.

From traditional folk music to contemporary urban rhythms, the festivals reflect the city’s inclusive cultural approach, embracing both local and international artists. This enriches the city’s cultural landscape and fosters dialogue between diverse musical genres and artistic forms.

The impact of these festivals extends beyond cultural enrichment. They are key economic drivers, attracting tourists globally and boosting local businesses. This influx of visitors supports the city’s economy, creating jobs and increasing revenue for local artisans, restaurants, and accommodation providers. Moreover, the festivals offer a platform for local artists and artisans to gain exposure and connect with broader audiences.

Cáceres’ festivals represent the perfect fusion of tradition and modernity (Figure 1). Integrating contemporary elements with traditional settings, these festivals attract a broad demographic, including the younger generation. This balance of preserving heritage, while embracing innovation is key to keeping the festivals dynamic and relevant.

Playing a vital role in shaping the city’s identity and fostering a sense of community, the festivals in Cáceres are gatherings where residents and visitors celebrate shared cultural values and experiences. The sense of belonging and community pride these festivals engender is invaluable, contributing to a cohesive social fabric.

As the city progresses with its festival culture, there is also a growing focus on environmental sustainability. Minimizing the ecological footprint of these large-scale events is increasingly important, with initiatives aimed at reducing waste, promoting recycling, and encouraging eco-friendly practices. Cáceres faces the ongoing challenge of balancing tradition and modernity in its festivals, which is a balance that is essential for preserving its rich cultural heritage, while adapting to contemporary trends and attracting a younger, more diverse audience.

The festivals in Cáceres transcend mere entertainment; they play a crucial role in the city’s economy and cultural identity. They draw tourists from around the world, supporting local businesses and fostering community pride. Furthermore, these festivals provide platforms for local artists and artisans to showcase their work, thereby supporting and promoting local talent.

Deeply rooted in tradition, Cáceres’ festivals also embrace innovation. This fusion of old and new ensures the festivals remain relevant and appealing to a wide audience, including younger generations. Efforts to incorporate contemporary elements into traditional settings demonstrate the city’s commitment to preserving its heritage, while evolving with the times.

2. Materials and Methods

The research project “Musical Heritage, History, and Anthropology of Music in the City of Cáceres: Cataloging, Mapping, and Tourism, Didactic and Museum Applications” (ref. IB20182) is the framework with which we conduct research on musical itineraries in the city based on relevant elements of its history and its particular socio-cultural context.

2.1. Organizational Elements for Musical Itineraries

In the course of structuring the musical itineraries, we have designed a database with fields for references (from primary and secondary sources, which are graphic and oral, informational, interactive, and educational). This database plays a crucial role in the systematic organization and coherent presentation of these itineraries, ensuring modularity and adaptability, engagement, and education. This methodology implies a comprehensive framework to explore and appreciate Cáceres’s rich musical heritage. By blending historical insights with modern applications, our goal is to deepen the understanding and appreciation of the city’s musical culture, highlighting its significance in cultural diversity and education.

We have developed a comprehensive database system (Table 2), distinguished by its meticulous construction and strategic planning. It integrates various fields and concepts, all aimed at creating adaptable music routes that cater to the preferences and needs of diverse users. Considerations for the design of musical itineraries include the individual’s age, background, knowledge, and preferences, as well as specific needs related to accessibility and the desired duration of their experience. These aspects are incorporated into various fields of the itineraries, as detailed in Table 3.

2.2. Methodological Approach and Analysis

The methodological approach for analyzing these materials combines qualitative research techniques with a systematic analysis framework. We conduct an in-depth qualitative investigation into the musical narrative of Cáceres, tracing its evolution through archival documents, engaging interviews with key figures in the music scene, and community interactions. This approach allows for a detailed understanding of the evolution and transformation of Cáceres’s musical landscape across different historical periods.

This analytical process is applied through several stages, as follows:

(a)

Data Collection: Gathering data from a variety of sources, including archival documents, interviews, and community consultations.

(b)

Data Organization: Systematically cataloging the collected data within our database, ensuring each piece of information is accurately represented and easily accessible.

(c)

Analysis: Employing qualitative analysis techniques to interpret the data, focusing on identifying the themes, patterns, and narratives that emerge from the musical history of Cáceres. This involves coding the data and mapping out the connections between different musical elements and their socio-cultural implications.

(d)

Thematic Itinerary Development: Based on analysis, thematic itineraries are created to represent the multifaceted musical culture of Cáceres comprehensively. These itineraries are designed with a focus on inclusivity and education, highlighting the city’s musical diversity through various genres and festivals.

