| Strategic Initiatives
Overall Strategic Planning Exercise
A detailed timetable of ICSU’s strategic planning exercise is
now available. The overall strategic plan 2006-2012 will be proposed
to the ICSU General Assembly for approval in 2005 
Foresight Analysis
ICSU’s membership participated in a broad-based consultation
process, to identify issues of growing importance to science and
society, for which ICSU can make useful contributions. The final
report from this exercise will soon be available on our website
International Polar Year (IPY), 2007-2008
The revised draft IPY Science Plan is now available and the ICSU family is
encouraged to provide input before 1st of September
First Regional Office to be established
An agreement has recently been signed with the National Research
Foundation, South Africa, to host an ICSU regional Office for
Africa.
All ICSU members and key partners are invited to a meeting
in Harare, Zimbabwe on 9-11 October, to discuss regional
priorities and the future strategy for the new Regional Office
for Africa.
Mexico to host the next Regional Office
Negotiations are being concluded with the Mexican Academy
of Sciences and the National Council for Science and Technology
(CONACYT) to host the ICSU Regional Office for Latin America and
the Caribbean in Mexico City.
Review of Science and Society
The ICSU strategic review “Science and Society: Rights and Responsibilities”
is near completion. It will be made available in draft form for
consideration by ICSU members
in August
International Assessment of Agricultural Science
and Technology for Development
Following a consultation in which ICSU took an active part,
IAASTD has been established. Professor J.W.B. Stewart (Canada)
will represent ICSU on the Bureau. The first meeting will be held in
Nairobi (30 August - 3 September).
Capacity Building
ICSU/IAP web-portal on capacity building launched
The new Teaching Science web portal, which provides information
on science education programmes and other capacity building
activities of the ICSU member organizations, is now online
Priority Area Assessment of Capacity Building
gets underway
The first meeting of the Panel for the PAA on Capacity Building
(Chair: Jorge Allende, Chile) took place in June. The Panel expects
to complete its work by the end of 2004
Policy Committee on Developing Countries established
The membership of the new ICSU Policy Committee on Developing
Countries (PCDC) has now been finalized and Professor Marian Addy
(Ghana) has agreed to chair the committee, which will meet
for the first time in 30 Sept - 1 Oct at the ICSU Secretariat.
Data and Information
Priority Area Assessment (PAA) of Scientific
Data and Information
The PAA Panel has now completed its draft report, which identifies
a number of future priorities and needs. It includes far-reaching
recommendations on the re-structuring of ICSU activities. The
draft report will be made available this month on the ICSU web-site
for consideration by members before publication
Link to the International Network for Access
to Scientific Publications (INASP)
INASP wants to hear from ICSU members interested in making their
publications and data-bases more widely available in developing
countries
Global Environmental Change
Global Change Seminar at the European Commission
Representatives of the ICSU Executive and the four ICSU global
change programmes met with members of the EC Research Directorate,
including Commissioner Phillippe Busquin, to reinforce cooperation
between European and global environmental research initiatives
New Director for the International Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme (IGBP)
Professor Kevin Noone will join IGBP as Executive Director on
1st September for a three year appointment. U. Lohmann, S.
Running and M. Stafford Smith have been newly appointed to the
Scientific Committee for IGBP for the period 2004-2006.
Changes on the International Human Dimensions
Programme
ICSU and the International Social Science Council have jointly
appointed H. Vessuri, S. Van der Leeuw, and G. Dabelko to the
Scientific Committee of IHDP for 2004-2006.
Second Earth Observation Summit (EOSII)
ICSU participated as one of the institutional partners in EOSII
, at which ministers gave the green light to the development of
an implementation plan for an integrated Global Earth Observation
System of Systems
11th IGOS-Partners meeting
The Executive Director represented ICSU at the IGOS-P11 meeting
in Rome (27 May). The planning for a land theme and a cryosphere
theme were approved.
GTOS Sponsor Meeting
The sponsors of the Global Terrestrial Observing System
(GTOS) met in May to discuss various ways to strengthen the programme.
