Page Updated: 20-Sep-2006
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Final meetings of the Science Committee

Background A raft of activities during the NATO week in Kazakhstan

With the decision by the North Atlantic Council (NATO’s highest decision-making body) to establish the Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Committee, the NATO Science Committee (SCOM) and the Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS) are now formally disbanded. SCOM final meeting in plenary session was held Almaty, Kazakhstan, on 19 June 2006. SCOM members previously gathered at NATO Headquarters on 9-10 March 2006.

The meeting in Almaty followed an invitation from the Kazakh government and kicked off a variety of public diplomacy events during the “NATO Week in Kazakhstan” that continued until 23 June. During the plenary discussion, SCOM members examined ways for NATO-supported cooperative scientific activities to provide greater benefit to Kazakhstan and its Central Asian neighbours.
Among other measures, the Committee decided to establish expert groups on explosives detection and radiological issues and to merge the Expert Visit and the Collaborative Linkage Grant mechanisms.  Additional issues included plans formulated for the next Security Science Forum, scheduled for mid-2007, and contacts made with other international organisations including the European Union Joint Research Centre Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen. 

NATO Public Diplomacy staff also reported on the status and direction of the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC), a joint project combining the efforts of NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the United Nations Development Programme.  ENVSEC aims to use environmental cooperation as a confidence-building exercise in vulnerable regions by working with regional stakeholders to identify environmental issues that are a threat to stability and peace.
SCOM meetings of March 2006 were held in Alliance and in NATO-Russia Council (NRC) format. The meeting in Alliance format focused almost exclusively on proposals for restructuring of SCOM and the CCMS on the basis of a report drafted by the Joint Working Group on restructuring.
The meeting of the NRC Science Committee reviewed the activities carried out under the NRC Science Committee Action Plan for 2005-2006 and proceeded with a discussion on the results of a workshop on “Stand-off Detection of Suicide Bombers and Mobile Subjects” under the Explosives Detection Working Group.

The NRC Science Committee approved six workshops proposed by the Expert Group on Cybersecurity that will be held between September 2006 and September 2007. In addition, the NATO Public Diplomacy Staff gave an update on the status of the proposed project jointly initiated by Prof Igor Kirillov of the Russian Federation and Prof Hans Pasman from the Netherlands on “Hazard and Risk Analysis for Aircraft Collision with High-Rise Buildings”. The proposal is currently with the Chemistry, Biology and Physics Panel for further input.

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