BEIJING, Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- This is a news release from China Research Institute for Science Popularization: The 2024 World Conference on Science Literacy (WCSL) kicks off from December 5 to 6 in Beijing, China. With the theme of "Enhance Science Literacy, Empower Joint Development", the conference brings together representatives and guests from 23 countries and 10 international organizations. The 2024 WCSL is hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) with support from UNESCO, the International Science Council (ISC), the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), and the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS).

The 2024 WCSL features an opening ceremony, keynote speeches, thematic forums, and special thematic activities. They will jointly explore key topics with global interests, including enhancing science literacy to promote sustainable development, popularizing frontier sciences to support scientific and technological innovation, multi-stakeholder collaborations to enhance public science literacy, leveraging new technologies to empower science literacy construction, regional practices and visions for building science popularization capacity, and high-quality development of science popularization to support modernization, etc.

The 2024 WCSL features a special event called "SciComm Dialogue" inviting laureates of the UNESCO UNESCO Kalinga Prize for Science Popularization Karl Kruszelnicki from Australia and Li Xiangyi from China to discuss the significance of enhancing global public scientific literacy and the motivational mechanisms for current science popularization and communication, providing valuable references for domestic and international science popularization endeavors.

During the conference, participants will engage in in-depth exchanges of ideas, share perspectives, and discuss experiences. The goal is to strengthen mechanisms for international exchange and cooperation in science literacy, foster openness, trust, and collaboration, promote science education, communication, and popularization endeavors among countries, bridge the gap in science literacy, and promote global sustainable development, thus contributing to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and supporting the building of a shared future for mankind.

The World Conference on Science Literacy (WCSL) is an international conference initiated and hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) since 2018. The conference is committed to building a global, comprehensive, and high-level platform for exchange and cooperation in the field of public science literacy building. The conference has been held five times, focusing on themes such as science literacy and the community with a shared future, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the global response to public health crisis, the construction of a green future, and joining hands on the path towards modernization.

Since 2019, CAST has also been dedicated to the establishment of the World Organization for Science Literacy (WOSL). As of writing, the WOSL Preparatory Committee has a total of 45 member and observer organizations from 27 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and South America.