2.3. Development of Thematic Itineraries

This comprehensive study has culminated in the creation of thematic itineraries, which function as a detailed and multifaceted representation of Cáceres’s musical culture. These itineraries encompass a wide range of musical genres, from the reverberating sounds of organs and the rhythmic tolling of bells to the dynamic strains of music bands, harmonious choral singing, evocative saeta, the fervent beats of flamenco, the alluring melodies of Irish music, and an array of colorful festivals. Central to our research is the integration of socio-cultural aspects of festivals into educational initiatives that honor and celebrate diversity. Within this context, we have designed a specific route that highlights key locations in Cáceres, each symbolizing different aspects of its rich musical history and its lively festival atmosphere.

3. Results

Our exploration of Cáceres’s musical heritage, with a focus on its incorporation into educational and musical routes for youths, has produced enlightening outcomes. These results are central in comprehending the effects of our approach, which combines historical analysis, ethnographic studies, and spatial methodologies to captivate young audiences. The creation and application of an extensive database have been crucial in our investigation into Cáceres musical landscape. This resource has unveiled detailed aspects of the city’s musical progression. It documents the evolution of musical styles and tastes over time (Table 4), alongside mapping the distribution of musical events and venues. Such an in-depth exploration has furnished us with a rich historical backdrop and a detailed perception of Cáceres musical landscape.
The thematic itineraries (see Table 5) designed to cover various aspects of Cáceres musical culture received a highly positive reception from the youth. The participants reported elevated levels of engagement and a growing interest in local musical traditions. Notably, itineraries that included interactive elements, such as participation in local music festivals and workshops with local musicians, proved exceptionally effective in enhancing the educational experience.
The key outcome of the project was the application of these thematic itineraries to education about diversity. By integrating elements extracted from the socio-cultural phenomenon of festivals, the itineraries served as a dynamic educational tool, as detailed in Table 6. They highlighted key locations in the city, each representing different facets of Cáceres’ musical heritage and vibrant festival culture. This approach provided a unique educational experience, promoting diversity and cultural understanding. This was particularly evident from the surveys conducted after their participation in the project activities.

The initial feedback from the participants who engaged with the musical itineraries was positive. The participants appreciated the depth and variety of the musical experiences offered, as well as the educational value in understanding the city’s cultural diversity in the past and in present times. The itineraries were particularly noted for their ability to bring historical and contemporary musical narratives to life, making them accessible and engaging to a broad audience. The successful implementation of these musical itineraries has led to broad appeal and inclusive participation. This inclusivity is a crucial outcome, indicating the itineraries effectiveness in engaging youth, thereby enhancing the overall cultural heritage of the city.

The use of Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping brought a novel dimension to our study. It enabled detailed spatial analysis of the musical landscape of Cáceres, identifying key cultural zones and historically significant musical sites. This spatial understanding was pivotal in planning future cultural events and in the efforts to preserve important musical locations in the city.

The development of the musical itineraries database and its application to thematic routes in Cáceres have successfully achieved the project’s objectives. The integration of historiographic and ethnographic research into this database has enriched the thematic itineraries, offering a unique and educational exploration of the city’s musical heritage and its relevance to cultural diversity and education. The results from this project underscore the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary approach in exploring and educating people about the musical heritage of Cáceres. By blending historical research, ethnographic studies, interactive thematic itineraries, and GIS mapping, we created a comprehensive and engaging educational experience. This approach not only fostered a deeper understanding of local music among youths, but also contributed significantly to the broader cultural and educational dialogue within the city (see Figure 2).
This picture (Figure 2) shows how the Voladores dance from the Mexican regions of Puebla and Veracruz was performed in Cáceres Main Square in 1958 on a pole as higher as the towers of the city. The history of Cáceres and Extremadura is deeply linked to Mexico and Latin America because several of the noble families of the city traveled to America in the 16th century, built their fortunes and the walls of their palace with income brought from America, converted and indoctrinated the vast majority of the peoples of America, and married royal families of the Aztec empire, such as Isabel de Moctezuma. Indeed, in the complex scenario shown by Figure 2, we can see in a European city, American dancers “staging” a ritual in a laic context, with Muslim towers behind, and people from the post-war Francoist Spain witnessing the event.
The Route of Festivals is presented as a confluence of postcolonialism and global citizenship concepts, bridging postcolonial studies with the global village idea. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of diverse cultural identities and histories, underscoring the need to understand and value these complexities. The festivals in Cáceres create key spaces for reflection, blending various historical and cultural influences. These spaces, rich in global citizenship and identity, offer unique insights into cultural narratives and histories. They are essential for fostering dialogue, enhancing our appreciation of cultural diversity, and shaping personal and collective identities in a global context, aligning with value-based education [33].

