Walter Spiess
Meeting of the ICSU Bio-Cluster Group
The International Council for Science (ICSU) has organised its Unions into four Clusters: Physical, Chemical and Mathematical Science Cluster; Biological Science Cluster (Bio-Cluster); Earth and Space Science Cluster; and Social Science Cluster.
In a specially organised meeting of the Bio-Cluster ahead of the ICSU-Union Meeting on 29-30 April 2013 in Paris it was agreed that the Bio-Cluster should meet again ahead of the General Assembly scheduled for September 2014 in Auckland. Consequently two meetings of the Cluster in Auckland were organised by Angelo Azzi, President, International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) and Walter Boron (International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) on Friday 29 August to Tuesday 2 September 2014.
A variety of subjects was intensively discussed; the most prominent issue was that the representatives of the Unions stressed the need for close cooperation within the cluster in order to point to the relevance and importance of the Bio-Union within ICSU. To facilitate the cooperation and to allow communication for rapid decision making, Nils Chr. Stenseth was appointment as Bio-Union Coordinator, Lee Yuan Kun as Deputy Coordinator and Elaine Faustman as Secretary, the trio will serve in these capacities until the Bio-Unions’ Cluster meeting in Toronto in June 2015. Walter Boron indicated that IUPS could help from an administrative viewpoint to organise regular meetings of the Bio-Unions’ Cluster. First aims of the cooperative effort are that:
IUBMB offered to organise workshops and other events on the island of Spetses in Greece. IUBMB has secured as a suitable venue at the Island for the month of May for the next 10 years; therefore there would be no cost to participating Bio-Unions for the lecture room. IUBMB and IUPS are already cooperating on an Advanced School on Receptors and Signaling to be held on Spetses in May 2015. The cost of a 7-day Advanced School for 80 participants is estimated at ~US$ 70.000. IUBMB has committed US$ 25.000 for the 2015 event.
IUBMB (Angelo Azzi) and Walter Boron (IUPS) suggested creating a pool of funds to support inter-Union events. The idea was received with some reservation.
Walter Boron indicated also his intention to organise a follow-up to the successful Satellite Symposium on Systems Biology held in conjunction with the Birmingham IUPS Congress in Rio in 2017.
Herb Voigt indicated that the next triennial IUPESM (International Union of Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine) Congress will be held in June 2015 in Toronto, Canada. On the agenda of the Congress are ICSU-relevant topics. It was decided that the next meeting of the Bio-Union Cluster will be held during the Toronto Congress.
In a discussion of the Bio-Union’s relation with ICSU Angelo Azzi expressed concerns regarding the process for election of Officers, in particular the mechanism whereby the ICSU Executive Board selects candidates from the pool of nominees, and the lack of transparency of the process.
31st ICSU General Assembly (GA)
Meeting of the ICSU Union
Traditionally separate meetings of the ICSU Member Union Representatives and ICSU National Member Representatives precede the ICSU-GA. The meetings serve for the preparation of the ICSU office-holder elections and as a platform for a general discussion of actual problems. During the Union meeting some Unions voiced their discontent regarding the process for the election of officers, especially the lack of transparency of the process was quoted (see also above).
It was decided to file resolution in the GA asking for a more open selection of candidates for ICSU office-holders. (This was done and also approved by the GA.)
General Assembly
The ICSU General Assembly was hosted by the Royal Society of New Zealand at the Sky-City Convention Center in Auckland. The assembly was attended by around 260 participants amongst them 103 National and 43 Union representatives and also 6 representatives of Young Scientist organisations. The meeting was informally opened by an address of the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Right Honorable John Key; in his address he mentioned the importance of food science for the development of the economic situation of New Zealand. Walter Spiess could very briefly speak to the Prime Minister and encourage him to provide also the necessary financial means for food research.
Further remarkable, highly interested contributions which were not directly related with the subject of the GA were presented by invited speakers, including:
“The changing nature of science; can scientists rise to the challenge?”
Imbedded in routine business affairs, e.g. to note and approve reports from Union and National Members’ Fora and by ICSU Office Holders, presentation/election of new Office Holders etc., were reports on ICSU-sponsored and co-sponsored scientific programs. From IUFoST’s perspective especially relevant were reports on programs which aim to a better understanding of the consequences of global environmental change and their impact on global food security. These programs include, for example, the ICSU-sponsored
Global Environmental Change programs — the World Climate Research Programme
(WCRP), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), DIVERSITAS, and
the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP), Urban Health and Well-being.
