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12th Regional Leaders Summit, Western Cape3-5 November, 2025
The 12th Regional Leaders Summit (RLS) took place from 3-5 November, 2025, in Cape Town under the theme “Growth through Economic Resilience“. At the invitation of the Western Cape government, delegations from all seven RLS regions attended the summit, engaging in bi- and multilateral exchanges. RLS-Sciences contributed to the program on November 5. RLS-Sciences President, Prof. Louis Gosselin, first gave a 20-minute speech to the heads of delegation on the summit’s theme. He highlighted the achievements and developments in the RLS-Sciences network since the previous RLS. These include new joint projects out of and supported by the five research groups, such as subsequent steps in the Digital Health group and the Energy Network’s Policy Report on Innovation Zones. The speech showcased how scientific collaboration among the partner regions drives innovation, resilience, and sustainable development and outlined how RLS-Sciences can support the political level by adapting to their priorities. The presentation was followed by remarks of the heads of delegation who reiterated the relevance of the RLS-Sciences thematic focus areas as well as the importance of the cross-topic fields of resilience, high technologies, sustainability, and artificial intelligence. They acknowledged the multilateral aspect of RLS-Sciences as well as the aim of involving early-career researchers. As major milestone, the RLS-Sciences Herrsching Memorandum of Understanding was then signed by five signatories immediately after the signing of the final joint declaration. With the option to further extent, the MoU originates from the scientific exchange during the RLS-Sciences Conference 2022 in Herrsching (Bavaria). It acts as a declaration of interest for cooperation under the RLS-Sciences framework. Following the signing, a work plan will be established among the signatories. During the closing session, Western Cape handed over the hosting of RLS to São Paulo for 2027. Please find the Western Cape governmental statement here.
More information on RLS-Sciences contribution to the summit can be found in our latest newsletter. |
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The Regional Leaders Summit (RLS) is a forum comprising seven regional governments: Bavaria (Germany), Georgia (USA), Québec (Canada), São Paulo (Brazil), Shandong (China), Upper Austria (Austria), and Western Cape (South Africa). Within the framework of RLS, RLS-Sciences seeks to leverage the unique composition and strengths of the RLS network to support scientific research within and between the RLS regions. The goal is to generate and support academic, scientific, and technological exchanges, as well as the initiation of multilateral research projects. RLS-Sciences is comprised of its scientific network, the existing bilateral relationships between the RLS members, and its five research projects: RLS-Energy Network (the RLS-Sciences pilot project), the RLS-Expert Dialogue on Digitalization, the RLS-Global Aerospace Campus, RLS-Small Satellites , and RLS-Digital Health.
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