29.12.2010

At the end of December, 2010, representatives of International Council for Science (ICSU) executive board visited National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Tokyo, Japan that has generously offered to host and financially support the International Program Office (IPO) for ICSU World Data System (ICSU WDS).

Among the scientists who has visited NICT there were- Yuan Tseh Lee - ICSU President-Elect, Deliang Chen - ICSU Executive Director, Bernard Minster – head of WDS Scientific Committee (WDS SC), Michael Diepenbroek – deputy head of WDS SC, Mustapha Mokrane – Science and Information Technology Officer at International Council for Science.

International Programme Office (IPO) will serve to manage and coordinate the operations of the ICSU WDS and also will take responsibility for outreach and promotional activities. The IPO will act under the guidance of WDS SC.

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) is an administrative agency that carries out research and development in the field of information and communications technology and remote sensing technology. It has been supporting the WDC for Ionosphere during 53 years. NICT will provide fully equipped office space for the WDS-IPO in Tokyo, Japan. The computational equipment for development of WDS activities (e.g., web site, data processing, data producing and data service) will be also fully provided by NICT.

During the visit ICSU representatives were discussing the organizational structure of IPO, new aims and they were exchanging ideas in hope of future effective collaboration.