A Bit of Background…
This site explains the structure of U.S. membership in the biosciences unions. More detailed information on recent activities undertaken by the different committees can be found on the individual committee websites.
Frequently Used Terms:
U.S. National Committee (USNC): Each committee is formed of experienced scientists nominated and appointed based on their ability to effectively represent their discipline and their interest in international engagement. The National Academy of Sciences currently convenes one national committee for each of the scientific unions to which it adheres.
International Union: Each union is composed of national adhering organizations from multiple countries. These adhering bodies are generally national science organizations, national research councils, or national scientific societies. The unions periodically hold General Assemblies or Congresses of their member bodies (usually held every 3 years) at which new officers are elected and union resolutions are discussed. In addition to these business sessions, scientific sessions are held which draw speakers and participants from diverse countries. The sessions provide a chance to learn about scientific developments in different regions and to build relationships with other researchers that could be valuable for future collaborations. In addition, many unions and national committees offer travel fellowships that allow younger scientists to participate in the meetings and to further develop their own international networks.
International Council for Science (ICSU): ICSU is a non-governmental organization whose members span the scientific disciplines. Its members currently include 113 national scientific bodies (including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences) and 29 international unions. ICSU has a broad mission to address policy issues relevant to international science, to promote the importance of science for policy concerns, and to support both scientific freedom and scientific responsibility.
The International Unions in the Biological Sciences:
The international scientific unions are non-governmental organizations devoted to promoting research in and addressing issues relevant to particular scientific disciplines. Each union’s membership consists of adhering bodies such as national academies of science as well as scientific organizations and societies. The unions thus represent many thousands of individual scientists around the world. IUBS, established in 1919, was the first union in the biosciences. As the biological sciences have expanded and diversified, more specific disciplinary unions have been created, including the unions for Microbiology (1927), Physiology (1953), Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1955), and Biophysics (1961). These unions provide a forum to promote collaborations and harmonization within the disciplines they represent
United States Membership in the Unions:
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was a founding member of ICSU and of most of the scientific unions, and is the locus for United States membership in many of these international bodies. The NAS exercises these memberships by convening U.S. National Committees of scientists for the unions to which it adheres. The U.S. National Committees to the unions fulfill important roles: (a) they maintain United States engagement in the fundamental structure of the unions, including drafting proposals, voting and paying U.S. dues, and (b) they undertake programs of benefit to the scientific community such as sponsoring capacity building activities and/or hosting symposia of special disciplinary and trans-disciplinary relevance. The national committees also seek to maintain close ties with other National Academies Boards such as the NAS Board on Life Sciences and with disciplinary professional societies, from whom many of their members are drawn. The committees also seek to publicize their activities to the U.S. scientific community they serve.
How the Committees Fulfill Their Mission