ICSU publishes report of External Review Panel

Terms of Reference and a timetable were agreed upon and a series of meetings set in order to deliver this report in good time for the General Assembly in Auckland from 31 August to 3 September, 2014.

The panel made five key recommendations for ICSU to:

1. Adopt a vision and have ICSU leaders promote it, a vision that others can be inspired by and rally to.
2. Resolve the ambiguities in its relations with other global institutions of Science, i.e clarify the manner in which it cooperates or competes with the other institutions of science on a global scale, specifically Global Network of Science Academies (IAP) and Inter-Academy Council (IAC), the Global Research Council (GRC) as well as The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).
3. Secure the funding to support the programs that will involve its membership, engage its international partners and implement its vision.
4. Resolve outstanding issues (which are described in what follows) in the current governance of ICSU so that it can truly speak for its whole membership and can count on that membership to be thoroughly engaged in the program that its leadership articulates; and
5. Specifically address the needs of the ICSU Regional Offices (ROs) so that they truly become a major part of the ICSU family.

The full report with the results and recommendations is now available for download.