Global observation systems and socio-economic
data
The Observing Systems have traditionally focussed on collecting natural
sciences data. IGOS-P has requested ICSU to convene a meeting
to address generic issues related to the collection of global data
sets of socio-economic variables. A workshop will be
convened in September, chaired by Roberta Balstad Miller (USA).
The findings will be presented to the Group on Earth Observations
(GEO) as well as to IGOS-P.
New Director for the Global Ocean Observing
System
Dr Keith Alverson (USA) had been appointed, to take over from
Dr Colin Summerhayes, as the new Head of the Operational Observing
Systems Section of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
(IOC).
Global Marine Assessment postponed
At a consultative meeting in early June, governments failed to
reach agreement on how to establish a regular process under the
United Nations for global reporting and assessment of the state
of the marine environment. Andrew Rosenberg represented ICSU
in the preparatory process.
Sustainable Development
12th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable
Development (CSD)
A strong science and technology delegation, including the ICSU
President and Executive Director, participated in CSD-12, which
focused on freshwater, sanitation and human settlements
Conference on S&T Education and Sustainable
Development
ICSU Officers have agreed to co-sponsor this international event,
which will be held at the new UK National Science Teaching Centre
(University of York) from August 23-26, 2006
Energy for Sustainable Societies
The final report from the ad hoc Working Group on Energy
for Sustainable Societies is now available on the ICSU web-site.
Renewable Energies
ICSU helped to represent the S&T community in the ‘multi-stakeholder
dialogues’ of the International Conference for Renewable Energies
(1-4 June, Bonn, Germany)
Governance/Policy
Scientific Planning and Review
At its meeting in early June, the ICSU Committee on Scientific
Planning and Review (CSPR) made important recommendations on a
number of strategic reports and decided on grant awards
for 2005.
Meeting Report
Grants awarded for 2005
Finance
The significant weakening of the US dollar versus the Euro, since
the ICSU General Assembly in 2002, is having a deleterious effect
on the ICSU budget. The first impact of this is a major cut in
the funding available for ICSU grants in 2005 which is further
compounded by the loss of the dedicated US funding for this
programme. The Committee on Finance and ICSU Officers met recently
to discuss how additional savings might be made and extra income
secured.
Universality and Visa restrictions
Amidst increasing concern over the difficulties for scientists
to obtain entry visas to attend scientific meetings in the USA,
the ICSU President has recently written to George Atkinson, Science
and Technology Advisor, US State Department as a follow-up to
a previous letter to USA Secretary of State, Colin Powell.
People and Places
Plans progress for the 28th ICSU General Assembly
The draft agenda and first circular for the 28th General Assembly
(Shaghai and Suzhou, China, 17-21 October, 2005) have now been
circulated to all ICSU members and can be downloaded from the
web
Call for proposals to host the 29th General
Assembly
An open call will be sent to all members shortly inviting bids
to host the 29th General Assembly in 2008. A final decision on
the venue will be taken at the 28th GA.
Reduction in the ICSU Secretariat staff
Mary Galambert, who took over from Marilyn Smith as ICSU Communications
Officer in April this year for three months, has now departed.
Because of the severe financial restraints, this post will be
kept vacant until further notice.
Meeting of the International Scientific Unions
(Paris, February 2004)
The note of the meeting of the International Scientific Unions
and ICSU Executive is now available to all ICSU members. The issues
arising from this meeting will be considered by the Executive
Board in November (restricted to ICSU members)
ICSU participation in the EuroScience Open
Forum
(Stockholm, August 25-28)
The ESOF is envisaged as a major international meeting bringing
together scientists, decision-makers and journalists. ICSU is
co-organizing two events: the “Future of European Science Policy
in a Global Context” in partnership with the OECD and “Giving
Substance to Sustainable Development” in partnership with Linköping
University, Sweden.
World Conference on Science, five years on
(WCS+5)
ICSU is working with UNESCO and the Third World Academy of Sciences
(TWAS) to organize an international symposium as follow up to
the WCS (Budapest, 1999). The symposium “Harnessing science for
society: future partnerships” bring together scientists and policy
makers and will take place late in 2004
ICSU Year Book 2003-2004 now available
The re-designed ICSU year book is being distributed to ICSU members
and contacts this month.
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