The International Council for Science

A previous leading article described the relationship of the IUCr with CODATA and ICSTI, bodies affiliated to the International Council for Science (ICSU). ICSU itself was founded in 1931 as an organization composed of International Scientific Unions and National Scientific Councils. The affiliation of the IUCr to ICSU occurred in 1947, and is considered an important milestone in the birth process of the Union. The numbers of Scientific Union and National Council members are now 30 and 97, respectively. Current membership also includes National Scientific Associates and National Scientific Observers, as well as a substantial number of Scientific Associate bodies whose association with ICSU is considered likely to be of mutual benefit or to advance the cause of science. The activities of ICSU are closely correlated with those of the organizations of The United Nations such as UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), CSD (Commission on Sustainable Development) and WMO (World Meteorological Organization), and those of TWAS (The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World), CAETS (International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences Inc.) and ISSC (The International Social Sciences Council). Because of its interdisciplinary and international nature, ICSU is increasingly called upon to speak on behalf of the global scientific community and to act as an advisor in matters ranging from ethics to the environment.

The Council's General Assembly (GA), its ultimate governing authority, is held every three years. I attended the 29th General Assembly of ICSU at Maputo in Mozambique in October 2008 as the representative of IUCr, since the immediate past President is traditionally assigned to this role. Each member of the Scientific Unions and National Scientific Councils has a voting right in the GA. However, since ICSU is so structured that the total voting rights for both groups should be equal, each member of the Scientific Union has a weighted voting right of 97/30 (the ratio of the numbers of their members). This allows the Scientific Unions a significant opportunity to influence scientific policy matters on the global scale.

A particularly important recent development for ICSU was the approval of its first-ever Strategic Plan at the 28th GA in 2006. The plan covered the 6-year period 2006-2011; and the implementation of its first three years was reported at Maputo by the ICSU Executive Secretary. The Strategic Plan includes four specific Projects in which ICSU plays a major management role: (1) International Polar Year (IPY); (2) Integrated Research on Disaster Risk; (3) Ecosystem Change and Human Well-being; and (4) Health and Well-being in the Changing Urban Environment. Within this framework, a Committee on Scientific Planning and Review is active in organising and overseeing numerous initiatives. ICSU activities are broadly distributed amongst four portfolios: Capacity Building; Data and Information; Environment; and Sustainable Development. In the Strategic Plan, ICSU will increasingly seek productive collaboration in the area of the Social Sciences, where it lacks expertise. To encourage this Plan, the Scientific Unions were divided into four groups in the 28th GA; (1) Physical, chemical and mathematical sciences, (2) Biological sciences, (3) Earth and space sciences, and (4) Social sciences. From each group one member of Executive Board should be elected (the current representative for the physical sciences is Professor Bryan Henry, Past President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry).

At times it may seem difficult to see the relevance of such a major non-governmental organisation on the world stage to the IUCr, where our expertise lies largely in laboratory bench-scale science. Yet ICSU is undertaking initiatives in the management of scientific data and publications that have direct bearing on best practice in crystallography and other physical sciences. And, perhaps more importantly, the practice of crystallography can continue to demonstrate to the other  members of ICSU the importance of careful high-quality experimentation and assessment of experimental data in furthering scientific knowledge in any discipline.

A full report of my attendance at the Maputo General Assembly will appear in the Annual Report of the IUCr Executive Committee. Past reports of the ICSU Representative may be found here.