Abstract
The ICES Science Committee continues to support ICES science to grow in scale, scope and impact. The general objectives of the Science Committee are to work with the ICES community and Secretariat to keep the ICES science programme dynamic, internationally relevant, and impactful; to ensure seamless links between science, data, and advice; and to engage with scientists in ICES member countries and beyond by planning an annual cycle of meetings and workshops as well as the Annual Science Conference. 2023 has again seen immense commitment and tireless work of the whole network, including all individual scientists and especially the Secretariat helping the network to conduct its work. One new steering group chair was elected in September 2023 to lead the Ecosystem Observations Steering Group. The incoming chair will work with the current chair to ensure a smooth transition for 1 January 2024. The Strategic Initiative on the Human Dimension is transitioning to the Human Dimension Steering Group (HUDISG). The HUDISG Chair has started in September 2023 to steer the transition together with the outgoing SIHD Chair. Notable activities in 2023 included, (i) substantial work on the Science Plan Evaluation; (ii) development of elements for the stakeholder engagement strategy implementation plan; (iii) development of expert group chair training; (iv) process on developing roadmap for Offshore and Marine Renewable Energy Development (OMRE); (v) approval of data preservation plan, (vi) approval of paper collections for expert groups in the library; (vii) approval to join Ocean Practice Federated Network; (viii) furthering the engagement of new scientists participating in the ICES community; (ix) an increased frequency and strategic emphasis on science communication; (x) increasing the links between science and advice; (xi) maintaining and further develop international collaborations; (xii) fostering activities to increase links between national activities and ICES; and (xiii) the ICES Annual Science Conference in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain, including dedicated activities for Early Career Scientists. These activities have taken place alongside the continued delivery of science outputs and publications by the expert groups. One hundred and twelve working groups and forty-six workshops, supported by seven steering groups, were active in 2023. Expert group meetings in 2023 again saw a very high number of new participants and had a higher overall attendance than in previous years. An overview of the groups is presented in the new ICES Activities Dashboard developed by Secretariat. The Dashboard is still in a beta version, thus should be used with caution. The steering groups are meeting regularly to enable communication and create linkages between the expert groups within a steering group and across steering groups, and the SCICOM Chair meets regular with the steering group chairs to keep informed about developments in the network, to allow steering group chairs to put forward any issues and jointly discuss solutions. Focal areas of work in 2023 have been the regionalization of surveys and data use (NET-SEA); moving towards ecosystem-based management (EBM); the development of the Offshore and Marine Renewable Energy Development Roadmap; long-term time series; cumulative effects assessment and science-industry partnerships; as well exploring the development of new groups on animal welfare, food safety and nutrition and sustainable feed. The Strategic Initiative on the Integration of Early Career Scientists (SIIECS) was very active and one key achievement is the summer school on interdisciplinary science that was co-sponsored by Euromarine and ICES. A second iteration of InterDis is under planning with the aim of leading into the 2024 ASC and support is requested. The new Strategic Initiative on Graduate Education was approved and will have its first meeting in autumn 2023. It will work in close cooperation with the Training Group and SIIECS. Publications in 2022 and 2023 included, 162 Science Reports, 26 Business Reports, three CRRs, four TIMES and six Identification (ID) Leaflets for Plankton. In addition, four CRR and seven TIMES, are in the publication process. A project to digitize all ICES historical publications is ongoing. A record of all ICES publications has been compiled, resulting in a list of 42 publication series (the oldest of which started in 1900), and 34 publications out of series. The Science Impact and Publications Group (SIPG): the new ICES library provides the opportunity to create publicly available collections of publications from across the ICES library, which have their own DOI. In the 2023 SCICOM meeting it was approved that this functionality will also be made available to expert groups that have literature collections as one of their outputs. ICES has been approached to be a founding node of the upcoming Ocean Practices Federated Network (OPFN), together with FAO and OBPS. An assessment of the potential risks/benefits, carried out by SIPG, determined that becoming a node of OPFN would significantly increase the reach of ICES best practice publications, with no associated significant risks. SCICOM has approved that SIPG continues looking into becoming a node of OPFN and accept the proposal if no further risks or logistical issues are found. The Training Group has updated the roadmap for the Training Programme from 2024 to 2026. They will closely communicate and work with the newly launched Strategic Initiative on Graduate Education (SIGE). The Data and Information Group (DIG) worked with the Data Centre Work on the data preservation plan for ICES and the final version was approved at the SCICOM September meeting in 2023. The ICES data preservation plan details how ICES handles the long-term preservation of data within its remit to fulfill the goals set out in the ICES strategic plan. SCICOM adopted the proposed review process for data policies and licenses. The ASC was held again as a hybrid event this year. We had over 700 participants in-person and an additional 150 online. The initial feedback from the participants, the conveners and the staff was very positive. The format was tailored to the in-person conference and remote participation was possible, with some pre-recorded presentations presented during the theme sessions. The poster session had over 200 posters and a new element was expert group posters with a dedicated poster session which allowed exchange of the work of the groups. Inter-institutional collaborations in 2023 have included running joint expert groups, including with PICES, IOC, IMO, PAME, NEAFC, NAFO, OSPAR and HELCOM. A new cooperation agreement with SCOR was already signed in June 2022. At other levels, and with inputs from SCICOM, ICES has engaged in international processes linked to the Arctic, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, science, and advice in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction and the World Ocean Assessment. In 2023 five ICES co-sponsored international symposia were held: From Echosounders to the Cloud: Transforming Acoustic Data to Information, 5th International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Ocean, Human Impacts on Marine Functional Connectivity, Baltic Sea Science Congress, The Second International Symposium on Plastic Pollution in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions. In 2024, we will have the 7th Zooplankton Symposium, the Oceans Past Historical perspectives on human-ocean interactions: deep understandings for informing ocean futures, the Third International Science and Policy Conference on Implementation of the Ecosystem Approach to Management in the Arctic and the Marine Socio-Ecological Systems - MSEAS 2020: Navigating global change in the marine environment with socio-ecological knowledge and AQUA 2024. ICES is currently involved in more than 15 projects. The changing funding landscape as well as new developments in relation to international programmes (UN Ocean Decade) has led to a discussion on Strategic Project participation, which will feed into the Business Model Review. The implementation of the ICES Science Plan is progressing well. Work on the Science Plan Evaluation started in 2023 with dedicated sessions at the March SCICOM meeting and a national survey on science priorities conducted. A preliminary list of national science priorities contains: Offshore and Marine Renewable Energy Development OMRE); maritime spatial planning; new observation technology; cumulative effects assessment; aquaculture, especially low-trophic; and implementation of internationally binding legal frameworks, including Kunming-Montreal Framework with 30 by 30 and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ). The Science Plan Evaluation Group will work in 2023 and 2024 to update the Science Plan, which will be approved by SCICOM during its 2024 September meeting and tabled for Council approval in October 2024. An emerging area of attention is the rapid development of artificial intelligence, which already affects the works of the group and the production of publications.