Youth forum wins Mayor's backing
30 June 1999
The International Forum of Young Scientists (IFYS) - a group convened for the first time only shortly before the World Conference on Science - seems set to become a permanent body. Unesco director-general Federico Mayor has supported the idea of the forum as a formal non-governmental organization with representatives in each country.
Unesco would support the forum at an international level through its national structures. The forum has been encouraged to apply for funding at the next Unesco executive meeting in September, and it has been told that that young scientists - through this body - should be represented in the follow-up to the World Conference.
Laure Ledoux, a research associate at the University of East Anglia in Britain and president of the Marie Curie Fellowship Association (MCFA), cites her organization as an example of "an existing successful example of a network of young scientists at a European level". MCFA's experience in organizing networks of young scientists could lead them to play an important role within any future youth science forum..
 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1999 Registered No. 785998 England. |