6th PIURN Conference

Themed ‘Harnessing technologies for the safe and sustainable development of the Pacific’, the 6th PIURN Conference was held at the University of Technology of Papua New Guinea (PNGUoT) in Lae, Morobe Province, and brought together researchers from across the Pacific.

In his Opening Address, the Vice Chancellor of PNGUoT, Prof Ora Renagi, emphasized that higher education meant a higher standard of living, and that ‘together it was possible’. One of the keynote speeches was given by Deputy Prime Minister and Member of Parliament for the Province of Morobe, John Rosso. The theme of the conference, he said, was about the convergence of modern technologies with traditional knowledge. The research conducted by the members of the Network generated the facts and figures required to inform sound policies, which in turn were the engine of development. He compared living in Washington, DC, with living in a PNG village, noting that the GDP may be the same, but that rent in a village was usually free, as was access to water. He also referred to Peru’s impressive agricultural exports, saying that PNG had fertile land but only a few exports (presumably as a matter of a lack of pesticides and third countries’ high import standards). The French Ambassador, Pierre Fournier, inter alia quoted the Victor Hugo, who said that ‘he who opens a school door closes a prison door’. The President and Vice Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific (USP), Prof Pal Ahluwalia, inter alia spoke to the need for the decolonisation of the Pacific region. He mentioned statistics showing that social science research from the Global South was often disregarded for the purposes of rankings, which were predominantly based on papers from the Global North. The Pacific Region, he said, needed to be part of the global development but would have to stand up for itself. He concluded by calling for actionable strategies and policies to create a brighter future for his region.

For more information on PIURN, please go to Home - PIURN.

For more information on the 6th PIURN Conference, including abstracts of the papers presented at the conference, please refer to 6th PIURN Conference 2025 - Sciencesconf.org.