…with apologies for cross-posting, the official announcement from ICSU
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Dr. Heide Hackmann to be ICSU Executive Director and Dr. Lucilla Spini, Head
of Science Programmes
Heide Hackmann, a social scientist with extensive experience running
international research organizations, will be Executive Director of the
Council’s Secretariat from March 2015. Lucilla Spini, a biological
anthropologist with experience in international science coordination will
take on the newly created role of Head of Science Programmes in early
January.
Hackmann joins the Council from the International Social Science Council
(ISSC), where she has been Executive Director since 2007. During her tenure,
she strengthened ISSC’s activity profile, membership base and financial
position, and forged strong links with the International Council for Science
through key partnerships. These include the Integrated Research on Disaster
Risk programme and the Science and Technology Alliance for Global
Sustainability, the consortium of international organizations that founded
Future Earth, the new global research initiative on global sustainability,
and coordinating inputs from the international scientific community on key
policy processes at the United Nations.
Hackmann also led the launch of the regular World Social Science Forums and
spearheaded the development of a new series of World Social Science Reports.
She initiated a new global social science research funding and coordination
programme on Transformations to Sustainability, which was launched in March
2014 as a major contribution to Future Earth.
Announcing her appointment, Hackmann said that she felt “excited and
grateful for the privilege to head the activities of ICSU, an organization
with a long track record of strengthening international research
collaboration, and now assuming a leadership role in securing effective
collaborations between the sciences and with society in order to address
global priority problems.”
Peter Liss will step down as Interim Executive Director of the International
Council for Science, when Hackmann takes up her new role on 2 March, 2015.
President of the International Council for Science, Gordon McBean, said:
“We are extremely pleased to announce Heide Hackmann’s appointment as
Executive Director. During her tenure at ISSC, she has demonstrated her
ability to rally scientists from both the natural and social sciences to
work together to address some of the biggest challenges facing humanity.
ICSU will benefit greatly from her leadership, vision, and ability to build
bridges between different disciplines.” He added that the Executive Board
was “confident that Hackmann will lead the Council to renewed strength and
influence.”
Hackmann was born in South Africa and completed her PhD in Science and
Technology studies at the University of Twente, Netherlands in 2003. From
then until 2007 she was Head of the Department of International Relations
and National Quality Assurance and Director: CO-REACH (an EU-funded
multi-lateral initiative for the Coordination of Research between Europe and
China) at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
The Council also announced that Dr. Lucilla Spini will take on the newly
created post of Head of Science Programmes, starting from 12 January 2015.
In this role, she will manage the development and implementation of ICSU’s
scientific and science for policy initiatives, as defined in its Strategic
Plan. Spini is an Italian national who holds a B.A. in anthropology from New
York University, as well as an M.Sc. in human biology and D.Phil. in
biological anthropology, both from the University of Oxford. Since 2001, she
has worked on science/policy bridging, global environmental change,
sustainable development and research coordination for a number of
international organizations, including UNESCO, UNU, and the FAO. She is
currently a Giorgio Ruffolo Research Fellow in the Sustainability Science
Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Urban Health and Wellbeing office opens in Xiamen, China
Led by the International Council for Science (ICSU), and co-sponsored by the
United Nations University and the InterAcademy Medical Panel, the new
programme will inform city planning, policies and design with science-based
strategies and tactics to improve the health of billions of people living in
fast-growing urban areas. It will also identify and help manage the
unintended health consequences of urban policy and the connections between
cities and planetary change.
The new programme ? which will be hosted by the Institute of Urban
Environment at Chinese Academy of Sciences - will provide a hub for
interdisciplinary scientific knowledge development, exchange and
communication. It will support city leaders and managers to make informed
policy decisions by providing scientifically based information on the costs
and benefits of healthy urban system structures and better urban health. It
will build capacity in scientific and other stakeholder communities to learn
and apply systems methods and inform urban residents on healthy urban
structures and ways to achieve and maintain better health.
The novelty of the programme lies in its systems approach, said Professor
Anthony Capon of the United Nations University, calling it "a particularly
effective way to understand and manage changing urban environments with
profound implications for the way people live, work, learn, move and play,
all of which have health implications."
President Gordon McBean, who was present at the opening ceremony on December
9 of the international programme office, noted that the Council is leading
on science for policy initiatives in 2015 through several key United Nations
processes. “There is an important role for the scientific information on
the human health-urban environment connections ? to the Sustainable
Development Goals, to the post-2015 framework on Disaster Risk reduction.
Future Earth is now underway with new efforts to co-design, co-produce and
co-deliver knowledge on sustainability and there are scientific connections
among IRDR, Future Earth and Urban Health and Well-Being.”
