Third ISC General Assembly

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 10

Contact: Ehud Keinan

Co-Chairs

• Christoph Sorger, Secretary General, International Mathematical Union
• Edoardo Costantini, President, International Union of Soil Sciences
• Ehud Keinan, President, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
• Silvina Ponce Dawson, President, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics

For ISC Category 1 Member delegates only.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Junior Ballroom

Contact: Marta Farsang

Co-Chairs

• Ekanem Braide, President, The Nigerian Academy of Science
• Marta Farsang, Director of International Relations, National Research Council Canada
• Mark Wuddivira, President, Caribbean Academy of Sciences

For ISC Category 2 Member delegates only.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 8

Contact: Gian Maria Greco

Co-Chairs

• Gian Maria Greco, Chair, Marie Curie Alumni Association
• Sushil Kumar, Director of Research at the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, University of the South Pacific
• Yonglong Lu, President, Pacific Science Association/Past President, Scientific Committee of Problems of the Environment

For ISC Category 3 Member delegates only.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 9

Contact: Gabriela Ivan

Co-Chairs: tbc

For delegates of young academies and associations that are ISC Category 3 Members only.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 2

Contact: Anne Thieme

For all delegates of organizations that are interested in learning more about ISC membership.

Speakers

• Sir Peter Gluckman, ISC President
• Salvatore Aricò, ISC CEO

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 2

Contact: Vanessa McBride

For delegates of ISC Affiliated Bodies only.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 1

Contact: Ronit Prawer

For members of the Advisory Council of the Regional Focal Point for Asia and the Pacific only.

Please feel invited to visit the ISC booth outside the Auditorium.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 8

Coordinator: Carolina Santacruz

Target audience: ISC Members from the Latin America and the Caribbean region

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 13+14

The African Union’s Agenda 2063 underscores the importance of education science and technology as a central pillar in the continent’s long-term vision for a more prosperous and unified Africa, driving forward the aspirations for inclusive growth and sustainable development for all. In a rapidly changing world, where technology, globalization, climate change, demographic and social dynamics are reshaping every aspect of our lives, education is undergoing a transformational change. Africa must rethink its higher education to be more inclusive, creative and innovative and embrace scientific excellence to address its development challenges and accelerate industrialisation for the Africa we want.

Over the years, the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) has embarked on research leaders’ programmes that provide vibrant pathways for research and innovation exchanges for early and mid-career researchers to advance sustainable and inclusive development, economic growth and job creation. Current research assessment methods for scientific excellence rely heavily on publication-based metrics as a proxy of excellence. However, these metrics often fail to recognise both the wide array of contributions made by researchers, and the (potential) impact of the research.

This workshop invites participants to reimagine the methods and processes by which research and researchers are evaluated, putting its focus on the impact of science and technology as a central pillar in the long-term vision for a more prosperous and unified Africa. It showcases the effort in rethinking higher education and research excellence for impact in two examples:

The AAS and its African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) collaborators will share insights of its equitable partnership program, the African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence (ARISE). ARISE is an innovative research flagship program of AAS-AU- EU inspired by the aspirations of the AU-EU High-Level Policy Dialogue on Science, Technology, and Innovation.

The Global Young Academy (GYA) will shed light into the work behind the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). CoARA is a global in scope collective of organisations committed to reforming the methods and processes by which research, researchers, and research organisations are evaluated.

Co-Chairs

• Dr. Peggy Oti-Boateng, Executive Director, AAS
• Beate Wagner, Managing Director, GYA

Speakers

• Lise Korsten, President, AAS
• Obed Ogega, Head of Programmes, AAS
• Nada Abdel Aziz, ARISE Grantee, Cairo University (TBC)
• Laurent Bochereau, Minister-Counsellor for STI, Delegation of the European Union to the African Union (TBC)
• Carina Geldhauser, GYA working group scientific excellence

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Junior Ballroom

Multiple ISC unions and associations are experiencing difficulty in retaining and recruiting dues-paying national members. The drop in membership has been accompanied by a decline in the breadth of geographic representation within Union membership, especially in the Global South, including Oceania. Funding agencies expect Unions to provide more persuasive justifications and cost-benefit analyses for national investment in Union dues. Questions are raised about the comparative value and effectiveness of traditional disciplinary scientific unions as opposed to international organizations organized around topics (e.g. climate, sea level rise, health, hazards).

Short presentations by the panellists will be followed by 20 minutes open discussion with the participants.

Coordinator: Priscilla Grew, IUGG Finance Committee

Chair: Michael Meadows, Past President, International Geographical Union (IGU)

Target audience: Scientific unions and association executive committee members, treasurers, finance committee members, national academy representatives, strategic planners

 Panel

• Ourania Kosti, Director BISO at U.S. National Academy of Sciences
• Renee Borges, Secretary-General, International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS)
• Mioara Mandea, President-Elect, and Niels Andersen, Treasurer, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
• Hassina Mouri, President, and David Cohen, Treasurer, International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 10

This roundtable dialogue will explore the possibility of creating a ‘brain trust’ of ISC Fellows that would frame and ask questions that motivate inter- and transdisciplinary research efforts on the critical challenges for the future of humanity. The session should produce: a list of Fellows interested in developing a transdisciplinary ‘brain trust’; a draft concept note on synergies and expectations among ISC Fellows; and an action plan for 2025.

Coordinators: Prof. Paul Arthur Berkman, Prof. Rana Dajani

Target audience: ISC Fellows (open to all delegates)

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 9

Coordinator: Gabriela Ivan

Target audience: Young Academies and Associations, ISC Members

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 12

Coordinator: Stephen Wyber, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

Target audience: Colleagues focusing on new ways of bringing together knowledge for sustainability, the open access community.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 4

Coordinator: Simon Hodson, CODATA

Target audience: ISC Members, in particular those involved in interdisciplinary research; international scientific unions with standards, informatics and terminology projects; Affiliated bodies with data missions.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Room 2

Coordinator: Zhenya Tsoy

Target audience: Delegates of the ISC Member organizations that are participating in the ISC Digital Journeys project.

The meeting is by invitation only.

Please feel invited to visit the ISC booth outside the Auditorium.

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Auditorium

Please refer to Doc. 1: Draft agenda

Location: TBC

Location: Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), Auditorium

Please refer to Doc. 1: Draft agenda