Being the global voice for science requires the ISC to engage meaningfully with its members and wider scientific communities throughout the world, having both regional resonance and global impact.
Daya Reddy, ISC President
Background
The International Science Council (ISC) can only be globally relevant if regional scientific communities have a voice in shaping the ISC’s strategy, determining its priorities, implementing its actions, promoting the results, and harnessing the benefits. In line with the 2019 – 2021 Action Plan, the ISC has developed a strategy for building a globally distributed and coordinated secretariat that is headquartered in Paris (France) and has strong presence and capacity in different regions of the world. Successful implementation of the strategy will depend on the support of ISC members and those organizations that support them and that share their commitment to the Council’s vision of advancing science as a global public good and its mission to be the global voice for science.
The strategy is intended to be fully operationalized by January 2022, with initial priority given to securing an effective ISC presence in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean.
Expressions of Interest
The ISC Governing Board invites expressions of interest from its members in the abovementioned regions to work with the Board on establishing and hosting regional ISC secretariat structures – either an ISC Branch or an ISC Champion – in line with the options and requirements set out in the strategy document.
The call for expressions of interest provides ISC members with an opportunity to indicate their preparedness to invest the effort and resource required to host an ISC regional structure, and to provide essential information on their ideas and capacities, as well as any constraints on their actions. The ISC Governing Board recognizes that expressions of interest are not binding, but are a basis for discussion with ISC members about their ideas and capacities for developing an ISC regional structure.
All expressions of interest will be reviewed by the ISC Governing Board as a basis for bilateral discussions and negotiations with selected members, which will be led by the ISC Officers and CEO. The launch of new regional ISC secretariat structures will be negotiated on a case by case basis. In the case of Africa, and Asia and the Pacific, new structures will not be launched before the conclusion of existing hosting agreements.
Expressions of interest can be submitted by any member of the Council in good standing (being up-to-date with membership dues).
Deadline
The deadline for the submission of expressions of interests has closed.
- 10 December 2020 for Africa
- 10 December 2020 for Latin America and the Caribbean
- 15 May 2021 for Asia and the Pacific
Should you have any questions,
please contact Anne Thieme.
Image by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on Unsplash