the echo network

All life on Earth interacts through the language of chemistry. Prof. Shannon Olsson is a chemical ecologist who listens to nature’s chemical conversations across India’s diverse ecosystems. A Fulbright Scholar, Ramanujan, and INK Fellow, Shannon’s research has been featured by CNN, Inverse, Cosmos, TEDx, Syntalk, Sci-Illustrate, Dublin Science Gallery, V&A London, Chemical and Engineering News, and the DST Science Express train. Shannon is currently Director of the echo network, an international public-private social innovation partnership steered by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. Inspired by nature’s communication, this network is creating a new generation of scientists without borders who think and act across sectors and disciplines. Echo unites citizens, government, industry, academia and NGOs to tackle problems in human and environmental ecosystems through interdisciplinary communication and scientific research.

Thousands of us across India are raising our voices for a better future for our human and environmental ecosystems - in classrooms, living rooms, cafes, courtrooms, and boardrooms. The echo network unites voices of tomorrow through collaborative scientific research. There is no precedence for such a network anywhere in the world. We are the architects of a new platform to change how science is embedded in our modern society. 

Our program provides a nurturing atmosphere, cross-sector space, and scientific leadership to develop systems-level solutions to current problems facing sustainability and global development in India and the world. 

India houses nearly 20% of the Earth’s biodiversity hotspots and 20% of its population. With its economic growth, India has enormous potential to improve its health, education, and natural resources. But it also stands at the precipice of infectious disease, antimicrobial resistance, sanitation and waste management, lack of education appropriate for the robotic age, precarious food security, and ecosystem collapse. Science and technology play an integral role in each of these needs through monitoring and preserving our natural resources, developing a better understanding of our planet, and creating new tools and technologies for our human and environmental ecosystems. India needs solutions for society backed by scientific research, enabled by technology, and steeped in innovations that are equitably shared. Solving these problems requires a confluence of strong technological expertise and communication with members of society.

While India has recently embarked on a number of national-level efforts to promote ecological and environmental research on the subcontinent, there remain a lacuna of trained scientists with the interdisciplinary skills and collaborative mindset required for such endeavors. We need to listen to each other, consider different viewpoints, and respond with solutions backed by logic and reasoning. This is what the echo network strives to do.

At the echo network our science listens with an open heart

We promise to build a close-knit and collaborative community to enable bright minds to tackle real-world problems in human and environmental ecosystems. Every organism on this planet tells a story. At the echo network, we listen to their stories. We promise to work with our partners and facilitate scientific research for a better tomorrow. Steered by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, our Network is a true example of cross-disciplinary partnership by organizations who are stalwarts in their respective domains. Our partners encompass government, corporate, academia, non-profit and social sectors of society. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hindustan Unilever Limited, RoundGlass, the India Climate Collaborative, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) are founding partners of the echo network. We are a unique social innovation partnership to facilitate interdisciplinary interactions across sectors to stimulate scientific awareness and encourage science that tackles real-world problems. 

This program will build a long-term network of individuals who continuously share knowledge and enable scientific research driven by societal needs. Our first effort has been to take stock of the current crisis and propose recommendations for how science and technology can take us forward. We worked with a unique group of economists, healthcare professionals, lawyers, scholars, policy-makers, activists, journalists, and CEOs to establish a white paper “India’s Journey Beyond COVID-19”. 

We are now engaging in a series of exchanges with experts and the public based on these recommendations to identify knowledge gaps where scientific research can play a role. These sessions provide the basis for collaborative research projects sharing postdoctoral scholars among our participating organizations to address the identified gaps. The program has enormous scientific and societal interest to international scientists as well who have difficulty locating collaborators, funding, and performing research in India.

At the end of their tenure, scholars will be absorbed back into these different sectors as employees with an ability to communicate across society and provide science-based solutions. Through continued iterations of this process refining issues and gaps, we will develop an international network that offers system-level scientific solutions to real-world problems.

Despite its urgent need, there is perhaps no precedent for such a network anywhere in the world. We are the architects of a new platform to change how science is embedded in society. This program will build a long-term network of individuals who will continuously share and increase scientific knowledge. Thus, it is an inherently scalable process designed for long term global engagement and infiltration of scientific leaders across the world. While our initial focus is with India, this network can become a template for generating scientific discourse and science-based solutions throughout the world. 

