COSPAR

The International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), now the International Science Council (ISC), established its Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) during an international meeting in London in 1958.

COSPAR promotes scientific research in space at an international level, with emphasis on the exchange of results, information, and opinions, and provides a forum, open to all scientists. COSPAR endeavors to ensure that a vibrant international space research effort can be conducted without impediment from geopolitical tensions or differences.

In its first years of existence COSPAR, as an entity that ignores political considerations and views all questions solely from the scientific standpoint, played an important role as an open bridge between East and West for cooperation in space. When this role became less prominent with the decline in rivalry between the two blocs, COSPAR, as an interdisciplinary scientific organization, focused its objectives on the progress of all kinds of research carried out with the use of space.

COSPAR Panel on Education

The COSPAR Panel on Education works on the development of means and appropriate media for encouraging and spreading space-related education. The Panel meets during education-targeted sessions at Assemblies or other events and supports relevant educational initiatives or entities outside of Assemblies. It works with COSPAR Scientific Commission Chairs, Panels, and other interested parties to identify the audience to whom the outreach and education is aimed, whether primary and secondary schools, universities, the general public via journalistic media, students, and especially underprivileged students in countries where space-related activities do not exist.

Rosa Doran  – president of NUCLIO – is currently Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Education.