Seventeenth WDS Scientific Committee Meeting

The 17th Meeting of the WDS Scientific Committee (WDS-SC) took place on 30 September–01 October 2017 at the Heian Hotel in Kyoto, Japan.

In addition to a number of reports on WDS endeavours—including the WDS Asia–Oceania Conference 2017 and at iPRES 2017 both taking place in Kyoto earlier that week—a very large part of the meeting was dedicated to two key topics:

1.The development of a new Implementation Plan for the period 2018–2019. The WDS-SC has updated the WDS Strategic Plan for 2018–2022—in particular, reducing the number of Strategic Targets from five to three—and used several brainstorming and presentation sessions to look at deliverables over the coming two years that will go towards the realization of these Targets. The WDS International Programme Office will now finalize the Strategic and Implementation Plans ready for publication at the start of 2018.

2.The future direction of WDS strategy in relation to the potential merger between the International Council for Science and the International Social Science Council. The SC Chair, Prof Sandy Harrison, is to give a presentation on ICSU-WDS at the 32nd ICSU General Assembly in which the decision to merge the organizations will take place, and the WDS-SC reaffirmed WDS’ position in the data landscape, both current and prospective.

A summary report of the Meeting is in preparation and will be placed on the Meeting Reports page when completed.