Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto 22 May 2014 New investments top $12 million: 4 scale-up projects plus 61 seed grants announced as Canada prepares to host world summit on maternal, newborn and child health, May 28-30 Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, today announces investments of $12 million in projects worldwide, aimed squarely […]
Malaysian Industry Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Kuala Lumpur Malaysia hosts UN-backed symposium: ‘Beyond Gross Domestic Product — Transitioning into Sustainability’ Birth weight, hours slept, eyeglasses, city birds, washing machines, teenage schoolgirls and other quantifiable signals of well-being can help measure the wealth of a nation beyond Gross Domestic Product, experts say. Moving beyond […]
U.N. Environment Programme, Paris / Nairobi 7-Apr-2014 Renewables account for 44 percent of 2013’s newly-installed electricity generating capacity despite global investment dropping for second year Frankfurt / New York, 7 April 2014 – Renewable energy’s share of world electricity generation continued its steady climb last year despite a 14 per cent drop in investments to […]
Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program 31-Mar-2014 Response capacity in Arctic, already stretched, faces fast-growing challenges as North develops: Report Inadequate risk assessment, planning and training are among the gaps in many parts of Canada’s Arctic, compounding the challenges of brutal weather, vast distances, difficult transportation and spotty communications and exposing the region’s residents to the ever […]
Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge MA 25-Mar-2014 Harvard professor calls on developing world, development institutions to revisit, apply proven economic formula stressing innovation, entrepreneurialism Influential economic ideas first advanced in 1911 — stressing innovation and entrepreneurialism as the fundamental generators of growth and wealth — were deemed inappropriate for developing countries, stunting progress in many parts […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto 9-Mar-2014 Scale-up of LGTmedical’s Phone Oximeter™ capitalized with $2 million Canadian private-public investment; device could save lives of women and children in low-resource countries Private and public investors are injecting $2 million into a Canadian mobile health innovation that offers hope of preventing thousands of deaths and improving the health of […]
International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Geneva 20 January, 2014 Unique collaboration between oil/ gas industry, scientists, conservationists proves way to minimize seismic survey impacts on rare whales, other species A step-by-step guide to reducing impacts on whales and other marine species during seismic sea floor surveys has been developed by experts with IUCN’s […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto January 10, 2014 In Bhutan: Clinical tests of new app for diagnosing seizure disorders; $300 device could vastly increase epilepsy treatment — estimated 65 million cases worldwide; 80 percent in developing countries Grand Challenges Canada today announces 22 new projects to improve the quality of mental health care in developing countries. […]
United Nations University, Solving the Ewaste Problem, Bonn 15 December, 2013 Annual world volume of end-of-life electronics expected to jump one-third to 65.4 million tonnes by 2017; New report details US generation and destinations of shipments of used electronics leaving households; methodology offers world guide By 2017, all of the year’s end-of-life refrigerators, TVs, mobile […]
UN Intergov’l Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Bonn 8 December 2013 IPBES experts cite importance of ‘co-production’ of information with indigenous people With the planet losing species 100 to 1,000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, international experts assembling for high-level global biodiversity meetings say knowledge co-production with indigenous peoples has growing […]
Deep Carbon Observatory, Washington DC 8 December 2013 New formula for fast, abundant H2 production may help power fuel cells, helps explain expansive chemical-eating microbial communities of the deep Water + rock + aluminum oxide + extreme pressure, heat = quick, copious H2 Hydrogen: first life’s first food? DCO scientists marvel at genetic similarity of […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto 21 Nov 2013 Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, today extends seed grants of $100,000 each to 83 inventive new ideas for addressing health problems in resource-poor countries. The Grand Challenges Canada “Stars in Global Health” program seeks breakthrough and affordable innovations that could transform the way disease […]
UN Intergov’l Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, Bonn 5-Nov-2013 Most of the world’s nations — unanimously committed to protecting biodiversity — nevertheless cannot measure and assess their genetic and biological resources, nor the value of key ecosystem services nature provides to them, international experts from 72 countries warned this week. In addition to taxonomists, […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto 23 October 2013 4 projects nominated for grants up to $2 million; 10 projects awarded $270,000 Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, today extended a total of $10.1 million to 14 bold, creative projects aimed at improving the early brain development of kids in low-resource countries. Projects in […]
United Nations University, Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada 24-Sep-2013 UN-backed report, ‘Economics of Land Degradation,’ debuts at world desertification conference, Namibia Adopting proven sustainable land management practices could raise world crop supplies by an estimated 2.3 billion tonnes, worth $1.4 trillion, experts say in a study being released at a major global […]
Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology, Kuala Lumpur 23 September 2013 Venture capital fund to seed building of green energy products, businesses in SE Asia; Meanwhile, Malaysians, General Electric agree to create modern national ‘smart grid’ To accelerate the national and regional development and manufacture of green energy products and businesses, Malaysia has partnered with […]
United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada 5 Sept. 2013 UN-backed study says annual treated wastewater in North America roughly equals volume of Niagara Falls; less than 4 percent is reused Amid growing competition for freshwater from industry and cities, coupled with a rising world shortage of potash, nitrogen and phosphorus, […]
United Nations University – BIOLAC (Biotechnology for Latin America and the Caribbean) 2 Sept. 2013 Marking 25th year, UNU-BIOLAC also announces brokered breakthrough to diagnose widespread problem of syphilis with a quick, $1 test Demystifying the chemical processes that create a wine’s aroma, and the invaluable potential application of that understanding in winemaking, is the […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto Saving Lives at Birth 31 July 2013 Some 22 projects from nine countries: Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Italy, Senegal, Spain, Uganda, UK and the USA won grants today ranging in size from $250,000 to $2 million from the Saving Lives at Birth partnership, comprised of USAID, Grand Challenges Canada, DFID (UK), NORAD […]
United Nations University Institute for Water Environment and Health, Canada Global Environmental Facility IW:LEARN, Slovakia 25 July 2013 Sharing Nile’s vital flow through 11 nations, water in Arab region, spread of ‘world’s worst weed,’ changes in Atlantic fisheries, among topics in special collection of articles capturing decades of lessons in trans-boundary water management The science-based management […]
UN Environment Programme / REN21 12-Jun-2013 Installed capacity continues to grow as solar prices drop 30-40 percent New wind installations surge For only the second time since 2006, global investments in renewable energy in 2012 failed to top the year before, falling 12% mainly due to dramatically lower solar prices and weakened US and EU […]
Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, University of California Berkeley 10-Jun-2013 Biodiversity in watershed covering roughly 20% of Canada compared to Africa’s Serengeti; Alarm raised at melting of permafrost, ice that plays vital global climate role Canada’s Mackenzie River basin — among the world’s most important major ecosystems — is poorly studied, inadequately monitored, and […]