Since January, we’ve been offering the opportunity for everyone to submit ideas for topics KIN should focus on. Mid-February it turned out that 338 ideas had been submitted! But how do you go from 338 ideas to a manageable amount of topics that can have as much impact as possible and on which we can start the first KIN programs? You invite the parties involved and work in groups.
That is what happened at the end of March during the two prioritization sessions that the KIN organized under the guidance of Bureau VanWaarde. The idea is to come from all submitted ideas to a handful of topics on which we can start the first KIN programs. The other ideas will be incorporated (whether or not in merged form) into the larger KIN program and will be used in later KIN projects.
On both Monday 27 March and Thursday 30 March, scientists, policy staff, and employees of social initiatives split into small groups. Each group discussed a different theme. Based on short summaries, the first step was to assess whether the proposal can actually contribute to accelerating a necessary system transition. This resulted in the first selection, from which all attendees had to choose five topics. That resulted in a top ten. New groups then discussed one of these ten topics and wrote a short pitch about the degree of urgency of the topic, the possible impact and which social problem could be tackled with it.
The results
The approach on the two days was very similar, but during the second session, we made small improvements in the process. It was a learning process, as is the entire way of working for KIN. Read more about the results of the two prioritization sessions. It is now up to the KIN Steering Committee and the pre-Programme Council to decide which of the chosen topics KIN will continue with. From both top 10 lists, they choose the topics that are most relevant and best match the approach of KIN, on which we will organize the first Crutzen workshops.
Accelerating transitions
The atmosphere was good on both days. It was palpable that there were people here who are looking for ways to make a positive contribution to the climate issue. People who feel the need and believe in the approach of the KIN: accelerating transitions together.