The third sessions of the third Governing Board and Advisory Committee for the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) under the auspices of UNESCO was held on the afternoon of November 9, 2023, in person and via video links.

IKCEST Director Wang Chen, also Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), attended and co-chaired the Governing Board session with Otthein Herzog, a foreign member of the CAE and a Fellow of acatech. The Advisory Committee session was co-chaired by CAE member Pan Yunhe and Raj Reddy, a foreign member of the CAE and a Turing Award laureate.

The governing board session reviewed and approved the "IKCEST 2023 Annual Work Report," briefed the implementation of resolutions from the 2022 Governing Board sessions, and discussed important issues related to the center’s future development. Prior to the session, the Advisory Committee meeting listened to work reports from general and sub-platforms, watched online demonstrations, and discussed matters related to platform updates, operations and services.

The participants fully acknowledged the work of IKCEST over the past year and made their suggestions, including expanding application of artificial intelligence such as AIGC and large models in platform functionality, integrating data resources to benefit more users, and continuing support for the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science with the aim of becoming a role model of regional cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

The meeting’s over 80 participants included Yang Xinyu, China’s Ambassador to UNESCO (representative of the National Commission of China for UNESCO), Dr. Ai Sugiura, Programme Specialist for Science Policy and Capacity Building at the UNESCO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (representative of the Director-General of UNESCO), Professor Jan Eloff from the University of Pretoria, representatives from the IKCEST general and sub-platforms, and members of the IKCEST Secretariat.