Sweden: World Water Week Young Scientific Programme Committee (YSPC)

Oct 16, 2023 | Stockholm International Water Institute
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SIWI is seeking committed young professionals to provide support to World Water Week’s Scientific Programme Committee. Joining the Young Scientific Programme Committee (YSPC) is an opportunity for young professionals to expand their network and gain valuable experience. As part of the YSPC, young professionals will be a vital part of the seminar team and coordinate the SIWI Seminar Series for World Water Week 2024.

Build network and experience the world’s water conference

The YSPC began in 2012 as a complementary initiative to support World Water Week’s Scientific Programme Committee (SPC). Selected each year, the group is composed of young professionals aged 35 and under.

The YSPC collaborates with experienced water professionals to develop the SIWI Seminar Series for World Water Week. They bring an important perspective to the SPC’s work: the young professionals’ perspective.

Serving on the YSPC is a valuable opportunity for professionals at the beginning of their careers to gain increased visibility within the water community while getting to work on the thematic heart of the world’s water conference.

About World Water Week 2024

In a complex and fast-moving world, SIWI offers World Water Week as a setting for people to meet, discuss and move ahead; an inclusive place of hope and positive thinking; and a safe space where participants can be heard and contribute to the discussions.

Each World Water Week comprises a wide variety of sessions ranging from specialist scientific discussions to broad public policy debates. To create a structured and collective sense of purpose for all those sessions, SIWI concentrates each Week on one particular theme, selected both to set and to reflect the global agenda. The Week is designed to raise awareness of the theme, to advance the debate, to reach new consensus, and to learn from different sectors.

The theme of World Water Week 2024 is “Bridging Borders: Water for a peaceful and sustainable future”. SIWI believes that water is a catalyst for people to achieve peace, cooperation and security and hence a sustainable future. The concept of peace and security has a very wide scope: not only on a narrow military/defence understanding of the word security, but more broadly to include human security, food and nutrition security, ecosystem security as well as water security. The borders to which the title refers can be borders between neighbours, communities, peoples and regions as well as between nations; the Week will encourage examples and case studies from different levels, with sessions structured on international, regional and local scales.

2024 Seminar Series titles

The YSPC will work with the SPC in developing the SIWI Seminar Series around the thematic scope: “Bridging Borders: Water for a peaceful and sustainable future”.

List of World Water Week 2024 Seminar Series titles: 

  • The art of water diplomacy
  • The water and human security consequences of modern armed conflict and warfare
  • Management of shared water resources for peace and cooperation
  • Water security within just planetary boundaries
  • Technical solutions for secure water supplies to help build stability and peace
  • Can water for food help peaceful outcomes?
  • Water for ecosystem security
  • Institutions for water, peace and cooperation
  • Monitoring and data to support peace and security

Learn more about the 2024 Seminar Series

How to apply

Young professionals from all sectors all encouraged to apply to one of the nine seminars or to work with the Chair. Please note that YSPC applicants must agree to provide minimum inputs in the order of 20 days from 15 January to 30 September 2024 (excluding a two-day mandatory SPC/co-convenor digital workshop in March/April and World Water Week in August).  All applicants must be able to allocate this time to the committee. 

To apply, please fill out the application and include the following documents:

  • CV (including date of birth), 
  • Motivation letter (maximum 1 page) indicating seminar(s) of interest,  
  • Letter of recommendation 

Please email Viktoria Frühling at viktoria.fruhling@siwi.org with any additional questions about the application process,. 

Submissions for applications are open from 2 October – 16 November 2023. Applications must be submitted before the deadline. Incomplete applications will not be considered. The YSPC members are appointed in January by SIWI and the SPC after all the applications have been reviewed.

When appointing the YSPC members, SIWI emphasizes the importance that they shall reflect, if possible, the diversity and balance of World Water Week in terms of:   

  • Geography: Europe, N. America, Latin America, Africa, Asia.
  • Backgrounds: academic/practitioner, public/private, local/global, business/civil society.
  • Disciplines: natural sciences, sociology, political science, economics, law etc. 
  • Gender.

YSPC tasks and commitments

Committee members serve in their personal capacity. They are appointed for one World Water Week period. The YSPC will be working with the SPC in developing the SIWI Seminar Series, this includes:  

  • Overall coordination and communication with SPC/SIWI around the seminars (January to September)
  • Screening and categorizing the abstracts submitted to the seminar (January to March)
  • Developing the seminar programme (theme, structure, format, selecting presenters) (April to August)
  • Uploading all the necessary seminar information in the online programme (March to September)
  • Act as the contact point for presenters on content-related issues (April to August)
  • Collecting biographies and photos from presenters (April to August)
  • Coordinating presentation content with speakers (April to August)
  • Promulgate, together with the SPC, the outputs of the seminar through appropriate reports, opinion pieces, blogs etc. (August to September)  

For the Young SPC Member working alongside the Chair, the overall Terms of Reference, time needed, conditions of service etc are much the same as for the other Young SPC members, and the specific duties are:

  • On behalf of the Chair, monitoring the progress of the Seminar Teams.
  • Being available to support Seminar Teams who are lagging.
  • Supporting and sharing the Chair’s work in general.
  • Working alongside the SPC Secretary to coordinate the planning of seminars and the work carried out by the other YSPCs.
  • During World Water Week: Working with the Chair to attend as many Seminar sessions as possible.

The working language of the committee is English. 

For more information on the tasks and commitments of the YSPC, the terms of reference can be found here: Terms of Reference.

Travel and accommodation

SIWI will cover international travel and accommodation in Stockholm to attend World Water Week.

International travel will be booked directly with SIWI’s travel agency and cannot be booked by the individuals themselves unless it is necessary due to specific reasons. Accommodation will also be booked directly through SIWI. The hotel and the arrival and departure days are also decided by SIWI.

Lunches will be provided as part of World Water Week. Dinner will be provided only if there is a social event planned during that period. Other costs (i.e. visa, subsistence) should be covered by the individual or their organizations.