4. Discussion

Value-based education (VBE) is a transformative approach that, despite its often-overlooked importance in the Spanish Educational System and globally, is imperative for fostering an inclusive, interconnected society. This educational model prioritizes the cultivation of moral values, empathy, and ethical awareness, emphasizing the significance of intercultural understanding, diversity, and inclusion in our globalized world. Our research contributes to this imperative by creating musical routes and cultural itineraries that not only fulfill educational objectives, but also engage participants actively. These itineraries utilize the rich mosaic of urban spaces and historical narratives, providing a distinctive platform for experiential learning.

The Route of Festivals in Cáceres, the prominent example from our study, is specifically designed for young audiences. It emphasizes key issues, such as intercultural communication and citizenship, providing a space for reflection and learning. This route encapsulates the fusion of music, culture, and education, showcasing how a city’s vibrant festival culture can be an effective tool for value-based education.

The methodologies and examples detailed in our article offer a blueprint to other researchers and educators. They can adapt and apply similar approaches to their unique contexts, developing musical and cultural routes that align with specific educational and interactive objectives.

Moreover, continuous audience research and studies are vital to assess the impact of these experiences. Future research should aim to quantitatively and qualitatively measure how these cultural itineraries influence participants, focusing on the changes in their understanding of diversity, cultural appreciation, and the development of intercultural competencies. Such evaluations are crucial in determining the effectiveness of these educational tools and in refining them for broader application.

In conclusion, our study highlights the potential of integrating cultural heritage and musical exploration into education. This approach can play a significant role in fostering a more inclusive, diverse, and culturally aware society. By continuing to innovate and assess these educational strategies, we can enhance their effectiveness in cultivating a more understanding and interconnected world.

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Guest Post – Mental Health Awareness Mondays: A Brief Guide to Mental Health Taxonomies – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/guest-post-mental-health-awareness-mondays-a-brief-guide-to-mental-health-taxonomies-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:09:43 +0000 https://inergency.com/guest-post-mental-health-awareness-mondays-a-brief-guide-to-mental-health-taxonomies-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Guest Post – Mental Health Awareness Mondays: A Brief Guide to Mental Health Taxonomies – The Scholarly KitchenEditor’s Note: Recently’s Mental Health Awareness Mondays guest post is by Marjorie Hlava, Chief Scientist at Access Innovations, Inc. It is intended to supplement February’s post, Categorizing Mental Health Research by Hélène Draux. An important part of mental health awareness is knowing what resources are available. There are a lot of databases, publications, helplines, etc. […]]]> Guest Post – Mental Health Awareness Mondays: A Brief Guide to Mental Health Taxonomies – The Scholarly Kitchen


Editor’s Note: Recently’s Mental Health Awareness Mondays guest post is by Marjorie Hlava, Chief Scientist at Access Innovations, Inc. It is intended to supplement February’s post, Categorizing Mental Health Research by Hélène Draux.

An important part of mental health awareness is knowing what resources are available. There are a lot of databases, publications, helplines, etc. and they are often supported by a controlled vocabulary, like a taxonomy, or thesaurus. Sometimes they are classifications, outlines, or decision trees. The nature of the content, and therefore the tracking of the data, will be determined by the taxonomy or outline of knowledge that is used as the classification tool (a.k.a taxonomy or thesaurus or ontology) the same data or content will showcase differently with different outlines. Some of these systems are mentioned in last month’s Mental Health Awareness Monday post: Categorizing Mental Health Research by Hélèn Draux, but they only represent a subsection of the available options. While still not an exhaustive list, in this post I will share some additional available material.

Several organizations include mental health classifications as part of their main taxonomy – like NLM’s MeSH and the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms from the American Psychological Association. Each organization treats the classifications in a different way, depending on their main organizational focus. Some agencies also classify mental health in conjunction with their main mission. Prisons may treat the organization of data differently than homeless agencies. It is certainly not unique to any particular country or area of study. The organization of the data is always from the perspective of the creator. It should be sensitive to, and representative of, the content actually being covered or held in a data repository,

The premier system is the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Published by the American Psychiatric Association, DSM is one of the most widely used taxonomies for classifying mental disorders. It is currently in its fifth edition (DSM-5) and provides criteria for diagnosing various mental health conditions.

MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), also mentioned in Hélène’s post, includes a section on mental health under the main heading of “Mental Disorders,” as well as various subheadings and terms related to specific conditions, treatments, and aspects of mental health, including Mental Disorders, Mental Health, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Mental Health Services, Mental Health Professionals, Mental Health Policy, Mental Health Promotion. There are several additional terms and areas listed under these particular branches used to index the materials about the subject in the Medline Database.

Going another step up the chain is the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), which has a more comprehensive taxonomy for mental health. This is because the UMLS is a collection of about 155 biomedical vocabularies and standards gathered by the NLM and integrated into a large vocabulary to support search and tagging. The UMLS mental health concepts are organized more broadly as follows:

Mental Disorders: Includes various mental health conditions, such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, etc.

Mental Health Care: Covers aspects related to the provision of mental health services, including treatment modalities, therapeutic approaches, healthcare facilities, and professionals involved in mental health care.

Mental Processes: Encompasses cognitive and emotional processes, including concepts related to perception, cognition, memory, emotion, and consciousness.

Psychiatry and Psychology Disciplines: Includes concepts related to the fields of psychiatry and psychology, including subdisciplines, theories, and methodologies.

Mental Health Professionals: Covers professions and roles involved in mental health care, such as psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, social workers, etc.

Psychiatric and Psychological Phenomena and Processes: Includes concepts related to the manifestations and processes of mental health conditions, including symptoms, signs, diagnostic criteria, and psychological phenomena.

Other vocabularies of note for mental health include:

This should not be taken as a comprehensive list but rather an indicative one. Each taxonomy / vocabulary listed about has been purpose built for a particular area. Needs are unique and carefully track the content and the user community the taxonomy is built to serve.

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The Foundation of Mental Health: It Starts at Birth https://inergency.com/the-foundation-of-mental-health-it-starts-at-birth/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 17:20:21 +0000 https://inergency.com/the-foundation-of-mental-health-it-starts-at-birth/ The Foundation of Mental Health: It Starts at BirthInfant and Early Childhood Mental Health is the Foundation of Life In today’s news, references to “mental health” most often focus on child and adult mental health – with the mental health of infants and young toddlers often overlooked or misunderstood. However, given that important attachments are formed in the first years of life, focusing […]]]> The Foundation of Mental Health: It Starts at Birth


Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health is the Foundation of Life

In today’s news, references to “mental health” most often focus on child and adult mental health – with the mental health of infants and young toddlers often overlooked or misunderstood. However, given that important attachments are formed in the first years of life, focusing on infant and early childhood mental health provides an important opportunity to establish and enhance the foundation of their emotional and social growth and development. To meet these needs, there are several practitioners, providers, and other professionals who dedicate their careers to advancing the mental health of infants, toddlers, caregivers, and their families.

Infants and toddlers can experience mental health conditions, just like every age group. That’s why it’s so important to address their mental health needs as soon as one suspects there may be an issue, rather than waiting until they are older. Nurturing healthy brain development, starting at birth, can help to mitigate serious mental health issues that may appear in adulthood. According to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, “Early experiences affect the development of brain architecture, which provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health. Just as a weak foundation compromises the quality and strength of a house, adverse experiences early in life can impair brain architecture, with negative effects lasting into adulthood.”

Why Early Childhood Mental Health Matters

Experiences in the first years of life can impact the trajectory of a child’s life, setting the course for future health and well-being. The structures of the brain that influence later learning are mostly formed by the age of two, which means some of the most important brain development occurs before a child ever picks up a pencil, reads a book, or goes to school. Parents and caregivers play an important, protective role by providing positive learning experiences, buffering young children from the stresses of hardship or threat, and nurturing the early development of adaptive skills that are the building blocks of resilience.

Understanding why early childhood mental health matters is especially important because there is a serious youth mental health crisis happening in our country today – and it’s not just affecting older kids, or school-aged children; it’s starting earlier and among younger children. According to the CDC, one in six children ages 2-8 have a diagnosable mental health condition. Another large study suggests that at least one in 10 children under the age of five have a significant emotional, behavioral, or relationship problem.

It may be surprising to parents and caregivers that even at very young ages, significant mental health issues may occur – often at rates similar to older children. It is important to effectively respond to the mental health needs of the youngest children by talking to them about their feelings and responding to their emotional needs. Very young kids may not have the words to express their feelings, but instead show it through behaviors such as crying or yelling. While most parents may attribute these types of behaviors to other factors, not all these behaviors are simply a “phase.” Persistent feelings or behaviors that interfere with a young child’s ability to connect with others, appropriately express his/her emotions, and have the overall ability to enjoy life are important signs to monitor. These types of concerns may be important to discuss with a healthcare provider to immediately address and/or mitigate any further challenges down the road.

