The GRNSD Scientific Meta-Network

The GRNSD Scientific Meta-Network (SMN) is an international, interdisciplinary, and interactive meeting point for professionals from any field related to sustainable development. It helps them to determine research goals, find the necessary human expertise and resources, and obtain access to the required communication and information processing infrastructure.

Scientific research on the myriad of sustainable development topics needs to become much more effective and efficient. To realize these objectives, frameworks for structured interaction within the scientific community, and between science and external information distributors and receivers can be of great assistance. The SMN attempts to be such a framework.

The forum must strive for a high scientific standard. This promotes the objectivity and systematic approach needed to make the recommendations of the SMN credible to governments, business, and non-gouvernmental organizations.

SMN Groups

The core of the SMN consists of Disciplinary and Theme Groups. Together they form a human knowledge framework, which can be accessed by Project Groups. An overview of the currently existing Disciplinary and Theme Groups can be found in the GRNSD Scientific Meta-Network Group Directory.

Disciplinary Groups

Traditionally, science has been strongly organized by discipline. Each scientific discipline has its own modes of communication, such as journals, conferences and workshops. However, a discipline does not usually work from the sustainability perspective and communication is often slow and a one-way process, especially in many of the developing countries.

For each of the scientific disciplines which does or should conduct research relevant to sustainable development, a representative Disciplinary Group is formed within GRNSD. This group has an overview of what is happening within the discipline and studies the contributions of this particular branch of science toward the achievement of sustainable development.

Theme Groups

Organizing researchers in Disciplinary Groups is not sufficient to meet the goals of GRNSD. Sustainable development consists of many different problem areas. Much research is still being conducted from a monodisciplinary or ad-hoc multidisciplinary perspective, even though many problem themes can be far better studied by involving researchers from different scientific disciplines on a long term basis.

The interdisciplinary Theme Groups consist of experts from various scientific disciplines who are knowledgeable about a specific sustainable development problem area, and representatives from organizations that encounter the problems in their activities. By giving their members the opportunity to experience different ways of thinking and learn alternative problem-solving techniques, the Theme Groups build a deep interdisciplinary understanding.

Goals Common to the Disciplinary and Theme Groups:

• To work out concrete criteria that define sustainable development within the domain of the group.
• To make an overview of the most urgent research problems with respect to those criteria.
• To determine and prioritize the research goals that guide the participants in solving these problems.
• To establish links with the key individuals, organizations, and networks working on and funding the realization of these research goals.
• To evaluate the relevance to these goals of existing research projects within the domain of the Group.
• To formulate new research projects and establish contacts between interested members.
• To act as a clearinghouse of human expertise for:
  - Peer researchers
  - Researchers from different fields
  - Representatives from external information receiving and distributing organizations
  - GRNSD projects participants

Project Groups

Whereas the Disciplinary and Theme Groups concentrate on the long term discussion and coordination of research activities, the Project Groups carry out special research projects that are often urgent or only on a short term basis. International and interdisciplinary projects are often hindered by lack of (1) human expertise and (2) organizational and technical infrastructure for these people to interact smoothly and systematically. GRNSD assists the Project Groups in overcoming these hurdles. First, by offering a rich diversity of human expertise, easily accessible through the Disciplinary and Theme Groups. Second, the network allows for the fast creation and dissemination of project information by offering the groups standardized communication and information processing capacity. In these ways, the network reduces the time and expense of research projects.

SMN Group Links

The Disciplinary and Theme Groups ease the access to professional expertise in different sustainable development research areas. Improving professional communication in each field is important in itself. However, the real strength of GRNSD is that its groups do not to operate in isolation, but as interdependent parts of a distributed research management system. Although each group is autonomous to a large extent, it exchanges relevant information with other SMN Groups. This means a greater bottom-up interdisciplinary coordination of the sustainable development research process.

GRNSD Groups do not communicate only with other groups in the network, but also interact with outside individuals, organizations, and networks. As a result of these structured internal and external professional interactions, research efforts can be focused more quickly on pressing societal problems, and in a more relevant and efficient way.

A Dynamic Network

The SMN is not a rigid network, but as all parts of GRNSD, will continue to evolve. It has strong links with the Development Team, which studies the research process, monitors the way the SMN functions, and modifies the provided services and infrastructure when required.

To ensure that the members of the SMN can influence the evolution of their network, they are invited to join the GRNSD Member Forum. In this Development Team group, the members can publicly comment on the network development, and propose additions and modifications. This helps to safeguard the neutrality of GRNSD and ensure that the services it provides are in line with the needs of the members.

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