24 October 2016: Article from ICSU, SCAR’s parent body
World’s top bodies representing the social and natural sciences vote to pursue a merger, forming a single organization representing all social and natural sciences by 2018
At a landmark joint General Assembly of two leading international science councils, their members voted to merge, launching a process to form a single global entity that represents all social and natural sciences.
At an extraordinary General Assembly of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and a General Assembly of the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the two organizations’ members voted overwhelmingly that the two organizations should merge. This in-principle decision followed a recommendation by the two organizations’ executives, setting the two councils on a trajectory to become one by October 2018.
For the plans to go ahead, the majority of both councils’ voting members needed to vote in favour. 76% of the ICSU members and 87% of the ISSC members voted in favour of a merger of the two organizations, thereby setting the merger process in motion.