CODATA joins with our parent body, the International Science Council (ISC), with other partners, including ISC members, in stating its deep dismay and concerns about the military operations being carried out in Ukraine and the resulting humanitarian crisis.
As the Committee on Data of the ISC, we call for the respect for international humanitarian law, and the preservation of scientific institutions and their valuable data resources. Most of all, we demand that the safety and well-being of our fellow scientists, data experts and colleagues be maintained.
Ukraine and Russia are both members of CODATA, and we work closely with many dear colleagues and friends at scientific and data institutes in both countries. Kyiv, now under attack, hosted the 2008 CODATA Conference and is the location of our partner organisations, the World Data Centre for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development, the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Many colleagues from these institutes, colleagues who have attended CODATA conferences and workshops, and young scientist alumni of our training activities, remain in Kyiv and are in danger. These women and men are our scientific colleagues, our partners in advancing the science of data and our friends in global collaborative work to use data better. Their freedom to pursue their scientific and human activities and their safety is paramount.
CODATA’s mission is to connect data and people to advance science and improve our world. We exist to bring scientists and data experts together to share knowledge and to collaborate across borders. Our origins lie in the bold and determined actions of scientists reaching across the Cold War divides in the great data gathering exercises of the International Geophysical Year of 1958, and subsequent concerted efforts to gather fundamental reference data in a host of research domains. We will continue to work in this spirit with all our colleagues. As stated by ISC we are “committed to continue advancing the equal participation and collaboration between scientists in all countries in its activities and the principle of the free and responsible practice of science which is enshrined in its statutes”.
The Officers, Executive Committee and Secretariat of CODATA are united in their wish for a peaceful resolution and are committed to the internationalism and collaboration that has been a notable feature of CODATA’s history.
CODATA Officers and Executive Committee, 2 March 2022
