From March 17 – 20th, 2008, members of the IPY sub-committee for Education, Outreach, and Communication, working group co-chairs, and invited experts, met in Strasbourg to discuss the second year of IPY activities, identify energy that should continue beyond the ‘publicly expected’ IPY end date of March 1st, 2009, and through and beyond the publication and presentation of IPY science in 2010 and 2012. Many of these activities and networks have the potential to become critical legacies of IPY if managed carefully.

The IPY EOC sub-committee strives to develop and integrate activities that (a) keep IPY science at the heart of outreach and (b) are relevant to a wide range of partners across a broad audience. To ensure this, the committee has a range of experts from around the world representing many disciplines and professional backgrounds. While this cross-disciplinary group develops common strategies, specific activities and events within these themes are developed in audience-specific flexible working groups in order to include a wider breadth of global experience and professional expertise. Members of both the sub-committee and working groups were invited to join a meeting in Strasbourg hosted and supported by the European Science Foundation, and we were very happy to end up with 21 participants representing 14 nations and a broad range of personal and professional experience.

Many thanks to the European Science Foundation for hosting and supporting this important meeting.


Strasbourg Meeting Notes (13MB PDF)
Meeting Summary and key ideas (208KB PDF)
short 'Small Legacies' document