How SAMHSA’s Programs Support this Critical Age Group

SAMHSA funds three grant programs that serve children birth through 12 years of age who are at risk of experiencing serious emotional disturbances.

  1. The Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Grant program works to improve outcomes for children, from birth up to age 12, by developing, maintaining, or enhancing infant and early childhood mental health promotion, intervention, and treatment services.
  2. The Project Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health, also known as Project LAUNCH, promotes the wellness of young children, from birth to eight years of age, by addressing the social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioral aspects of their development — preparing young children to thrive in school and beyond.
  3. The National Center of Excellence (CoE) for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) provides technical assistance and professional development to increase access to high quality mental health consultation (MHC) throughout the country. The CoE for IECMHC works with, and responds to, individuals, organizations, and agencies across the nation who are looking for support with MHC. These supports can range from general questions to agencies looking for assistance in developing or creating a MHC program, to locating a mental health consultant in their area, as well as offering general and technical support on MHC. Through a variety of interactive services and programs, the CoE for IECMHC also supports the infant and early childhood mental health workforce and builds capacities through trainings, webinars, toolkits, and other resources.

SAMHSA’s IECMHC Helps Young Children and their Families

As outlined above, IECMHC is a prevention-based approach that pairs a mental health consultant with adults who work with infants and young children in the various settings where the children learn and grow. These can be settings such as in-home day care, early child care locations, preschools, home visiting, early intervention and in their homes. The MHC equips caregivers to facilitate children’s healthy social and emotional development.

Mental Health Consultants:

  • support strong relationships and supportive environments for children;
  • focus on building the capacity of the adults in children’s lives to understand young children’s social emotional development;
  • are highly trained licensed, or license-eligible, professionals with specialized knowledge in childhood development, the effects of stress and trauma on families, the importance of attachment for young children, and the impacts of adult mental health on developing children; and
  • use a strengths-based approach and consider all levels of influence to support young children and their caregivers.

IECMHC works best when teachers, families, and other individuals within the child’s environment work together to support the child. IECMHC has been shown to “improve children’s social skills and emotional functioning, promote healthy relationships, reduce challenging behaviors, reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions, improve classroom management skills, and reduce provider stress, burnout, and turnover.” Anyone interested in finding a mental health consultant in their area, can visit the CoE for IECMH website and complete the Technical Assistance form.

Infant and early childhood mental health is the foundation of life. Starting off with a strong and healthy foundation helps children cultivate the developmental and resiliency skills they will need to become well-functioning members of society. It is the duty of all of us to support and look after our nation’s youngest and most vulnerable population.

Additional Resources

For more information on SAMHSA’s grant programs that promote and support the health and wellness of young children and their families, please visit: Early Childhood Mental Health Programs.

Early childhood resources for parents, caregivers, educators, mental health consultants and others can be found on the SAMHSA publications website and on the CoE for IECMH website.

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SSP’s Early Career Development Podcast Episode 17: Interview with Editor-in-Chief of Nature Magdalena Skipper – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/ssps-early-career-development-podcast-episode-17-interview-with-editor-in-chief-of-nature-magdalena-skipper-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:24:59 +0000 https://inergency.com/ssps-early-career-development-podcast-episode-17-interview-with-editor-in-chief-of-nature-magdalena-skipper-the-scholarly-kitchen/ SSP’s Early Career Development Podcast Episode 17: Interview with Editor-in-Chief of Nature Magdalena Skipper – The Scholarly KitchenIn this episode of SSP’s Early Career Development Podcast, hosts Meredith Adinolfi (Cell Press) and Sara Grimme (Digital Science) chat with Magdalena Skipper, Editor-in-Chief of Nature and the first woman to lead the journal. Magdalena discusses how her interest in biology led her to obtain a PhD in genetics from the University of Cambridge. She […]]]> SSP’s Early Career Development Podcast Episode 17: Interview with Editor-in-Chief of Nature Magdalena Skipper – The Scholarly Kitchen


In this episode of SSP’s Early Career Development Podcast, hosts Meredith Adinolfi (Cell Press) and Sara Grimme (Digital Science) chat with Magdalena Skipper, Editor-in-Chief of Nature and the first woman to lead the journal.

