Innovation for Sustainable Development - South Africa and Germany in Dialogue

We invite to send full papers for publication in the Special Edition of the African Journal for Science, Technology, Innovation and Development. The papers should be no longer than 4000 – 7000 words with an abstract of 150 words; references should be sent in an Endnote file. Please send your work no later than the 15^th of February, 2010 to mammo@ihis.aau.dk and britta.rennkamp@die-gdi.de. This open call for papers derives from the South African – German Dialogue for Sustainability Science (D4S).

Sustainable development is a global challenge. This was already recognized at the Earth Summits in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and in Johannesburg in 2002. In consequence, efforts have been made to promote more sustainable development patterns on the national and on the sub-national level. National, regional and local development strategies are crucial, but in an increasingly interdependent world they cannot function independently one from the other.

Based on this understanding, the South African and German governments, namely the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) have engaged in a research policy dialogue to address the question of how science, technology and innovation can contribute to sustainable development. In two conferences in June 2008 and October 2009, government officials and scientists discussed how innovation and sustainability can be brought together in a systematic way, both conceptually and in the practice of policy making as well as in project and programme implementation.

This special edition of the recently launched African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (AJSTID) has the objective to present some of the ideas and concepts that frame the policy dialogue and to present crucial findings of innovation research related to sustainable development.

The AJSTID is an interdisciplinary and refereed international journal on science, technology, innovation and development in Africa and other low-income countries. It has been established to highlight the crucial role of science, technology and innovation for development and to promote research on the contribution of knowledge creation and diffusion to development in Africa.

We now call for full research papers that address the following issues:

1. The role of international cooperation in science, technology and innovation for sustainable development: How can development cooperation and cooperation in science, technology and innovation link effectively? What lessons can be learned from successful efforts, and which are the main barriers in this process? How do bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation interlink? Which are the specific advantages, disadvantages and features of the different cooperation levels?

2. Innovation System Approaches to Sustainable Development:

How do innovation systems need to be organized to contribute effectively to sustainable development?

Which economic and institutional conditions favour and constrain environmental innovation?

Which forms of governance and cooperation mechanisms are useful to promote research for sustainability? How can public policies promote sustainability oriented innovation systems?

3. Co-evolution of environmental sustainability and socio-economic development:

How can socio-economic development be decoupled from environmental degradation? How can research contribute to this co-evolution? Which mechanisms assure an effective transfer of research outcomes into economic and social practice?

Please find further information on the website http://www.ajstid.com and do not hesitate to contact us in case you have any questions.

We are looking forward to your collaboration,

Britta Rennkamp and Mammo Muchie (Editors)