International Council of Scientific Unions Newsletter No.65 August 1997

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC UNIONS - ICSU SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL Newsletter No.65 August 1997 Code Number:NL97009 Sizes of Files: Text: 100.8K Graphics: No associated graphics files MEETING REPORTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR THE ICSU'S PROGRAMME ON CAPACITY BUILDING IN SCIENCE Julia Marton-Lefevre, Executive Director, ICSU The first meeting of the Advisory Committee for the newly launched ICSU Programme on Capacity Building in Science (PCBS) took place in Paris at the end of June. The Members of the Advisory Committee are listed. The meeting was also attended by a number of invited observers from UNESCO and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The Advisory Committee reviewed plans for launching a Programme organized around the previously identified themes of Primary Level Education; Public Understanding of Science, and the Organization of Actions to Reduce the Isolation of Scientists. It was agreed that the Programme should initially concentrate on a few highly visible pilot projects in each of the areas and that some of these should begin immediately. FIRST MEETING OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN SCIENCE (SCRES) Oslo, Norway, 19-22 June 1997 Kathinka Evers, Executive Secretary, SCRES The recently established Standing Committee on Responsibility and Ethics in Science (SCRES) held its first meeting 19-22 June 1997 at the Norwegian Academy of Science in Oslo, Norway. The main task of the meeting was to establish the precise role that SCRES should play in the future: what are its main goals? what does SCRES aim to produce? who is the intended audience? The first discussion focused on how the committee intends to operate, and how it should communicate with other ICSU members. ICSU PRESS ACTIVITIES: ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING IN SCIENCE Sir Roger Elliott, Chairman ICSU Press When the General Assembly in Washington received the report of the UNESCO/ICSU Press Expert Conference on Electronic Publishing in Science it charged the ICSU Press Committee with the task of undertaking the follow-up activities which derived from the recommendations of the Conference. SPOTLIGHTS ON SCIENCE WORLD CLIMATE RESEARCH PROGRAMME (WCRP): Further Strategic Steps in Internationally Coordinated Climate Research: a report of the eighteenth session of the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) for the WCRP H. Grassl, Director, WCRP The WCRP is jointly sponsored by ICSU, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. Overall scientific guidance for the programme is provided by the ICSU/WMO/IOC Joint Scientific Committee (JSC), consisting of eighteen scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations and representing the atmospheric, oceanographic, hydrological and polar science communities. At the kind invitation of the Atmospheric Environment Service of Canada, the eighteenth annual session of the Committee was held in Toronto from 17 to 21 March 1996. IGCP: INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMMES CENTRAL TO THE IGCP ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATE Edward Derbyshire Chairman IGCP What's in a name? Seen from outside, a programme with the title of "international Geological Correlation Programme" might appear rather narrow and prescriptive. in particular, the word "correlation" could even be construed as indicating that the IGCP is concerned with ensuring that national programmes conform to some kind of scientific norm. in fact, neither of these two impressions could be farther from the truth. It may not be generally known that the IGC]? is widely regarded as the most successful international collaborative programme of its type. Jointly sponsored by UNESCO and the international Union of Geological Sciences (lUGS), it brings together researchers in all aspects of the study of the solid earth sciences. It is open to scientists from any nation, and may be led by geoscientists of any nationality. This is vitally important for, after all, geological boundaries do not stop at national borders! THREAT TO FULL AND OPEN ACCESS TO DATA Ferris Webster, Chairman, ICSU Group on Data and Information New intellectual property laws may have potential adverse effects on the conduct of science and education. That was the principal concern of the Group on Data and Information of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and the Commission on Data Access of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), which met jointly at ICSU Headquarters in June. At issue is the protection of databases that lack creativity in the selection, arrangement, or presentation of the information even though they may require a substantial amount of time, effort, or financial investment to produce. The creative elements of databases are already protected under copyright. The proposed sui generis right would in addition protect the contents (i.e., the facts themselves) of databases. Thus, all. sorts of compilations of data or datasets that have traditionally been in the public domain for lack of sufficient "originality" (to make them copyrightable) will now be protected against unauthorized uses and would enable the database owners to charge at whatever level they chose for authorized use. ENVIRONMENT EARTH COUNCIL: RIO+5 - FROM AGENDA TO ACTION Rio de Janeiro, 13-19 March 1997 Sophie Boyer King, Environmental Science Officer, ICSU The Earth Council was set up in 1992, with ICSU's sponsorship, and is principally aimed at encouraging non-governmental bodies to be involved in environment and development issues. The culmination of these activities led to a series of events in Rio de Janeiro in March 1997, five years after the Earth Summit: Rio+5, from Agenda to Action. ICSU agreed to contribute to the Earth Council's Rio+5 activities, providing inputs before the conference, and playing an important facilitator and participatory role during the March events. As part of preliminary reporting activities, ICSU conducted a survey among its members regarding the progress and difficulties in the implementation of ASCEND 21 (Agenda of Science for Environment and Development into the 21st Century). Responses received were incorporated into a Special Focus Report, one of the many documents which shaped the Rio+5 agenda. DIALOGUE SESSION ON SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES Fifth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, United Nations, April 1997 Sophie