Research Forum 2020

The annual Research Forum is the flagship research-outreach event of EU Business School. Held annually in Geneva in the month of October, the Research Forum seeks to establish EU Business School as a platform for high level discussions and agenda-setting with a diverse range of actors from academia, business and industry, international and governmental organizations, NGOs, and States. The foci of the Forum are to discuss global issues, generate new ideas, and explore the potential for holistic solutions by connecting different players. The Forum helps us to discover new directions for research and collaboration and showcase our existing commitments and progress. The theme for the Forum is renewed every year which allows us to stay dynamic and cutting-edge.

KEY OUTCOMES

SPEAKERS

AGENDA

OUTCOMES

EU Business School, through ON Research – its research platform, is inviting experts, leaders, and shapers from academia, businesses, governments, international organizations, think tanks, and NGOs, to once again discuss and deliberate on some of the most pressing issues of today under the auspices of its annual Research Forum. Now in its second year, the Forum intends to generate new ideas for research and partnerships, while providing thought leadership and direction in shaping our common and shared future. Building on the lessons learned and successes of last year, where we discussed the modalities of public-private collaborations in humanizing development – we realized that one of the key human components of collaboration at all levels was trust. Hence, this year we will focus on the essentials of trust in bridging the gap between ideas and solutions.

Trust: Bridging the Gap

Today, we arguably live in the most free, prosperous, progressive, inclusive, and innovative epoch in human history. Human progress, aided by technolgy, has meant that erstwhile physical and mental barriers are slowly being eroded. When you think about it, we do in fact live in a borderless world. While we keep pushing our boundaries with infinite innovative potential, our progress has also come at a large cost – a cost so gargantuan, that we need to rethink our narrative on progress and development. Despite our advancement, our world today is equally vulnerable to financial booms and busts, climate change, protracted conflicts, resource depletion, global pandemics, and natural disasters. 

In today’s borderless, interdependent and interconnected world that we live in, no single agency or entity, state or private, will have the wherewithal to tackle the complex challenges we face. In fact, if we aspire to set the narrative of a “shared and common future,” the burden of facing the challenges has to be shared universally by everyone. This  principle is one of the cornerstones of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While the Sustanable Development Goals calls for universality of action, it is contingent upon whether we can forge strong partnerships; devise innovative solutions; and mobilize the adequate resources to sustain them. 

Sustainable solutions to our many challenges can only emerge when everyone acts responsibly together. And for this, trust is the key asset in building effective and sustained partnerships. It is by far the cheapest and most effective asset that can be deployed to solve a problem. Thus, trust in all our interactions should be seen as a core-foundational value. However, in the current global scenario – trust in governments, institutions and businesses are on a decline in most parts of the world. The lack of common political will; hubristic domestic policies; the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation; and the lack of accountability of our institutions and leaders further impedes our goals  of a sustainable future.  What we need is global leadership and good governance to bridge the gap, and for that trust will be vital.