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Programme – Muscat Global Knowledge Dialogue and Third ISC General Assembly

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Please access the outline agenda below and submit your expression of interest to organize a side event by 30 September via the online form below.

Overview of the event

The pre-event workshops on 26 January and the “Muscat Global Knowledge Dialogue” on 27 – 28 January are open to all participants, including ISC Members, Fellows and invited guests. The General Assembly days on 29 – 30 January are closed meetings for ISC Member delegates and ISC Fellows only. If you wish to attend the General Assembly days as observer, please contact [email protected]. ISC Members are invited and encouraged to attend all parts of the event (25 – 30 January).

During the Members’ Fora (29 January, 9:00–10:45), ISC Member representatives will meet with other Member delegates from within their membership category.

Sightseeing tours will be proposed on Friday 31 January and Saturday 1 February, at participants’ own cost and convenience. Details will be shared as soon as possible.

The speakers will be announced as soon as possible.

Sunday, 26 January
Pre-event workshops

A) 14:00 – 17:30 – Freedom and Responsibility in Science
Coordinator: Vivi Stavrou

This workshop, hosted by the ISC’s Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science (CFRS), will bring ISC Members together to address issues related to the free and responsible practice of science. Through roundtable and interactive discussions, the workshop will identify Members’ priority concerns and explore how the ISC can support and promote the free, ethical and equitable conduct of science throughout the region and globally.

B) 14:00 – 17:00 – Science is social: increasing the role and visibility of the social sciences in sustainable development policy and practice
Coordinator: Megha Sud

This workshop will explore how ISC can help strengthen the role social sciences play in the current policy landscape at national and multilateral levels and how members can collaborate, exchange ideas and lessons in this area.

C) 14:00 – 17:00
– Leveraging the ISC membership to strengthen science advice to policy
Coordinator: Anne-Sophie Stevance

With a focus on case studies and practitioners’ insights, this session will provide a forum for members to share their experience of working at the science-policy interface and strategize on opportunities to strengthen scientific advice to policy-makers from the national to the global levels.

D) 14:00 – 17:00
Data policy and skills in a rapidly changing world
Coordinator: Vanessa McBride

Open science is facing a major test with the emergence of generative AI, placing greater stress on the principles of transparency and reproducibility. What are the current and emerging policy and technical responses? With greater emphasis needed on data quality, what are the skills required of scientists and data specialists? In this session ISC members will be invited to discuss the challenges, policy responses and explore how they can collaborate on practical responses, including skills development with Early Career Researchers.

E) 09:00 – 17:00 – Workshop on Artificial Intelligence (by invitation only)

Coordinator: Dureen Samandar Eweis

Monday, 27 January
Muscat Global Knowledge Dialogue (day 1)

08:00 – 09:30: Registration

09:30 – 11:00: Opening
Coordinator: Vanessa McBride

11:00 – 11:30: Break

11:30 – 13:00: Plenary session
“Rethinking international science collaboration in today’s world”
Coordinator: Megha Sud

13:00 – 14:30: Lunch

14:30 – 16:00: Parallel sessions

A) Transforming science: open science, research assessment, science publishing
Coordinators: Megha Sud and Carolina Santacruz

Science systems are in need of urgent reform to enhance transparency, efficiency, inclusion and integrity. This session will explore key priorities and actions towards this in the areas of open science, research assessments and publishing.

B) Ocean science for sustainability
Coordinators: Petra Lundgren and Anda Popovici

The session aims to highlight science-based key messages and latest solutions from the ISC community to accelerate SDG 14 implementation. It will feature a diverse panel of experts and interactive discussions with the ISC membership and affiliated bodies that will seek to inform deliberations on global ocean sustainability at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference.

C) The changing context for science diplomacy
Coordinator: Anne-Sophie Stevance

The session will reflect on the changing context for science diplomacy and launch a discussion paper on the role of the ISC in science diplomacy.

16:00 – 16:30: Break

16:30 – 17:30: Plenary session

18:00 – 20:00: Reception and announcement of the pilot science missions for sustainability
Coordinator: Megha Sud

The selected Pilot Science Missions for Sustainability will be announced, with reflection on the urgent need to transform how we perform and fund science for sustainability.


Tuesday, 28 January
Muscat Global Knowledge Dialogue (day 2)

09:00 – 10:30: Plenary session
“Emerging technologies and the evolution of science”
Coordinators: Zhenya Tsoy and Dureen Samandar Eweis

Unpack the complex relationship between emerging technologies and science systems, where new opportunities coexist with critical ethical concerns.

10:30 – 11:00: Break

11:00 – 12:30: Parallel sessions

A) Artificial intelligence and its impact on science systems
Coordinator: Dureen Samandar Eweis

Exploring how AI is transforming science, its vast potential, and the challenges it poses to scientific integrity.

