Short description
(English)
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As an Institute of Advanced Studies, ISSI provides the International Space Science Community with a forum for meeting in an informal while productive atmosphere with results documented in the scientific literature. ISSI is organized as a Foundation under Swiss law. It is overseen by a Board of Trustees, advised by a Science Committee, supported by the Association Pro-ISSI, and run by a staff of 16 with a workforce of about ten full time equivalents. It uses Workshops, International Teams, Working Groups, Forums, and a Visiting Scientists and an Early Career Scientists program as elements to achieve its main objective of advancing knowledge in the space sciences. Its scientific program is defined in close interaction with the scientific community. Close to 1000 scientists have participated in ISSI activities every year in recent pre-pandemic years.
Since 2020, ISSI’s activities have been significantly affected by COVID-19. The number of visitors has been more than halved because of lock-down and travel restrictions ordered by government authorities. Coping with the difficulties and acknowledging that a simple return to pre-pandemic times
is unlikely, ISSI increased the level of digitalization of its activities and adjusted the ways of running its program. The community has been offered the possibility for hybrid meetings and opportunities to work together online, supplementing and enhancing in-person meetings. A new alternative and more
flexible way of planning and conducting workshop-to-book projects has been implemented. An online seminar series of talks has been launched that was attended by more than 10,000 in total. Many meetings needed to be postponed to this and the next years resulting in a substantially increased level
of parallel activities ISSI is running at the moment at a 150% capacity level.
The institute and its way forward are regularly reviewed, most recently by a Board of Trustees retreat in March 2020 and by an ESA evaluation board in May 2022. The retreat confirmed the value of the ISSI program elements as well as the shares of funds spent on these. It acknowledged ISSI’s publication record and its transition to publishing Open Access. Networking as a way of expanding ISSI’s reach was encouraged as well as its activities to be inclusive. ISSI was further encouraged to keep using social media for reaching out to the science community and to the public at large.
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