Magdalena discusses how her interest in biology led her to obtain a PhD in genetics from the University of Cambridge. She shares serendipitously finding a job advertisement and the interview process for her first role in scholarly publishing as a Scientific Editor at Nature Reviews Genetics. She went on to become the Editor-in-Chief of that journal through her passion for supporting researchers in disseminating their discoveries. Magdalena has held several roles at Nature Partner Journals and Nature Communications allowing her to broaden her horizons beyond biology through interactions with researchers across scientific disciplines. In her role today, she leads a multidisciplinary journal, Nature, which publishes natural science and is quickly expanding into clinical and translational research, social science, applied science, and engineering. This conversation with Magdalena will leave listeners excited about the research ecosystem and inspired to be courageous in their own careers.

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Background on this podcast series

SSP’s Career Development Committee launched this podcast series in 2019 to offer advice and discussion on how early career publishing professionals can add to their skill sets, develop networks, and take advantage of new opportunities. The series presents interviews and insights from experienced professionals on how to navigate one’s career in a diverse and ever-changing landscape of scholarly communications. If you have any feedback for the hosts, creators, or for future episodes, please email info@sspnet.org

Meredith Adinolfi

Meredith Adinolfi is the Vice President of Publishing Operations at Cell Press.

Sara Grimme

Sara Grimme is the Director of Strategic Accounts at Digital Science.

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Guest Post – Navigating the Drift: Persistence Challenges in the Digital Scientific Record and the Promise of dPIDs – The Scholarly Kitchen https://inergency.com/guest-post-navigating-the-drift-persistence-challenges-in-the-digital-scientific-record-and-the-promise-of-dpids-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Thu, 14 Mar 2024 10:03:22 +0000 https://inergency.com/guest-post-navigating-the-drift-persistence-challenges-in-the-digital-scientific-record-and-the-promise-of-dpids-the-scholarly-kitchen/ Guest Post – Navigating the Drift: Persistence Challenges in the Digital Scientific Record and the Promise of dPIDs – The Scholarly KitchenEditor’s Note: Recently’s post is by Christopher Hill, Philipp Koellinger, and Erik van Winkle. Christopher is a neuro-economist, technologist, and entrepreneur. He co-founded DeSci Labs, developing next-generation technologies to promote replicable, open, and FAIR scientific publishing. Philipp is a professor of Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He co-founded DeSci Labs and serves as the president […]]]> Guest Post – Navigating the Drift: Persistence Challenges in the Digital Scientific Record and the Promise of dPIDs – The Scholarly Kitchen


Editor’s Note: Recently’s post is by Christopher Hill, Philipp Koellinger, and Erik van Winkle. Christopher is a neuro-economist, technologist, and entrepreneur. He co-founded DeSci Labs, developing next-generation technologies to promote replicable, open, and FAIR scientific publishing. Philipp is a professor of Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He co-founded DeSci Labs and serves as the president of the DeSci Foundation. Erik Van Winkle is the head of business development for DeSci Labs, FAIR Implementation facilitator for the GO FAIR Foundation, and the lead of the dPID Working Group for the DeSci Foundation. Full disclosure: The authors are affiliated with DeSci Labs AG and the DeSci Foundation. dPID is an open-source software solution distributed under an MIT license, developed by DeSci Labs AG (https://github.com/desci-labs/nodes/).

Persistence on the Internet: A Global Problem

We all agree that we need a digital version of the scientific record. The problem is that the current Internet was not designed for this purpose. Beyond the issues of broken links, there is the problem of content drift, where the URL resolves but is no longer linked to the initial content. A study by Jones et al. (2016) shows that link rot or content drift affects almost all Internet references in the corpus of Elsevier, arXiv, and PubMed Central. The older the reference, the more severe the problem gets. URLs from 1997 are hardly ever valid nowadays (see Figure below). But even 50% of URI references just three years old are affected by link rot and content drift.

In this post, we discuss current approaches to addressing the shortcomings of the existing Internet technology, identify remaining bottlenecks, and suggest how they can be resolved. The upgrades to the backbone of the scientific record we discuss here might go a long way toward addressing the replication crisis and the increasing challenges for publishers to spot fake research.

Figure 13 from Jones et al. (2016), Scholarly Context Adrift: Three out of Four URI References Lead to Changed Content, PLOS ONE, 11(12): e0167475. Used under CC BY license.

Persistent Identifiers: Challenges for DOIs

Of course, persistence problems on the internet are well known. The solution is persistent identifiers (PIDs) for digital content, which are supposed to enable long-lasting references and access. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system was developed as the PID solution for the digital version of the scholarly record — and it’s a huge success story.

DOIs have emerged as the de-facto standard of persistent identifiers for scholarly information, up to the point where some people think DOIs are guarantees for legitimate science (they are not). Over 100 million DOIs have been registered for publications, pre-prints, scientific datasets, and other academic content. DOIs are crucial for academic databases and indexing services such as the Web of Science, Scopus, Dimensions, etc.

