Co-Chair Eva Alisic represented the GYA at the General Assembly of the International Council for Science (ICSU) in Auckland, 30 August to 3 September 2014. The meeting was successful for the GYA.
Eva Alisic presented the GYA in a 2 minute “poster expresso”, where she took up the point that young scientists should be involved more and explained how the GYA provides a worldwide network of excellent young scientists and how this can help various stakeholders.
In addition Eva Alisic was included in the panel session on Open Data (organized by CODATA & the Royal Society) chaired by Prof. Raivio (former rector University of Helsinki). The session included speakers such as Prof. Boulton (Royal Society), Prof. Clegg (Foreign Secretary of the US National Academy of Sciences) and Dr. Gadagkar (President of the Indian National Science Academy). Eva Alisic pointed out the importance of including young scientists in efforts to develop open data systems, since they are the ones who are going to use them in the next decades. Moreover she clarified (based on publications of GYA member Sabina Leonelli) that data access does not equal data use, hinting towards the importance of building capacity (in particular in low- and middle income countries) to make sure that the gap between high and low resource settings becomes smaller, rather than larger.
Several high ranking persons within the ICSU GA explicitly mentioned the GYA in relation to early career scientists, amongst them Gordon McBean, the new President of ICSU, and many shared their enthusiasm for involving young scientists during informal meetings. The input of the GYA was sought for the preparation for a decision to involve early career scientists in advisory, review and governance bodies within ICSU and to support early career scientists.