At every turn, we see cutting edge ideas and technology, born perhaps in a college laboratory or a library, through the spark of a professor, the curiosity of a student, the dynamism of a classroom. The United Nations understands the enormous impact of scholarship, innovation and ideas. We are trying to harness that great power to build a better world. A world where human ingenuity will make our homes, communities and consumption patterns socially and environmentally sustainable. A world where research receives the finding and support it needs to defeat disease, deprivation and despair. A world where the “unlearning” of intolerance will bridge barriers that still divide nations and peoples.
Promoting and advancing these goals is the essence of the United Nations Academic Impact We have been laying the groundwork for this initiative for some time now, with great support from the academic community. It will help serve as a clearing house to better match academic innovation with particular areas of work of the United Nations — neglected areas of research, countries in need of specific help, research that will help deliver concrete change on the ground, and the best ideas to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. -We can do together in the future. The UN and the academic community already enjoy a strong partnership. Academic Impact will deepen it further for the twenty-first century. We know about corporate social responsibility in the business world. The Academic Impact aims to generate a global movement of minds to promote a new culture of “intellectual social responsibility. ” It is animated by a commitment to certain bedrock principles. Among them: freedom of inquiry, opinion and speech, educational opportunity for all, global citizenship, sustainability and dialogue. The United Nations stands ready to be an active partner with you in ensuring that your knowledge, skills and scholarship advance our universal goals of peace, development and human rights. Thank you for coming together in support of these noble goals.
无我们的周围时刻发生着变化，产生着新发明。无论在校园实验室里，还是在大学图书馆中，教授们的思想火花，学生们的好奇善问，课堂的活力互动常常孕育出最前沿的理念与技术。联合国十分清楚知识、创新和理念的巨大作用。我们正努力利用这些巨大的能量来建造一个更美好的世界。在这个世界里，人类的聪明才智将发挥作用，我们将建造新型的家园、社区，使用社会可持续发展和环境可持续发展的消费模式。在这里，人们将投入更多的资金，加对研究的支持，努力消除贫困，减少饥饿，增强信心。在这里，人们将更加宽容，分割不同国家与民族之间的壁垒将减少。
本届学术影响力国际研讨会的核心便是推动这些目标的实现。为了促成这个项目的展开，在学术界的支持下，我们已经作了一些时日的准备工作，奠定了基础。将学术创新与联合国工作的特定领域(却被研究忽视的领域)，与需要特殊援助的相关国家，与能产生具体变化的研究，与实现2015年千年发展目标的最好方式相结合，起到了“结算中心”的作用。我们在未来可以携手合作，共同面对。联合国与学术界已经建立了强有力的伙伴关系。“学术影响力”将在21世纪进一步加深这一关系。我们了解商界企业的社会责任是什么。“学术影响力”旨在通过创立全球论坛，集合最有智慧的思想，支持“知识社会责任”的新文化建设。对一些基本原则的坚持，则使其更具活力。这些原则包括：提出询问的自由，发表言论与观点的自由，所有人获得教育的权利，全球公民身份的获得，可持续发展和发展对话。联合国愿意积极与各位合作，确保你们的知识、技能、学识能够得到应用，推动实现维护和平、促进发展和障人权的共同目标。