On May 21, the SHIFT Research Group is organizing a seminar on the theme Planetary Stewardship in View of Earth-Space Sustainability. Xiao-Shan Yap (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University) will be the guest speaker. Room 3, ICS-ULisboa and online.

Dr. Xiao-Shan Yap is an Assistant Professor of Innovation and Global Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Yap is the Principal Investigator of a five-year research project (2024 - 2029) on ‘Planetary stewardship in view of Earth-Space sustainability’ (PlanetStewards), supported by the European Research Council (ERC) through a Starting Grant. She pioneered the concept of ‘Earth-Space sustainability’, which calls for addressing challenges on Earth and in space in an integrative way as anthropogenic activities expand to outer space. Situated at the intersection of innovations, global governance, and development studies, the PlanetStewards project aims to analyze the various (self-)governance approaches currently unfolding in the domain of space activities, assess their various positive and negative environmental and social implications, and propose principles and criteria for Earth-Space sustainability. Additionally, Yap is also the elected Co/Vice-Chair of the EU COST Action ‘Futures-oriented Governance of Outer Space: Towards Peace, Equity, and Environmental Integrity’ (FOGOS), which currently spans more than 90 institutes across 30 countries. She is also Co-Lead of the Working Group on Earth-Space Governance at the Earth System Governance Project, Chair of the ‘2024 Earth-Space Symposium’, Senior Policy Advisor to the EPFL Space Center (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne), and (Co)Chair of Commons in Space conference at the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) from 2022 - 2023. Among others, Yap is the lead author of Chapter 8 in the recently published 2024 OECD Report on ‘The Economics of Space Sustainability: Delivering Economic Evidence to Guide Government Action’. She currently co-edits a Special Issue on ‘Earth-Space Governance: Meanings, Approaches, Implications’ in the journal Earth System Governance.