The International Science Council (ISC) is an international non-governmental organization that unites scientific bodies at various levels across the social and natural sciences. The ISC was formed with its inaugural general assembly on 4 July 2018 by the merger of the former International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC), making it one of the largest organisations of this type.[1][2][3][4]
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| Abbreviation | ISC |
|---|---|
| Formation | July 4, 2018 |
| Merger of | |
| Type | INGO |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
Key people |
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| Website | council |
Daya Reddy, mathematician, served (2018–2021) as the ISC's inaugural President.[5] Sir Peter Gluckman, pediatrician, biomedical scientist, and science-policy expert, was elected President in October 2021.[6] Other ISC's inaugural Officers elected for the term of 2018–2021 were Elisa Reis (Vice President),[7] Jinghai Li (Vice President),[8] Renée van Kessel (Treasurer),[9] and Alik Ismail-Zadeh (Secretary).[10] Until February 2022, Heide Hackmann served as the Council's CEO.[11] In 2023, Salvatore Aricò was elected Chief Executive Officer.[12]
Activities
The Council convenes and mobilizes the international scientific community on issues of major scientific and public importance. Activities focus on three areas of work:
- Stimulating and supporting international scientific research and scholarship, and communicating science that is relevant to international policy issues;
- Promoting the ability of science to contribute to major issues;
- Defending the free and responsible practice of science.
The Council is involved in co-sponsorship of a number of international research programmes, networks and committees.
The Council awards the Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research.[13]
The Council's present activities are guided by the Action Plan 2022-2024: Science and Society in Transition.[14] At the heart of the Action Plan is a selection of projects and programmes that are relevant to all scientific fields and all parts of the world.
Structure
The Council is governed by its Governing Board[15] and is advised by a number of advisory bodies in thematic areas such as space, polar, climatic, and data research.[16] It is headquartered in Paris with a regional office in Colombia. The Officers of the Governing Board are currently Peter Gluckman (President),Motoko Kotani (President-elect),Anne Husebekk (Vice-President for Freedom and Responsibility in Science),Salim Abdool Karim (Vice-President for Outreach and Engagement), andSawako Shirahase (Vice-President for Finance of the Council).
The ISC's next assembly is scheduled for 2024. [17]
Members
In 2020, the International Science Council has 135 member organizations, 40 member unions and associations, and 30 affiliated members.[18]
Member unions and associations
National members
Transnational members
- Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS)
- Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils (AASSREC)
- Caribbean Academy of Sciences
- Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO)
- Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
- Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO)
- Union Académique Internationale (UAI)
- Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA)
- University of the South Pacific
Affiliated members
- Academy of Social Sciences (ACSS)
- African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
- Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA)
- Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC)
- European Association of Development and Training Institutes (EADI)
- European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
- Fédération Internationale des Géomètres (FIG)
- Global Young Academy (GYA)
- International Arctic Science Committee (IASC)
- International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR)
- International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP)
- International Commission for Acoustics (ICA)
- International Commission for Optics (ICO)
- International Commission on Illumination (CIE)
- International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS)
- International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI)
- International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)
- International Federation of Data Organizations for Social Science (IFDO)
- International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
- International Foundation for Science (IFS)
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
- International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE)
- International Society for Porous Media (InterPore)
- International Studies Association (ISA)
- International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications (IUVSTA)
- International Union of Speleology (UIS)
- International Water Association (IWA)
- Pacific Science Association (PSA)
- Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE)
- Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
- The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
- Transnational Institute (TNI)
GeoUnions
A subset of ISC dealing with Earth and space sciences forms the GeoUnions network:[19]
- International Astronomical Union
- International Cartographic Association
- International Geographical Union
- International Union of Quaternary Research
- International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
- International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
- International Union of Geological Sciences
- International Union of Soil Sciences
- International Union of Radio Sciences
The ISC GeoUnions partially overlap with the UN-GGIM Geospatial Societies.