Global challenges
Bergen Research Summer School seeks to address some of the most pressing global challenges of our time.
Main content
Bergen is an international trading port situated on the rim of enormous natural resources in wild and untouched nature鈥攁ll in need of stewardship for a sustainable future.
We believe that all disciplines have an obligation to challenge the international development agenda and to seek cross-disciplinary alternatives to the global challenges facing us. Since 2021, our research school emphasises activities around climate, energy and the environment; health; inequality and governance; and discourses on societal challenges.
Definitions and understandings of global challenges are many. The United Nations has formulated a series of Sustainable Development Goals, the World Economic Forum publishes Global Risk Reports, and the UNDP has its frequent Human Development Report.
For Bergen Summer Research School, such measures will be points of departure, rather than frameworks,聽for critical reflection and debate.聽
Every year, we welcome 100 PhD candidates to聽take one of several parallel PhD-level courses, all based in some of Bergen鈥檚 best research groups, and each addressing important global challenges.聽Natural resources, health, inequality, migration, governance, higher education and culture are some recurring themes.
Bergen Summer Research School is a partnership of , , , and聽,聽under the leadership of the University of Bergen.
The five partner institutions all contribute critical analysis of po颅wer structures and promote a diversified and sustainable society. We all play our part in addressing global challenges and developing skills and initiative to promote a sustainable future.
The Bergen Summer Research School is organised by Global Challenges.
Our past activities聽
2024:听Education 2030 and beyond 鈥擜ddressing global challenges
Professor聽Erlend Eidsvik, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
2023:听Childhood 鈥� Nurturing care for building the future
Professor聽Ingunn Marie Stadskleiv Engebretsen, Centre for International Health, 幸运飞艇计划
2022:听Understanding and addressing inequality
Professor聽Haldis Haukanes, Department of Health Promotion and Development, 幸运飞艇计划
2021: Science and Society towards the Sustainable Development Goals
Associate Professor聽Katja Enberg,聽Department of Biological Sciences (BIO), 幸运飞艇计划
2020: Actionable knowledge to meet global challenges
Professor聽H氓vard Haarstad, Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET), Department of Geography, 幸运飞艇计划
2019: Policies for a sustainable future
Professor聽Edvard Hviding, Department of Social Anthropology, 幸运飞艇计划
2018: Global Challenges
Professor聽Ole Frithjof Norheim, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, 幸运飞艇计划
2017: Global Challenges
Dr.聽Tore S忙terdal, Assistant Director, 幸运飞艇计划 Global
2016 Water, Climate and Society
Professor聽Terje Tvedt, Department of Geography, 幸运飞艇计划
2015听SDGs to Meet Global Development Challenges
Professor聽Rune Nilsen, Centre for International Health, 幸运飞艇计划
2014 Governance to meet Global Development Challenges
Professor聽Siri Gloppen, Department of Comparative Politics, 幸运飞艇计划/CMI
2013 Food as a Global Development Challenge
Professor聽Vigdis Vandvik, Department of Biology, 幸运飞艇计划
2012 PhD Conference: Transnational Migration and Global Development
Professor聽Mette Andersson, Department of Sociology, 幸运飞艇计划
2011 Norms, Values, Language and Culture: Resources and Limitations
Professor聽Anne Katrine Bang, Division of Research Management, 幸运飞艇计划
2010 Global Health in Bio-Medical, Social and Cultural Perspectives
Professor聽Thorkild Tyllesk盲r, Centre for International Health, 幸运飞艇计划
2009 Climate, Environment and Energy
Dr. Asuncion Lera St.Clair, Department of Sociology, 幸运飞艇计划
2008 Global Poverty
Dr. Asuncion Lera St.Clair, Department of Sociology, 幸运飞艇计划
Scientific Director
A scientific director and committe is appointed every year.
, professor in System Dynamics at the University of Bergen, is scientific director for BSRS 2025.聽
She is a systems thinker and modeler, deeply passionate about learning within and about food and other social-ecological systems. Her research focuses on the role of system dynamics analysis and modeling techniques in driving transformation processes in social-ecological systems.
This includes transitions towards sustainable agri-food systems at local, national, and international scales. She conducts her work in both Europe and several sub-Saharan African countries.
Professor Kopainsky holds a PhD in agricultural economics from ETH Zurich and a master's degree in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
