2019 World Conference on Science Literacy (WCSL) Memorandum of Understanding on the Roundtable Meeting

Release time：2020-01-07

The 2019 World Conference on Science Literacy (WCSL) was held in Beijing on October 16-17. Representatives from 19 national S&T organizations in 18 countries participated in the Roundtable Meeting of WCSL 2019. In the spirit of the 2018 Beijing Declaration for Promoting Public Science Literacy Across the World, all participating representatives reviewed the Statute of the World Organization for Science Literacy (revised version), exchanged their views on the promotion of public science literacy and reached broad consensus on roadmap for the World Organization for Science Literacy.

I. All participating representatives highly recognize the significance of science popularization and promotion of public science literacy. They agreed with the spirit of the Statute of the World Organization for Science Literacy and collectively expressed support for the creation of the World Organization for Science Literacy.

II. It was decided that a Working Group should be set up to organize the establishment of the World Organization for Science Literacy, which will be composed of the senior representatives designated by the participating organizations. The Working Group will be responsible for expediting the establishment of the World Organization for Science Literacy, further revising and improving the Statute of the World Organization for Science Literacy, confirming strategic plans and protocols, preparing for other documents necessary for establishment of the Organization, proposing bilateral and multilateral cooperation projects and website of the Organization with the aim to facilitate collaborations and communication among science popularization organizations. The working meeting of the Group will be held before July 2020.

III. All participating representatives agreed that cooperative actions should be taken in near future to carry out joint projects on science education for teenagers, science museum building, science communicator training, science literacy evaluation and research, etc.

IV. As the sponsor of WCSL and the advocate of establishment of the World Organization for Science Literacy, CAST is willing to host the Working Group, raise the fund and provide the logistic guarantee. China Research Institute for Science Popularization, an affiliation to CAST, will act as secretariat of the Working Group.

We, members of the Roundtable, take trust, cooperation and development as our guiding principles and take the promotion of public science literacy as our common goal. We will actively seek practical and coordinated initiatives and we hope to join effort in accelerating the formation of the World Organization for Science Literacy.

Roundtable Meeting of 2019 World Conference on Science Literacy

2019.10.16

Beijing

Signed Countries (Alphabet by the Initials of Nations):

1. National Union of Algerian Scientists and Technologists

2. Australian Science Communicators

3. China Association for Science and Technology

4. Wissenschaft im Dialog, Germany

5. Association of Engineers, Architects and Graduates in Technological Sciences in Israel

6. Federation of Associations for Science and Technology, Italy

7. International Centre of Scientific Collaborations, Kazakhstan

8. Academy of Sciences Malaysia