Boyer King, Environmental Sciences Officer, ICSU ICSU was invited by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UN CSD) to participate in and facilitate a dialogue session of scientific and technological communities with UN government delegates, as part of the Fifth session of the CSD. Each Major Group had three hours in which to make presentations and respond to questions from the floor, in a first-time event at a UN session. JOINT SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL COMMITTEE FOR GLOBAL OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM (J-GOOS) Sophie Boyer King, Environmental Sciences Officer, ICSU The fourth meeting of J-GOOS took place in Miami on the 23-25 April 1997. During the two days preceding J-GOOS IV, the JGOOS ad hoc planning group had met to discuss the progress and direction of the J-GOOS plan, GOOS 1998. J-GOOS was informed of a proposal to merge the Strategic Sub Committee (SSC) of the Intergovernmental Committee of GOOS (I-GOOS), with J-GOOS to form a GOOS Steering Committee. This committee would have more executive functions than the present J-GOOS and would include members from operational organisations to reflect this. After some discussion, J-GOOS endorsed the proposal for a restructured GOOS. The new director of the GOOS Project Office, Dr Colin Summerhayes, updated participants on the activities of the office, including increasing coordination with the various communities which contribute to the development of GOOS. IGBP AT UNGASS EXHIBITION During the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Rio+5 (UNGASS), an exhibition was held showing "Sustainable Development in Action". The IGBP was part of this exhibition and presented posters that were specially developed for this event. In addition, the homepage was made available for browsing and a selection of IGBP Reports and Newsletters was displayed. ENVIRONMENT OCEAN CIRCULATION AND CLIMATE: The 1998 WOCE Conference, Halifax, N.S. Canada, 24-29 May 1998 World Ocean Circulation Experiment: WOCE is a component of the World Climate Research Programme investigating the role played by the ocean circulation in the earth's climate system. Its aim is to develop improved ocean circulation models for use in climate research. The WOCE observational phase from 1990-1997 has used satellites and in-situ physical and chemical measurements to produce a data set of unprecedented scope and precision. WOCE is now entering its phase of Analysis, interpretation, Modelling and Synthesis (AIMS) which will continue until the end of WOCE in 2002. The reconciliation of model results and observations, and ultimately the assimilation of ocean data into models, presents the ocean science community with a novel set of challenges. HOUSE NEWS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ICSU Jean-Francois Stuyck-Taillandier has been appointed to replace Julia Marton-Lefevre and will become Executive Director of ICSU, for an initial 2-year period, as of 1 September. NEW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF SCRES Kathinka Evers, a native of Sweden, graduated in Philosophy at the Lund University and later obtained a doctorate in philosophy of science and logic in 1991. NEW CHAIRMAN OF IGBP Dr. Berrien Moore III was recently appointed to replace Dr Peter Liss as the Chair of the SC-IGBP and will start his term at the beginning of 1998. Moore is a mathematician from the USA and is Director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire. NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF IGBP IGBP and ICSU are happy to announce the appointment of the new Executive Director of IGBP. Will Steffen, an Australian national, is due to replace Chris Rapley in January 1998. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPMENT SCIENCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES G.Thyagarajan, Scientific Secretary, COSTED-IBN EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESENTATION AT THE 25TH ICSU GA, WASHINGTON D C The Global Science & Technology Scenario Threat of Scientific and Technological Marginalisation Special Problems of Small States INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS During the last five years no other issue has engaged the attention of national governments, politicians, scientists and technologists, industrialists, trade leaders, the media and the wider public, as the Uruguay Round, GATT, the Marrakech Agreement and the arrival of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Reactions have ranged from complete faith in the new order to its abject rejection. The issues generated are complex and have the potential to have far-reaching implications because, unlike the original GATT (which concerned international trade rules in the goods sector only) the 'Final Round' entered three new areas namely, Investment, Intellectual Property Rights and Services. It also extended to the sensitive areas of agriculture and textiles. 32ND COSPAR SCIENTIFIC ASSEMBLY and Associated Events - 40th Anniversary Nagoya, Japan, 12 - 19 July 1998 Preliminary Program CALENDAR Details of forthcoming events from August 1997 to November 1997. PLANS TO FOLLOW UP TO THE REPORT ON THE ASSESSMENT OF ICSU Members of the ICSU family received a memorandum sent from Paris on 4 July with information pertaining to the preparation of the Extraordinary General Assembly of ICSU to be held in Vienna, Austria on 25 April 1998 and with the Executive Board's proposals to follow up the recommendations contained in the Report on the Assessment of ICSU. The Extraordinary General Assembly, was called for by a Resolution at the 25th General Assembly of ICSU which requested "that the Executive Board formulate a strategy for responding to the recommendations of the Assessment Panel Report and present its suggestions for approval by an Extraordinary General Assembly....". Summary of Executive Board's proposals to follow up the Report on the Assessment of ICSU LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE ICSU GENERAL COMMITTEE FOR THE PERIOD 1996-1999 EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCES Co-sponsored by the European Science Foundation and the Euroconferences Activity of the European Union Space-Time Modelling of Bounded Natural Domains: Virtual Environments for the Geosciences near Kerkrade The Netherlands, 9-14 December 1997 GLOBAL CHANGE SCIENTIST The Global Analysis, Interpretation and Modelling task force (GAIM) of the lnternational Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) invites applications and nominations for a Science Officer to begin in September, 1997