International Science Council
Global non-governmental organization representing natural and social sciences
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Daya Reddy, a mathematician, served as the ISC's inaugural president. Sir Peter Gluckman, a pediatrician, biomedical scientist, and science-policy expert, was elected president in October 2021. Other ISC's inaugural officers elected for the term of 2018–2021 were Elisa Reis (vice president), Jinghai Li (vice president), Renée van Kessel (treasurer), and Alik Ismail-Zadeh (secretary). Until February 2022, Heide Hackmann served as the council's CEO. In 2023, Salvatore Aricò was elected chief executive officer.
Activities
The council convenes and mobilizes the international scientific community on issues of major scientific and public importance. Activities focus on three areas of work:
- Stimulating and supporting international scientific research and scholarship, and communicating science that is relevant to international policy issues;
- Promoting the ability of science to contribute to major issues;
- Defending the free and responsible practice of science.
The council is involved in co-sponsorship of a number of international research programmes, networks and committees.
The council awards the Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research.
The council's present activities are guided by the Action Plan 2022-2024: Science and Society in Transition. At the heart of the Action Plan is a selection of projects and programmes that are relevant to all scientific fields and all parts of the world.
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Structure
The council is governed by a governing board and is advised by a number of advisory bodies in thematic areas such as space, polar, climatic, and data research. It is headquartered in Paris with a regional office in Colombia. The officers of the governing board are currently Peter Gluckman (president), Motoko Kotani (president-elect), Anne Husebekk (vice-president for freedom and responsibility in science), Salim Abdool Karim (vice-president for outreach and engagement), and Sawako Shirahase (vice-president for finance of the council).
The ISC's next assembly is scheduled to be held in Beijing in 2026.
Members
As of 2025, the International Science Council has 131 member organizations, 43 member unions and associations, and 23 affiliated members.
Member unions and associations
National members
Transnational members
- Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS)
- Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils (AASSREC)
- Caribbean Academy of Sciences
- Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO)
- Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
- Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO)
- Union Académique Internationale (UAI)
- Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA)
- University of the South Pacific
Affiliated members
- Academy of Social Sciences (ACSS)
- African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
- Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA)
- European Association of Development and Training Institutes (EADI)
- European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
- Fédération Internationale des Géomètres (FIG)
- Global Young Academy (GYA)
- International Arctic Science Committee (IASC)
- International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP)
- International Commission for Acoustics (ICA)
- International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS)
- International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI)
- International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
- International Foundation for Science (IFS)
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
- International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE)
- International Society for Porous Media (InterPore)
- International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications (IUVSTA)
- Pacific Science Association (PSA)
- Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE)
- The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
- Transnational Institute (TNI)
GeoUnions
A subset of ISC dealing with Earth and space sciences forms the GeoUnions network:
- International Astronomical Union
- International Cartographic Association
- International Geographical Union
- International Union of Quaternary Research
- International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
- International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
- International Union of Geological Sciences
- International Union of Speleology
- International Union of Soil Sciences
- International Union of Radio Sciences
The ISC GeoUnions partially overlap with the UN-GGIM Geospatial Societies.
Former members
Since 2024, there are members that have departed from the council:
Member unions and associations
- International Economic Association (IEA)
- International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE)
- International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB)
National members
- Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS)
- Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
- Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK)
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
Affiliated members
- Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC)
- International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR)
- International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)
- International Federation of Data Organizations for Social Science (IFDO)(no longer exists)
- International Studies Association (ISA)
- International Water Association (IWA)
- Social Science Research Council (SSRC)