"One of the questions we need to address in this programme is "how many
health risks are people willing to take for the benefits that come with
urban lives?" Citizens and policymakers need to be able to make that
decision and become active agents of urban change. This programme will
support them in making these decisions," said Franz Gatzweiler, Executive
Director of the programme.
"Human health in urban areas represents a growing concern worldwide but
nowhere more so than in China, with recent WHO reports of millions of deaths
worldwide each year from urban air pollution. Urgent action is needed to
protect and promote health through improved urban planning and design,”
said Yong-Guan Zhu, Director-General, Institute of Urban Environment,
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
A two-day expert workshop bringing together around 60 experts was also held
in Xiamen this week, hosted by the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
The launch was covered by both the BBC and the Daily Mail (UK).
Note from the editors: Every issue of ICSU Insight highlights a project from
the ICSU family. If you think a particular project should be considered for
this, please write to insight@icsu.org.
New video: 2014 Young Scientists' Networking Conference
From 25-31 May, 30 young scientists from across the disciplines met at Villa
Vigoni, the German Italian Centre for European Excellence in Menaggio,
Italy, to work on their vision for a sustainable economy. In this video,
they give an insight into the broad range of their research interests and
their ideas for the future. Watch the video on our website.
The call for applications for the 2015 conference, on the topic of 'Future
Sustainability - the role of Science in the Sustainable Development Goals'
is still open until December 22nd.
Global conference on science advice to governments: final report available
The synthesis report of the first international conference of practitioners
and scholars on Science Advice to Governments which took place in Auckland
earlier this year is now available from the ICSU website. The conference,
which took place in August ahead of ICSU’s General Assembly, was convened
by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and hosted by New Zealand’s
Chief Science Advisor Sir Peter Gluckman. It brought together some 200
participants including science advisors, senior officials, representatives
of national academies, experts and scholars from more than 40 countries
across Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the United States, Canada
and Latin America.
CFRS supports scientists whose human rights are under threat as a result of
scientific activity
The Chair of ICSU's Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the conduct
of Science, Leiv K. Sydnes, recently attended a court hearing in Turkey
against the scientist Büşra Ersanlı. CFRS had monitored her situation since
she was first imprisoned. Ersanlı, a faculty member in the Department of
Political Science and International Relations at Marmara University in
Istanbul, was arrested in October 2011 as part of a crackdown on Kurdish
political parties. She was charged with suspected links to the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK). Ersanlı was in fact a member of the Assembly of the
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), and she never advocated violence.
Junior Science Officer at the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk programme
Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) is a decade-long research
programme co-sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the
International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the United Nations
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). It is a global,
multi-disciplinary approach to dealing with the challenges brought by
natural disasters, mitigating their impacts, and improving related
policy-making mechanisms.
The International Programme Office of IRDR in Beijing, China, is now
recruiting a Junior Science Officer.
Call for contributions to the UN Global Sustainable Development Report 2015
The Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) is a United Nations
publication aiming to strengthen the science-policy interface at the High
Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, which replaced the
Commission on Sustainable Development after Rio+20 as the main United
Nations platform providing political leadership and guidance on sustainable
development issues at the international level.
The call for contributions invites scientists to bring their science issues
and solutions to the attention of policymakers and participate in a
conversation with them.
The contributions should address an issue, finding, or research with a
bearing on sustainable development in its three dimensions ? economic,
social, and environmental ? or the inter-linkages between them. Thus the
focus could be on the review of up-to-date findings relating to a particular
issue, address the single issue of importance, or present solutions to a
problem or challenge. It could also present the 'story' of a research
finding that has great policy relevance but is not typically considered in
the policy debate. The briefs are to be factual and based on peer-reviewed
literature. Contributions from both the natural and social science
communities from all disciplines are highly valued and welcomed.
Find more information about the call on the UN Sustainable Development
website. The deadline for contributions is January 20th, 2015.
Peter Liss is the new interim Executive Director of ICSU
Prof. Peter Liss has joined ICSU at the start of October as the Interim
Executive Director of ICSU for the next months, until a permanent Executive
Director is appointed. Liss is an environmental chemist with research
interests in the interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere and
their role in global change. He is a Professor in the School of
Environmental at the University of East Anglia. Prof. Liss has been Chair of
the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) of ICSU, Chair of
IGBP's SOLAS (Surface Ocean ? Lower Atmosphere) project and a member of the
Future Earth Transition Team. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a
member of Academia Europaea.
More than 1,000 delegates gather in Geneva for talks on global disaster risk
reduction agreement
ICSU took part in the second preparatory session for the Third World
Disaster Risk Reduction Conference at the UN in Geneva from Nov 17-18. As
the organizing partner of the Science and Technology Major Group, ICSU
convened a delegation of more than 20 representatives from Europe, Latin
America, Asia, Africa drawn from research organizations, ICSU's IRDR
programme and ICSU's Regional Offices and partner organizations such as the
IAP.
