First Meeting of the G20-Chief Science Advisers Roundtable Held at Ramnagar, Uttarakhand | 29 MAR 2023

"...Under the theme Synergizing Global Efforts to Expand the Access to Scholarly Scientific Knowledge, we discussed that the access should be free, immediate, and universal, high subscription and Article Processing Charges levied by journals must be reduced, the establishment of Interoperable inter-linking of national repositories with international repositories/ archives, and having Open Access mandate to make knowledge outputs of public-funded scientific research widely available. The third theme was on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Science & Technology (S&T). The participating countries shared their work in advancing access to the under-represented, under-privileged, marginalized, minority as well as tribal/ native communities in the larger scientific enterprise. In the session, the Inclusion of Traditional Knowledge Systems (TKS) in formal system of knowledge through due scientific validation process, and Recognizing the potential of language diversity and addressing the bottlenecks in accessing scientific knowledge were also discussed.  It was agreed upon that the scientific advisers play a critical role in shaping policy choices by providing evidence-driven science advice and that the in the spirit of cooperation and dialogue, it is the responsibility of chief science advisers to collaborate and engage in international dialogue to address transboundary issues affecting the entire scientific enterprise so that the science and technology can benefit all. The deliberations and engagement on the topics discussed today will continue until August 2023, when the next meeting is scheduled, in which a Science Policy Communiqué will be released...."