However, our current gold standard for identifying and resolving scholarly content is still falling short of the desired level of persistence. A truly persistent identifier should always resolve to the same result. But that’s not the case for DOIs. According to a study by Klein and Balakireva (2020), approximately 50% of DOI requests fail to resolve to their target resource. The study details how DOI behavior is inconsistent across different networks: You may get very different responses when trying to resolve a DOI from your computer at work and your mobile phone when traveling.

Obtaining DOIs and updating the DOI record is also a tedious and expensive task for publishers. Both CrossRef and DataCite have fee structures that charge more money if more DOIs are created. If the URL of a publication changes, the DOI publisher is responsible for updating the DOI database — and not all of them do so consistently and quickly. In other words, the DOI system relies on social contracts and trust between platform operators and PID providers that are difficult and expensive to enforce. This limits both the reliability and the scalability of the DOI system.

Moreover, in a potential future world of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) science, every research artifact – not just the published manuscript – will need a globally unique, persistent, and resolvable identifier. Trillions of PIDs must be minted over the next decade to achieve that goal, and trillions of PID-to-URL mappings will need to be maintained. This is inconceivable with the current DOI system.

The prevalence of link rot, content drift, artifact fragmentation, and inconsistent resolution is poised to expand alongside this explosion of (or worse, lack of) DOI minting. The social costs of not embracing FAIR science are even worse: A study on behalf of the European Commission found that the annual cost of not having FAIR research data to the European economy alone is more than €10 billion every year. This estimate does not even include the adverse effects on research quality, technological progress, and slowed economic growth.

Rusty old chain broken in two with focus on the crumbling link

dPID: Distributed Architectures for Distributed Ecosystems

Technological solutions to these problems have already been developed, but have yet to be widely implemented within the scientific ecosystem. Over the past two decades, several open-source communities and W3C working groups have addressed the root causes underlying the lack of persistence on the Internet. The core idea is that PIDs should not ask, “What is the content stored at this location?” Instead, the right question is, “What is the content with this digital fingerprint?” A minor tweak to such a foundational question has far-reaching impacts, enabling deterministic resolution.

Deterministic resolution is the idea that PIDs should be guaranteed to resolve to their indexed resource. Deterministic resolution has long been an elusive goal, but it is finally in sight due to the maturity of enabling technologies. This new class of PID technology is called “dPIDs” – short for “decentralized persistent identifiers.” Beyond deterministic resolution, dPIDs offer several surprising and beneficial properties that can substantially improve how science is done, communicated, and evaluated.

The act of minting a dPID enables making the underlying content available on an open peer-to-peer network where repositories, libraries, universities, and publishers can participate in curating and validating content. It also makes it possible to store redundant copies with the same identifier on different servers operated by various entities without developing or using API-based services. It also eliminates the need to maintain and update DOI records manually. dPIDs also provide a graceful way to handle the data transition to a new host when a repository or journal is scheduled to go offline or changes owners because the link to the content does not change, thus adding a built-in way to safeguard content that is otherwise at risk of being lost forever.

dPIDs are not just identifiers for a single file. Instead, they allow addressing linked folder structures that scale nearly indefinitely. Each file in this folder structure can be uniquely addressed from the base dPID, enabling digital research objects that link all relevant project pieces together (e.g., manuscripts, data, code). dPIDs are also built to be versionable, meaning that indexed content can change over time, without overwriting the original version. Changes are logged, timestamped, and digitally signed by the PID owner, providing traceable and verifiable provenance for any modifications performed to a PID, while ensuring that previous versions of the content remain equally resolvable.

Versionability and provenance of dPIDs enable researchers to create a transparent track record of how they arrived at their final results, which might be aligned with best open science practice and help to address the replication crisis and the flood of fake research that poses substantial challenges for publishers. Instead of just seeing the submitted version of a manuscript, editors, referees, and readers can also see the entire history leading up to that manuscript, including time-stamped versions of analysis plans, data, code, lab notes, early drafts, etc.

Persistent resolution also enables scientists to retrieve open datasets directly via dPID into their programming and computing environment with a single line of code or, alternatively, to send a containerized compute job to the servers that host the data. This latter technology is called edge-computing and is especially valuable for sensitive datasets that cannot be publicly shared or for extremely large datasets: For example, downloading 1PB (e.g., climate modeling data) can cost over $100,000 in egress fees and take several months even under optimal conditions – a prohibitive burden even for very well-funded scientists.

