Affiliated Bodies
These joint science initiatives and programmes are co-sponsored by the ISC and other international organizations (e.g. from the UN system) and focus on specific areas of international research that are of interest to all or many ISC Members. They are important means of bringing together a range of partners to address a particular issue or area. One of the key features of these collaborative programmes is the ability to consider the issue from the broadest possible perspective while minimizing overlap and duplication of effort.
Thematic Organizations
These initiatives convene scientists from all disciplines to organize international scientific initiatives and offer policy advice on specific themes.
The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) is an interdisciplinary scientific body concerned with the progress, on an international scale, of scientific investigations carried out with space vehicles, rockets and balloons.
GRIP views inequality as a fundamental challenge to human well-being and an impediment to achieving the 2030 Agenda. The project aims to foster co-designed processes of knowledge creation to build a more complete understanding of rising inequality.
Scientists, researchers and innovators working together on research and innovation that supports global transformations towards sustainability.
A collaborative platform for policy exchange, capacity building and research, which aims to enhance the global science-policy interface and promote evidence-informed policy at all levels.
A global, multi-disciplinary approach to the challenges of natural disasters, focusing on mitigating disaster impacts, improving policy-making mechanisms and addressing technological and health-related events caused by natural hazards.
SCAR initiates, develops and coordinates high-quality international scientific research in the Antarctic region (including the Southern Ocean), or related to the Antarctic region’s role in the Earth system.
SCOR covers all areas of ocean science, promoting international cooperation on oceanographic research and in the solving of methodological and conceptual problems that hinder research.
SCOSTEP strengthens international solar-terrestrial science for the benefit of society by promoting solar-terrestrial physics research, and providing the scientific framework for collaboration and the dissemination of resulting knowledge.
This programme aims to create knowledge about the multi-faceted determinants and drivers of health and well-being in urban environments, and to communicate this knowledge for the benefit of science, policy and capacity-building.
WCRP addresses frontier scientific questions related to the coupled climate system and contributes to advancing global understanding of the multi-scale interactions between natural and social systems that affect climate.
Data and Information
Virtually all international science depends on the production, use and integration of data and information.
The ISC is interested in all aspects of this issue, including new challenges related to the collection, analysis and dissemination of data, as well as intellectual property rights and data access. Some of the ISC’s initiatives related to Data and Information are specific to a particular scientific domain, while others deal with issues affecting the entire scientific community.
CODATA helps to realize the ISC’s vision of advancing science as a global public good by promoting international collaboration for open science, and for improvement of the availability and usability of data for all areas of research.
IUCAF is an international committee working on spectrum management on behalf of the passive radio sciences, including radio astronomy, remote sensing, space research and meteorological remote sensing.
WDS promotes long-term stewardship of, and universal and equitable access to, quality-assured scientific data and data services, products and information, across all scientific disciplines.
Monitoring and Observations
These programmes facilitate data collection and foster the development of international standards and methodologies that support universal equitable access. Global observing initiatives are critically important to policy-relevant science at national, regional and international scales, and respond to an increasingly evident need to integrate data from ocean, terrestrial and climate systems.
GCOS works towards a world where climate observations are accurate and sustained, and access to climate data is free and open. GCOS regularly assesses the status of global climate observations and makes recommendations for improvement.
GOOS is a collaborative system on ocean observation which includes in situ networks, satellite systems, governments, UN agencies and individual scientists, all working to deliver the information needed for sustainable development, safety and well-being.
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