White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Kelvin Droegemeier and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios led the G7 Science and Technology (S&T) Ministerial Meeting on COVID-19 today.
Following the meeting, G7 Science and Technology Ministers issued a declaration of their intent to collaborate on COVID-19 response and recovery, including:
- Launching the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) to enhance cooperation advancing AI that reflects shared democratic values and addresses shared global challenges, with an initial focus that includes responding to and recovering from COVID-19.
- Strengthening the use of high-performance computing for COVID-19 response and enhance cooperation on ongoing initiatives, such as the COVID-19 High Performance Computing (HPC) Consortium, the Partnership for Advance Computing in Europe (PRACE), and the High Performance Computing Infrastructure in Japan.
- Making government-sponsored COVID-19 epidemiological and related research results, data, and information accessible to the public in machine-readable formats, to the greatest extent possible.
- Exchanging best practices to advance broadband connectivity; minimize workforce disruptions, support distance learning and working; enable access to smart health systems, virtual care, and telehealth services; promote job upskilling and reskilling programs to prepare the workforce of the future; and support global social and economic recovery, in an inclusive manner while promoting data protection, privacy, and security.
- And enhancing cooperation on shared COVID-19 research priority areas such as basic research, public health, and clinical studies.
You can read the full statement from the G7 Science and Technology Ministers on the U.S. State Department website, here.