With the implementation of the Future Earth Program part of those programs will be integrated into Future Earth. The progress achieved so far on the development of the Future Earth Program was presented in detail and also discussed rather extensively. In the presentations on Future Earth the need for integrated approaches to the complex set of problems and challenges facing future generations was highlighted.
Main issues in the discussion were questions around detailed program elements which are so far not really visible. It is expected that future meetings on Future Earth will help to define entry points for specific activities. Parts of the initiatives to get Future Earth started are fast-track initiatives which will focus on emerging issues and which will comprise also Young Scientists activities organised by ICSU and ISSC.
Highly interesting for IUFoST was the report on Rio+20 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ICSU was involved in the preparation and organisation of the conference in Brazil. Amongst others the promotion and the launch of the 10-year international initiative Future Earth took place at the conference. According to ICSU President Lee the event as such and the various reports and recommendations were disappointing and rather vague. The conference however demonstrated the need and value for/of science for policy. A positive outcome is certainly also the appointment of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Secretary-General of the UN and related bodies.
Further discussions at the GA focused on the reports of the CSPR on the Implementation of the Strategic Plan, 2012-2017; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Assessment Report (AR5)); Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the conduct of Science (CFRS); Document on Open Access; CODATA Review; External Review of World Data System (WDS); and Regional Offices
A lively interruption of the GA routine was the presentation of Posters in the “Poster Expresso”. IUFoST’s Poster was prepared and presented by Pingfan Rao.
Almost a common theme of the GA was the focus on young scientists or in other terminology on early career scientists. Various Unions stressed their engagement for young scientists mentioning specific programs to promote young scientists. At the GA a special panel was set up to allow young scientists to articulate their expectations and needs. The keynote speaker mentioned in her address IUFoST’s efforts to establish a Young Scientists Academy as worthy of imitation. In this context also the paper “shaping-the-future-of-young-academies” is of interest.
In the election processes according to the ICSU statutes mainly new and younger delegates were favored:
The new ICSU Executive Board consists of:
Taiwan was elected as venue for the next GA.
Overall Résumés and Recommendations Regarding IUFoST’s Further Involvement in ICSU Related Activities
As expressed in previous reports, the participation in meetings of the ICSU Bio-Cluster Group and the General Assembly offers an outstanding opportunity to present IUFoST to the members of the ICSU family especially to sister Unions but also to National Science organisations. Gradually the representatives of the Unions consider food science / technology represented by IUFoST as an important and relevant segment of science; this was very nicely demonstrated after the address of the Prime Minister of New Zealand when Union delegates asked Walter Spiess to meet the Prime Minister and to compliment him on his address.
At that point it should be stressed that IUFoST’s efforts to become a fully accepted and recognised member of ICSU should be mirrored by IUFoST’s efforts to open itself to other scientific areas within but also outside the ICSU spectrum. This task requires the input not only from a small working but a taskforce consisting of representatives of disciplines represented in IUFoST, e.g. food chemistry, food microbiology, sensory science, food engineering and others.
The meetings of the Bio-Cluster are getting more and more productive, so IUFoST should strengthen those contacts and be a constructive partner in developing Bio-Cluster initiated projects; an actual opportunity would be the participation in the Spetses Summer School in 2015.
The involvement into the ICSU science program should also be enforced especially with regard to the Future Earth Program. In discussion with Frans Berkhout the idea was developed that IUFoST should name a permanent representative to the program, as a candidate who could be approached; John Ingram was proposed.
Very prominent in all discussions was also the support and promotion of young scientists or in the more favored terminology early career scientists. According to early career scientists the organisation of mentoring programs would be helpful to receive support, such as:
In discussions with representatives of the Early Career Scientists Panel it was suggested that the IUFoST Young Scientists Academy should seek membership in the Global Young (Scientists) Academy which is hosted by the Berlin-Brandenburg Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Germany. (http://www.globalyoungacademy.net/about_us/contact-details).
Prof.Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Walter E.L. Spiess is a former President (1999-2003) of IUFoST and can be contacted c/o Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT), Institut für Bio- und Lebensmitteltechnik, Kaiserstrasse 12, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany; e-mail: walter.spiess@partner.kit.edu
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FOOD FRAUD PREVENTION
Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Puwiyatno Hariyadi who has been elected to the position of Vice-Chair of the CODEX Alimentarius Commission.
Dr. Hariyadi is a Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFoST) and Senior scientist, SEAFAST Center; Professor, Dept. Food Science and Technology, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia.
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