B) The Decade of Science for Sustainability: The post-2030 agenda
Coordinator: Vanessa McBride

Exploring how ISC Members will contribute to the Decade, and how it has the potential to shape our thinking and goals around the role of science in future sustainability agendas.

C) From Barriers to Breakthroughs: Shaping the Future of Gender Equality in Science
Coordinator: Léa Nacache

Join an open discussion on advancing the representation of women scientists in scientific organizations. In this session, we will review past recommendations and present the ISC-IAP-SCGES 2025 initiative. The session will also showcase successful partner-driven efforts and provide a platform for interested Members to share insights and shape the project’s direction, including feedback on a systematic monitoring and evaluation process to increase the participation of women scientists, particularly in leadership roles.

12:30 – 14:00: Lunch

14:00 – 15:30: Parallel sessions

A) Science education for our future – building capacity for global challenges
Coordinator: Sarah Moore

Exploring what the ISC and other stakeholders in the science system – science funders, policy makers, universities, and scientists – can do to promote a shift in the institutional environment and in higher-level education and training, to equip future scientists globally with the necessary skills to tackle urgent and highly complex societal issues.

B) Polar science and the International Polar Year
Coordinators: Morgan Seag & James Waddell

Explore how the International Polar Year (IPY) 2032-33 will reshape global scientific collaboration in the face of rapid climate and societal changes. This session will offer key insights into how polar science is addressing real-world challenges through interdisciplinary, cross-regional research. Participants will gain an understanding of how the IPY model can enhance the co-production of knowledge, drive actionable solutions, and set a blueprint for future international scientific cooperation to tackle global issues beyond the polar regions.

C) Social cohesion and inequality
Coordinator: Megha Sud

This session will reflect on the need to focus on inequality as a central challenge of our times, look at the current state of inequality research including gaps that need attention for science to play an effective role in addressing this global concern.

15:30 – 16:00: Break

16:00 – 17:30: Closing plenary
“Beyond borders: Science, public trust & multilateral policy”
Coordinator: Anne-Sophie Stevance and Vivi Stavrou

The closing plenary session will debate science as a universal endeavour can be positive force to bridge across divides and foster trust and collective action on shared global challenges and set the scene for the ISC’s work in the years to come.

18:30 – 21:30: Gala dinner


Wednesday, 29 January
General Assembly day 1

09:00 – 10:45: ISC Members’ Fora
Parallel meetings of Member delegates withing their membership category (Category 1, 2, 3 and 4) with self-determined agendas.
Coordinator: Anne Thieme

Category 1 Members Forum

  • 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

Input to the agenda of the Category 1 Members Forum is welcome by all category 1 Member delegates by 13 December. Please send your input to Ehud Keinan.



Category 2 Members Forum

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

Input to the agenda of the Category 2 Members Forum is welcome by all category 2 Member delegates. Please send your input to Marta Farsang.

Category 3 Members Forum

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

Input to the agenda of the Category 3 Members Forum is welcome by all category 3 Member delegates by 13 December. Please send your input to Gian Maria Greco.

09:00 – 13:00: Internal meeting of the ISC Affiliated Bodies (category 4 Members)
Coordinator: Vanessa McBride

10:45 – 11:15: Break

11:15 – 13:00: Open programme
ISC Members may propose and self-organize meetings.

13:00 – 14:00: Lunch

14:00 – 17:30: Formal General Assembly (see outline agenda)


Thursday, 30 January
General Assembly day 2

9:00 – 12:30: Formal General Assembly (see outline agenda)

12:30 – 14:00: Lunch

14:00 – 17:00: Formal General Assembly (see outline agenda)


Friday, 31 January

Time for self-organized networking and meetings

Optional sightseeing tours

The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation of Oman is generously inviting delegates to a free of charge full-day tour. The tour will start at approx. 7:30 and finish around 18:00. Highlights include a visit to Nizwa Souq, Nizwa Fort, and the Oman Across Ages Museum. More details will be available in due course.

ISC Governing Board meeting – for ISC Governing Board members only (09:30 – 16:30)


Saturday, 1 February

ISC Governing Board meeting – for continuing and new ISC Governing Board members only (9:30 – 13:00)

The scientific agenda of the General Assembly was developed by the secretariat with guidance from an ad hoc Programme Committee, consisting of Karina Batthyány, Vanessa McBride, Maria Paradiso, Sawako Shirahase, Martin Visbeck, working with Yousuf Al-Bulushi.


Formal General Assembly programme

An outline agenda for the formal General Assembly (29–30 January 2025) is already available.

A detailed agenda for the formal General Assembly will be shared in September.


Contact

Anne Thieme

Anne Thieme

Communications Officer, Membership Liaison

International Science Council

Anne Thieme
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