As a chemical ecologist and field biologist in India for the past 6 years, I have witnessed first hand the enormous impacts of the Anthropocene on every aspect of India's lands and lives. I have also met and worked with countless scientists, NGOs, students, governments, and others who are each working to address these issues. Yet these efforts are largely performed in isolation, without coordination of objectives, impacts, or learnings from their experiences. Simultaneously, my own profession is, unfortunately, far too often driven by competition for positions, journal impact factors, and perceived fundability rather than societal issues.

In 2018, I had the chance to sit down with the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (PSA), the highest ranking scientific position in the country. I raised these issues to him and he responded with "I agree, let's see what you can do". This was the birth of the echo network. Through the support and guidance of the PSA, we have worked to gather key stakeholders in industry, academia, government, service and the private sector who can help us develop a network of individuals who use scientific research and communication for a better tomorrow. 

My grandmother told me no matter how dark it gets, you can always see the sunrise. You just need to turn your face to the light. I see the light in people around me. The echo network connects science more deeply with our human experiences. We intend to establish empathic science, a science that listens to the world around us. 

I recently came across a quote from Gus Speth: “Thirty years ago, I thought the top three global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I was convinced that with enough good science, we would be able to solve these problems. But, I was wrong. The real problems are bigger than that. They are things like selfishness, greed, and apathy. For those kinds of problems, good science isn’t enough. For that we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.”

We scientists have tricked ourselves into thinking that unbiased scientific objectivity means ignoring our humanity. But science exists because of our humanity. We scientists must learn to listen to our world not just with our minds, but with our hearts. That's what I want to bring to this world.

Born in the rural St. Lawrence Valley of New York State, I have travelled across four countries and three continents to examine our changing ecosystems. My experience as a scientist across these diverse environments has shown me the promise that understanding and promoting India's remarkable biodiversity holds for our planet's future. My research has also revealed the fragility of India's ecosystems and the urgent need to increase the number of trained scientists in India ready to sustain our environment.

Some scientists collect fossils or butterflies - I collect kindred spirits. I have participated and organized several international events including workshops, courses, and exhibits at the V&A Museum in London, the Science Gallery in Dublin, and the Science Express Train across India. I have published articles for middle school science teachers, and participated in a DWIH workshop on Women’s Empowerment in a Globalized World. My research has been featured in newspapers, popular science articles, and venues around the world including CNN, TEDx, INK, Syntalk, Microsoft Research, SAP Labs, Manipal Global, and the Young President’s Organization among others. At each stop in my career, I have cherished the people I worked with and learned from.

The echo network will succeed because I bring to the table not just myself, but an army of changemakers across the world I carry with me everywhere I go for advice, support, and friendship. It is their support that has brought me here, and will carry this world into a brighter tomorrow.

India is a remarkable country with incredible diversity and a palpable potential with over 60% of its population under 35. But India has also challenged me as a foreign scientist, a woman, and a compassionate human.

I have unfortunately been witness to assault, neglect, and abuse, including a near fatal accident of one of my students and the suicide of two young students I worked with - images of those incidents scarring my memories. India relies heavily on family for support, and lacks some social services commonplace in the US and Europe. As a result, I became the de facto counselor, law enforcement, and mother to young scientists in these instances - jobs for which I was neither prepared nor qualified for. After nearly losing my own life in the process, I was finally diagnosed with PTSD for which I received treatment. 

Yet this trauma inspired me to help foster better connections between people. In today’s world, where so many are far from their towns and families, we sometimes become family for each other. I learned that you can create caring families through fostering empathy and compassion. That's what echo really is - a big family we created for everyone.

As a professor and scientist, I have had many opportunities for leading research, supervising students, and establishing courses and other academic events. But the experience I am most proud of is the one you are reading about right now - the echo network.

Three years ago, at the lowest point in my life, my brother Bryan, a retired Army Major, told me this: sometimes when you have nothing left to lose, you do the biggest thing you can think of. That's when I envisioned an international network - a family of light-bringers from all sectors working together to bring science and society closer together. While the PSA offered the initial support, it was me standing in front of the CEO's desk at Hindustan Unilever's (HUL) headquarters, me on the phone with directors at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and me writing countless emails and letters to bring everyone on board.

