Update on IAP and its regional networks

IAP and its four regional networks were invited to Rome by the president of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei to present their activities to participants of the G7 Science Conference. The conference itself, which took place on 3 May 2017, was attended by some 50 Italian and international delegates, including Italy’s Minister of Economy and Finance and Minister of Cultural Heritage.

Representing IAP for Science, co-chair Krishan Lal highlighted IAP’s four strategic aims, namely: building a science-literate global citizenship; providing advice to policymakers on scientific issues; strengthening the global research agenda; and strengthening its own networks of academies. He then went on to describe in more detail how IAP achieves these objectives through a series of global projects and activities.

Likewise, representatives of each of IAP’s four regional networks provided overviews, highlights and achievements of their work:

• activities carried out in Africa were presented by Mostapha Bousmina, president of NASAC;
• Juan Asenjo, co-chair of IANAS, presented the work of academies in North, South and Central America;
• Yoo Hang Kim, president of AASSA, presented the successes and ongoing activities in the Asia/Pacific region;
• work being undertaken in Europe was presented by EASAC president, Thierry Courvoisier.

Each of these five presentations is available below.

Core funding for each of the regional networks is provided by IAP from its annual contribution received from the Government of Italy. The event in Rome therefore provided opportunity for IAP to express its gratitude to the Italian government, including Italian President Sergio Mattarella, for its ongoing support.

The conference was organized to provide an opportunity to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and other academies of G7 member countries to present a series of three statements to the Italian government in advance of its hosting the G7 Summit in Taormina this coming May.

The full programme of the event plus reports from the G7 academies presented at the meeting, together with media reports (in Italian), are available on the Lincei web pages.