Aloizio Mercadante

science and technology minister of Brazil, called the World Science Forum “one of the most important scientific events in the world”. He announced the theme of the next forum to be ‘Science for Global Development’ and promised regional preparatory meetings ahead of the forum.

Vilasrao Deshmuk (Indian science and technology minister) invited the forum to India in 2017.

Yuan Tseh Lee, president of the ICSU (International Council for Science), said that “forum has been very successful in many ways”. Despite numerous presentations, discussions and different views, “we did come up with some common agreements and common views”.

Alice Abreu (professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) said this forum was better than the previous one, but still lacked time for discussions. This was also a general feeling among the other participants. 

Zaid Naffa (honorary consul from Jordan) said that line-ups of 5-6 speakers in two hour blocks were not a friendly enough format for the politicians and diplomats, who need shorter presentations and more opportunity to ask questions.

Mićo Tatalović, SciDev.Net