History
At the World Conference on Science in Budapest in 1999, the International Forum of Young Scientists identified a need to promote the involvement of younger generation of scientists in the dialogue between government authorities, parliaments, educational institutions and to develop national science policies taking into consideration needs, opportunities and perspectives of young researchers. To that end, a World Academy of Young Scientists was proposed, to serve as a resource and network for young scientists and to harness their energy and expertise. This idea was further developed with the support of UNESCO and ICSU, culminating in the first General Assembly of WAYS in Marrakech in 2004.
The 1st World Academy of Young Scientists General Assembly, jointly organized by UNESCO in cooperation with ISESCO, the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education, Executive Training and Scientific Research, Morocco and the Morocco UNESCO National Commission, was held in Marrakech from 11 to 13 December 2004. 150 young researchers from 87 countries attended the meeting. In the framework of the WAYS's 1st General Conference, a Round Table on "Science contributing to the dialogue among civilization: the young scientists perspective" was also organized. On that occasion, it was strongly recognized that dialogue is a constituent element present in science and particularly highlighted the requirements of communication and mutual understanding for science cooperation.
In 2005, WAYS held a meeting in Budapest as a satellite to the World Science Forum.
At the Third World Science Forum in 2007, WAYS was renamed as the World Association of Young Scientists, to reflect its development as a network of scientists as opposed to an academy.
The International Council for Science was an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. Its members were national scientific bodies and international scientific unions.
Diversitas was an international research programme aiming at integrating biodiversity science for human well-being. In December 2014 its work was transferred to the programme called Future Earth, which was sponsored by the Science and Technology Alliance for Global Sustainability, comprising the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the Belmont Forum of funding agencies, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations University (UNU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is an association which promotes and organises science and the arts in Belgium by coordinating the national and international activities of its constituent academies such as the National Scientific Committees and the representation of Belgium in international scientific organisations.
The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, in Dubna, Moscow Oblast, Russia, is an international research center for nuclear sciences, with 5500 staff members, 1200 researchers including 1000 Ph.Ds from eighteen states, members of the institution. Most scientists, however, are eminent Russian scientists.
The International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) is a non-profit organization and non-governmental organization, founded in 1919, that promotes the biological sciences internationally. As a scientific umbrella organization it was a founding member of the International Council for Science (ICSU).
Mahdi Elmandjra was a Moroccan futurologist, economist and sociologist.
Ekmeleddin Mehmet İhsanoğlu is a Turkish academic, politician and diplomat who was Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) from 2004 to 2014. He is also an author and editor of academic journals and advocate of intercultural dialogue.
Federico Mayor Zaragoza is a Spanish scientist, scholar, politician, diplomat, and poet. He served as director-general of UNESCO from 1987 to 1999. He is currently the chairman of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and member of the Honorary Board of the International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World as well as the honorary chairman of the Académie de la Paix.
The International Social Science Council (ISSC) was an international non-governmental organization promoting the social sciences, including the economic and behavioural sciences. It was founded in Paris, France between 6 and 9 October 1952, under the auspices of UNESCO, following a Resolution at the 6th UNESCO General Conference in 1951. It was adopted on 19 September 1972, completed and revised on 14 November 1979, and underwent multiple revisions on 17 December 1985, 3 December 1992, 27 November 1998, 8 November 2006 and finally 10 December 2010. ISSC is registered in accordance with French Law.
The International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) is the global scientific organization and voice for food science and technology representing more than 200,000 food scientists and technologists from over 38 countries. It is a voluntary, non-profit association of national food science organizations. IUFoST is a full scientific member of the established in 1962, devoted to the advancement of, one of only 31 scientific unions worldwide and the only global representative of food science and technology to notable organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, United Nations Development Programme and (UNDP), CODEX Alimentarius.
The Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) is a non-profit organisation of scientists and technologists that works for the promotion of science and technology in the Islamic world. It was founded in 1986.
The World Science Forum (WSF) is an international conference series on global science policy. Since 2003, it is organised biannually in Budapest, Hungary.
The Science Communication Observatory is a Special Research Centre attached to the Department of Communication of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, set up in 1994. This centre is specialized in the study and analysis of the transmission of scientific, medical, environmental and technological knowledge to society. The journalist Vladimir de Semir, associated professor of Science Journalism at the Pompeu Fabra University, was the funder and is the current director of the centre. A multidisciplinary team of researchers coming from different backgrounds is working on various lines of research: science communication; popularization of sciences, risk and crisis communication; science communication and knowledge representation; journalism specialized in science and technology; scientific discourse analysis; health and medicine in the daily press; relationships between science journals and mass media; history of science communication; public understanding of science; gender and science in the mass media, promotion of scientific vocations, science museology, etc.
Science and technology in Morocco has significantly developed in recent years. The Moroccan government has been implementing reforms to encourage scientific research in the Kingdom. While research has yet to acquire the status of a national priority in Morocco, the country does have major assets that could transform its R&D sector into a key vehicle for development. The industry remains dominated by the public sector, with the universities employing 58% of researchers. Morocco's own evaluation of its national research system – carried out in 2003 – revealed that the country has a good supply of well trained high quality human resources and that some laboratories are of very high quality. However, the greatest gap at that point of time lied in the link between research and innovation. The educational qualifications of Moroccan researchers have increased significantly since the early 1990s. The University of Al-Karaouine is considered the oldest continuously operating academic degree-granting university in the world.
IMAGINARY is an open platform dedicated to the communication of modern mathematics. With over 100 different exhibits, software, films, texts, and images for free use and editing, IMAGINARY connects users from over 50 countries. Science museums such as the German Museum in Munich or the Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York have some of the exhibits in their collections. IMAGINARY also acted as an independent organizer of exhibitions.
The Global Young Academy is an international society of young scientists, aiming to give a voice to young scientists across the globe.
Science diplomacy is the use of scientific collaborations among nations to address common problems and to build constructive international partnerships. Science diplomacy is a form of new diplomacy and has become an umbrella term to describe a number of formal or informal technical, research-based, academic or engineering exchanges, within the general field of international relations.
Baku Process was initiated by the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2008 to establish an effective and efficient dialogue between cultures and civilizations. Based on the fact of existence of communities with historically different religious backgrounds, national-ethnic groups and rich cultural diversity in its territory, Azerbaijan has acted as the initiator of such a global movement.
The International Science Council (ISC) is an international non-governmental organization that unites scientific bodies at various levels across the social and natural sciences. The ISC was formed with its inaugural general assembly on 4 July 2018 by the merger of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC), making it one of the largest organisations of this type.
The International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations is a Mongolia-based research institute dedicated to the nomad studies. It was founded in 1998 under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; and it is one of the UNESCO's Category 2 Institutes and Centres.