My proudest moment came at our first founding partner meeting on December 19, 2019, when I asked the partners if they thought this could work. Dr. Nimish Shah, then Director, Partnerships & Advocacy at HUL, said "we know it will work, because you are leading it". 

Please see the following short testimonials discussing the echo network's innovative approach:

Pradeep Nair: Regional Director of the Ford Foundation

Shloka Nath: Executive Director India Climate Collaborative and Uma Ramakrishnan, Associate Professor NCBS-TIFR

Prerna Singh Bindra: Wildlife Conservationist, Author, and Journalist

We are currently developing this with our partners over the course of this pilot year.

Our current number of founding partners is 8, and we have several hundred individuals in the network contacts for our activities. This number will grow and expand with our activities to bring in new core partners as well as increased network connections to several thousand individuals or organizations across the world planned over the next 5 years. As our output will be scientific research, this network has impact on a societal level.

Horizon I: Explore Current Problems (next 1-5 years):

The echo network comprising partners from various sectors unites to perform collaborative scientific research that incorporates current public and private efforts.

Horizon II: Awareness and Exchange (next 5-10 years):

Establishment of widespread ecological awareness comprising public discourse and education for citizens, industry, and government with information exchange at all educational levels.

Horizon III: Large-scale Network (10-15 years):

Creation of the world’s first Distributed Institute for Human and Environmental Ecosystems – an international institute comprising individuals housed within industry, government, private, and academic sectors who combine expertise and resources collectively to tackle large-scale problems. 

We are adamant that the network not be owned by any one academic, governmental, industrial, or private entity so that it can retain its neutrality and inclusivity. Thus, we must ensure distributed support from multiple entities.  To this end, philanthropic funding will be ideal in this scenario. Furthermore, we are very interested in coordinating with outstanding academic partners working in areas of human and environmental sustainability for the research, and are actively seeking liaisons with interested universities.

We are pursuing several options for our full program to allow the training of our young scientists with interested universities, and the expansion of our information exchange and outreach efforts across multiple organizations.

The Facilitator: Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Goverment of India

The diverse stakeholders will develop and manage the program seeking, through the PSA’s office, periodic advice and views on government priorities and goals, so that the EChO network can address national gaps and priorities.

The Ambassador: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Responsible for guiding citizen- led and policy-driven outcomes and awareness through informed scientific research and exchange.

The Mediator: Hindustan Unilever, LTD.

Responsible for research interactions and network development with industrial and public entities in India.

The Storyteller: Roundglass Sustain

Responsible for network communications and dissemination via media, workshops, training, and other events.

The Nurturer: The India Climate Collaborative

Responsible for assisting with network growth and development under the umbrella of larger ICC initiatives.

The Specialist: The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment

Responsible for interdisciplinary leadership training and development of scientific collaborations In India and Internationally.

The Anchor: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms

Responsible for hosting the network and acting as network liaison between academic and industrial entities, including the bioscience startup community. 

By bringing in multiple stakeholders, the program will be supported by distributed financial and in kind contributions to drive the scientific research, provide for network exchange and outreach across sectors, and offer diverse expertise and employment opportunities to the trained scientists.

The pilot year (2020-2021) is currently funded by the founding partners. Funding for the continued effort is being organized currently.

The Elevate Prize will provide financial, management, and advisory support for this burgeoning network that can offer freedom for advanced risk taking in terms of seeking network partners who are unable to contribute financially but offer enormous knowledge and experience. The echo network is entirely supported by its partners and network members. This network is not about money or management, but connection. This prize will allow us to seek our partnerships and connections without worrying about their ability to support us operationally. In this manner, we can seek to partner with high-risk, high-gain organizations with great potential for increasing our societal benefits and scientific research progress. Further, as an organization housed at a leading university, MIT Solve can help us liaison with scientists and departments at MIT and collaborating universities for the research efforts we plan.

In turn, the echo network itself provides a large community of organizations across sectors dedicated to global development and social innovation under the umbrella of science and technology. Thus, we stand to give back much more than we receive to all our partners and connections, including MIT's Solve initiative.