International Council for Science (ICSU)

Le Conseil International des Unions Scientifiques (ICSU) fut créé, suite à la dissolution du Conseil International de Recherche, à Bruxelles, en 1931, et y eut son premier siège social. La dénomination du Conseil a été transformée en « ICSU : Le Conseil International pour la Science » lors d’une session extraordinaire de l’Assemblée Générale en 1998, mais le sigle « ICSU » a été conservé. Le siège social actuel de l’ICSU est à Paris, France, où se trouve son Secrétariat.

Les principaux buts de l’ICSU sont les suivants :
a) encourager et promouvoir l’activité scientifique et technologique internationale
pour le bénéfice et le bien-être de l’humanité
b) faciliter la coordination des activités scientifiques internationales de ses
Unions Scientifiques et de ses Membres Nationaux
c) stimuler, préparer, coordonner ou participer à la mise en oeuvre de programmes internationaux, scientifiques et interdisciplinaires ;
d) servir d’organe consultatif sur les questions scientifiques ayant une dimension internationale
e) encourager le renforcement des ressources scientifiques humaines et physiques
partout dans le monde et, en particulier, dans la partie du monde en voie de développement
f) promouvoir l’accès du grand public à la science
g) prendre part à toute activité apparentée.

Télécharger les statuts de l’ICSU (pdf en français)

Founded in 1931 to promote international scientific activity in the different branches of science and its application for the benefit of humanity, the International Council for Science (ICSU) is one of the oldest non-governmental organizations in the world. It represents the evolution and expansion of two earlier bodies known as the International Association of Academies (IAA; 1899-1914) and the International Research Council (IRC; 1919-1931). ICSU’s strength and uniqueness lies in its dual membership, National Scientific Members and International Scientific Unions, whose wide spectrum of scientific expertise allows ICSU to address major, international, interdisciplinary issues which its Members could not handle alone.

ICSU seeks to accomplish its role in a number of ways. Over the years, it has addressed specific global issues through the creation of Interdisciplinary Bodies, and of Joint Initiatives in partnership with other organizations. Important programmes of the past include the International Geophysical Year (1957-58) and the International Biological Programme (1964-74). Major current programmes include the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), DIVERSITAS: An International Programme of Biodiversity Science and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP).

In 1992, ICSU was invited to act as principal scientific adviser to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro and, again in 2002, to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. Prior to UNCED, ICSU organized an International Conference on an Agenda of Science for Environment and Development into the 21st Century (ASCEND 21) in Vienna, in 1991, and ten years later, ICSU mobilized the scientific community even more broadly by organizing, with the help of other organizations, a Scientific Forum in parallel to the WSSD itself. ICSU is also actively participating in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, 2003 and Tunis, 2005.

In 1998, Members agreed that the Council’s current composition and activities would be better reflected by modifying the name from the International Council of Scientific Unions to the International Council for Science, while its rich history and strong identity would be well served by retaining the existing acronym, ICSU.

Accéder au site de l’ICSU.