While technically simple to implement, adopting and scaling a new public infrastructure such as dPIDs is difficult in a vacuum. Fortunately, the community has done extraordinary work with ORCID and RoR as identity layers for scientists and their organizations. Because we can build on existing identity solutions, adopting dPIDs does not need to start in a vacuum: we can both re-use existing infrastructure and benefit from its pre-existing network effects.

Additionally, trustworthy provenance combined with the open nature of the network might enable journals, libraries, or data stewards to add new information to enrich research objects over time. These dPID data enrichments can vary widely in their nature: from FAIR metadata (e.g., ontologies and controlled vocabularies), open peer-review reports, digitally verified badges for open data, reproducibility, and much more. This has several benefits, including creating better metrics and incentives for open science practices. Furthermore, since reading and writing on this content addressable network is without specific charges, equitable access is ensured, and substantial cost savings can be realized.

Compatibility of dPIDs and DOIs

It’s important to note that dPID is a new PID technology, not a new PID standard. The distinction is important because a proliferation of PID standards is not desirable. In fact, DOIs can be “upgraded” to become dPIDs by adding a DOI as a synonym to a dPID. DOIs might then simply resolve to a resource linked to a dPID filesystem. This backward compatibility might not only get rid of the need to update DOI records manually and make DOIs actually persistent, but it might also unlock the new capabilities described above. A single DOI can unfold into an entire file system with individual PIDs for machine-actionable digital objects and resolve deterministically to their mapped resource.

Beyond these properties, dPID technology can help to preserve the freedom and sovereignty of all stakeholders in the scientific ecosystem. Platform operators, repositories, publishers, and libraries maintain control over the content they share publicly. Importantly, dPID technology is entirely based on open-source software that anyone can run for free on their own hardware.

dPID has garnered much interest in the persistent identifier community. International Data Week 2023 saw the formation of a dPID Working Group with diverse participants from organizations around the globe. This group, hosted by the DeSci Foundation, aims to act as a driving force, community hub, and shared knowledge base and is open to anyone interested in participating.

Realizing the ideal of a fully machine-actionable scientific record is more critical than ever. While the importance of scientific data as a primary output of research is rising and data volume is increasing rapidly, interoperability needs to catch up. With the rise of AI and fake science, a trustworthy track record of a manuscript’s origin and context is invaluable. Given their properties, dPIDs and the deterministic resolution they provide are paths worth exploring.

The Tech Stack behind dPIDs

For those who might like to dive into the technical details, here is a brief overview of the core technologies that dPIDs are built upon. These protocols and software-based solutions have already been developed alongside their W3C formal specifications. They are free to use and open-source, enabling anyone to participate in further improvements.

  • IPFS allows you to share and access data by content identifiers. Content hashes are used to identify and resolve each file. IPFS forms a peer-to-peer storage network of content-addressed information, allowing users to store, retrieve, and locate data based on a digital fingerprint of the actual content. This fingerprint is generated by a cryptographic hash function (e.g. SHA-256), which converts any content into a fixed-length string. Changing anything in the content (i.e. a single word, pixel, comma) will yield a different hash. SHA-256 allows generating 1077 different hashes, which is billions of times more than the number of atoms on Earth. Thus, the probability of two different inputs yielding the same hash is near zero. Because all data is guaranteed a unique fingerprint, content drift cannot happen because that might be accessible under a different fingerprint. Furthermore, it’s easy to check if the content you received from the IPFS network matches its hash, eliminating the risk of downloading content from unknown network peers. And thanks to IPLD, IPFS works not only with files but also with arbitrary data structures. This ensures the persistence of relations between artifacts such as manuscripts, data, code, or other PIDs for organizations and people. It also creates the possibility of mitigating the scientific record’s fragmentation and getting much better metadata and analytics.
  • Decentralized Identifiers. Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) enable verifiable, decentralized digital identity. A DID can refer to any target (e.g., a person, organization, thing, data model, abstract entity, etc.) as determined by the controller of the DID. The design enables the controller of a DID to prove control over it without requiring permission from any other party, allowing trustable interactions.
  • Blockchain technology creates persistent recording. A blockchain is a distributed ledger with a growing list of records (blocks) securely linked via cryptographic hashes. Smart contracts associated with blockchains autonomously record the root hash of an IPLD folder structure on this cryptographic ledger, along with a time stamp and the ID of the person or entity who updated the record, creating highly persistent, open, and trustworthy metadata.

For those interested in the dPID Working Group mentioned above, newcomers are always welcome, and those interested can reach out to info@descifoundation.org.

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