At the IUCr Congress in Calgary in August, the IUCr Executive Committee approved a proposal to establish an Advisory Committee on Industrial Structural Science. Whilst a wide range of industrial science is already undertaken across the IUCr global community, my interactions with the International Science Council and UNESCO, and my concerns about their seeming lack of interest in industry, led me to realise that the IUCr needed to focus its own efforts more effectively. We also need to provide a single point of contact should the Executive Committee, or the ISC and UNESCO, need prompt feedback on these matters.
The terms of reference are:-
• Advise the IUCr Executive Committee on matters relating to industrial crystallography and all aspects of structural science and its societal and economic impacts.
• Develop position papers or advisory reports on topics requested by the IUCr Executive Committee.
• Act as an advisory point of contact for international organizations where appropriate, including activities relevant to UN Sustainable Development Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), UNESCO and the International Science Council while recognizing the differing needs and priorities of the Global North and Global South in advancing the public good.
• Identify industrial scientific challenges and opportunities where IUCr expertise and its Commissions could make significant contributions to innovation and societal benefit.
• Recognize and, where appropriate, advise on how crystallographic expertise may contribute to industries and enterprises involving Indigenous communities, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries and natural resources, while respecting Indigenous knowledge and local priorities.
• Provide a forum through which industrial crystallographers can communicate emerging needs, opportunities and priorities to the IUCr, including advising the IUCr Congress Programme Committees on industrial sessions, workshops and satellite meetings and, where appropriate, nominating a representative to serve on those Programme Committees.
• Liaise with and assist the work of the specialist IUCr Commissions on best practice in crystallography, including pertinent needs of industry and its customers concerning quality assurance, validation, data management and/or reproducibility, as well as education and training.
• Promote constructive interactions between industry, academia, national laboratories and central facilities.
• Identify emerging scientific and technological developments relevant to industrial crystallography, including AI-assisted analysis, in situ methods and advanced diffraction and scattering techniques.
• Report annually and triennially to the IUCr Executive Committee on activities and recommendations.
The Committee membership is global: -
John Helliwell (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
Anthony Bell (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
Jefferson Do Rosario (Germany)
Joseph Ferrara (United States of America)
Ed Mitchell (France)
Anna Paradowska (Australia)
Elizabeth Shotton (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
Three of us were available to meet with the IUCr Executive Committee in Calgary to discuss the proposal: Elizabeth Shotton (Head of the Industrial Liaison Group, responsible for all proprietary use of Diamond’s facilities), Joe Ferrara (Chief Science Officer at Rigaku Life Sciences Product Division) and myself (formerly Director of Synchrotron Radiation Science at the CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory SRS and Adviser to the Daresbury Analytical Research and Technical Services for industry).
Across the world, science policy increasingly emphasises the connections between fundamental discovery, applied research and industrial research, and their roles in driving both longer- and shorter-term innovation, recognising their joint importance to economic competitiveness and addressing societal challenges. This shift reflects a growing international recognition of science as both a driver of new knowledge and a strategic foundation for technological progress and economic development. In this context, there may be many topical matters—some longstanding, others very new—that the IUCr global community would wish to bring to the attention of our new Advisory Committee on Industrial Structural Science.
For example, in the UK, the distinctions between pure, applicable and applied science within Government and the funding agencies can be seen in the very recent reorganisation of UK Research and Innovation and the formal movement of science into a new Government Department named Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. Their mission statement is “We drive good growth, good jobs and opportunity across the UK. We support businesses to invest, innovate, export and grow, powered by science and technology.” For us to know of more country-by-country examples, besides the UK one I give here, are very welcome, such as from national Delegates to our IUCr Governing Body, the General Assembly. We note that Indigenous Peoples are not represented as voting members at the UN, nor in our own Governing Body. So, we take on that mantle for their industries’ representation for the time being.
To facilitate input on these and other topical matters, we are launching a new IUCr Knowledge Exchange through which the global IUCr community can bring issues and opportunities to the Committee’s attention.
Author Information
John Helliwell
