Thank you for all the contributions in 2019 and best wishes for 2020

Wishing all researchers, Review Panel members and collaborators in the r4d programme network a good ending of 2019 and a brilliant start into 2020.

The r4d programme management wishes to express its enormous appreciation and gratefulness for the innumerable contributions of researchers, Review Panel members and collaborators in the r4d programme network in yet another busy and productive year.

There are many highlights to be reported from 2019 and to provide the following selection is a try that is utterly incomplete:

  • In the first Call for Transformation Accelerating Grants six initiatives emerging from results of r4d project will start in 2020. The Call for TAGs is an emergent response to our transdisciplinary community and was possible thanks to reserve funds made available by the r4d Steering Committee. A second Call for TAGs will be launched in 2020.
  • From Benin, we just received the news that one of the Master students, Noël Obognon, who conducted research in the r4d project "Insects as Feed", is among the twenty winners of the RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition External Link Icon. Congratulations!
  • Many of our researchers have already contributed to the new knowledge for development platform, www.k4d.ch External Link Icon, which we launched in October 2019. With photo galleries, policy briefs, video-clips and articles the platform allows an interested public and informed professionals to take on messages and results emerging from r4d projects and programme processes.
  • With the research documentary "Inequality and Conflict - Beyond us and them" , emerging from a participatory filmmaking synthesis process among three r4d Social Conflicts project we've learned what it means to combine science with film. During the production, the film was a boundary object that helped overcoming disciplinary divides and linking people and places across the globe. As a final product, it remains a boundary object that can be carried on into other places for creating dialogues and solutions building on its nuanced portraits and messages. The film will be available online in 2020. Screenings are organised upon request.
  • In the Digital Storytellers programme synthesis project External Link Iconmany r4d researchers stood behind the film camera and collected footage in their project contexts. With the support of Paitití Lab short video-clips are currently being produced. Watch out for their sequential release from January 2020 onwards on www.k4d.ch. External Link Icon

For more information on the highlights please go to the news External Link Iconsection or subscribe to the r4d Newsletter External Link Icon(link in footer).

Finally, all this would not be possible without the open minds and motivation of the researchers in the r4d programme. We also appreciate the continuous guidance by the six Review Panels and the r4d Steering Committee.

We are grateful for what was achieved in 2019 and look very much forward to 2020.

We wish all our partners and collaborators a Happy New Year!

Pictures from top left to bottom right: 1 Hands of research partners from Indonesia, Nigeria and Switzerland, Geneva Peace Week 2019, Switzerland, November 2019 2 Pinboard at stakeholder workshop in A Luoi district, site visit of r4d project "Forest Transition in Vietnam", Vietnam, April 2019 3 Protagonist in Digital Storyteller video-clip "How can we manage woody weeds in arable lands?" – to be published in January 2020, Tanzania 2019 4 In memoriam of our Review Panel member Esther Mwangi (1965-2019) who passed away in October 2019 due to cancer, ICRD Switzerland 2017 5 Still life during site visit of r4d project "Linking Education and Labour Markets", Nepal, September 2019 6 Itinerary of r4d Food Systems Caravan touring through West Africa, September-November 2019 https://foodsystemscaravan.org/ External Link Icon © Pictures 1, 2: Claudia Zingerli © Picture 3: René Eschen © Picture 4: Manu Friedrich © Picture 5: Claudia Rutte © Picture 6: Sara Correia