The Science and Technology Major Group made a series of inputs via
statements in the technical workshops and co-chairs dialogue on issues
ranging from the contribution that science can make in the implementation of
the Framework, the links between the post-2015 agenda and DRR and the
integration of DRR with financing.
Future Earth Engagement Committee announced
Jairam Ramesh will chair the Committee, which will provide leadership and
strategic guidance on engaging societal partners with Future Earth, ensuring
that Future Earth provides the knowledge society needs.
ICSU publishes report of External Review Panel
The External Review Panel (ERP) was set up in mid-2013 to review the
activities of ICSU which had not been reviewed since 1996. 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 full report with the
Panel's findings is now available for download.
Landmark scientifc data conference ends with strong support of data sharing
for sustainability
SciDataCon2014, the International Conference on Data Sharing and Integration
for Global Sustainability, took place on 2?5 November in New Delhi, India.
It was motivated by the conviction that the most significant research
challenges?and in particular the pressing issues relating to global
sustainability in the face of ongoing natural and human-induced changes to
the planetary system?cannot be properly addressed without paying attention
to issues relating to equitable access to quality-assured and interoperable
datasets and their long-term management and preservation.
Call for nominations: ICSU Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the
conduct of Science
As a key policy committee, the CFRS safeguards and promotes the Principle of
Universality of Science, one of the strategic priority areas of the
International Council for Science. Nominations for individuals to serve on
this Committee are now invited. With the replacement of about a third of the
current membership, 6-8 new members are being sought.
Nominations should be summited using the form available from our website as
soon as possible, but no later than Friday, 19 December 2014.
Invitation to ICSU Members to host the CFRS secretariat
The International Council for Science has launched a call to its Members to
host the secretariat of the ICSU Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in
the conduct of Science (CFRS).
As a key ICSU policy committee, CFRS safeguards and promotes the Principle
of Universality of Science, one of the strategic priority areas of the
International Council for Science. For its core activities, the Committee
needs to rely on additional support. Since October 2010, the Swiss Academy
of Sciences (SCNAT) has very generously hosted the CFRS Secretariat.
The International Council for Science has now issued a call to its members
to consider hosting the CFRS Secretariat from October 2015 to ensure
continuity of CFRS’s work.
Expressions of interest should be submitted no later than Friday, 23 January
2015.
Asia Pacific
Urban Health and Wellbeing Systems Thinking Workshop, Xiamen, China
ICSU ROAP and its partners, the Institute of Urban Environment (IUE),
Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the newly established International
Programme Office on Urban Health and Wellbeing is conducting a systems
thinking workshop for a team of Chinese researchers on 11 and 12 December
2014, in Xiamen, China where the IUE is located. This will be the last
activity organised by ICSU ROAP for 2014. A group at IUE, led by Professor
Heqing Shen, is developing an urban air quality and public health pilot
project that will adopt the systems approach. The workshop will build on an
earlier systems thinking workshop that ICSU ROAP held in Kuala Lumpur in
January 2013. The workshop will also introduce the new ICSU-UNU-IAMP
International Programme on urban health and wellbeing, with its systems
thinking and system dynamics approach, to a wider group of scientists.
More news from ICSU's Asia-Pacific Regional Office
Latin America & the Caribbean
Society and Nature
The workshop "Society and Nature: Dialogue between natural and social
scientists on the challenges of sustainability" was organized by ICSU ROLAC
and ISSC at the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Rio de Janeiro, September
30th ? October 1st, 2014.
The main objective of this workshop was to facilitate communication between
natural and social scientists around energy issues, socio- environmental
risks, urban mobility, and problems of poverty and growing inequality.
Second Latin-American Forum of Disaster Risk Reduction in Higher Education
On November 24-26, ICSU ROLAC organized the “Second Latin-American Forum of
Disaster Risk Reduction in Higher Education” in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
Rüdiger Klein (Excecutive Director of IRDR) promoted aligning the strategies
of DRR in the LAC region and IRDR. The previews of the Consultancy hired
earlier this year were presented and an action plan of the Steering
Committee was drafted.
Tokyo Conference on International Study for Disaster Risk Reduction and
Resilience Tokyo, January 14-16
World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction Sendai, March 14-18
3rd Young Scientists Networking Conference on Integrated Science Menaggio, May 24-29
1st International Workshop on Supporting Future Earth with Global Geo-information Beijing, June 9-10
2nd COSPAR Symposium: Water and Life in the Universe Foz do Iguacu, November 9-13
