Although the official opening of this year's ASC event at the Harpa Conference Center in Reykjavík isn't until after midday on Monday 23 September, the action will begin earlier that morning with a SCICOM Open Plenary and SCICOM Open Sessions.
The day will kick off at 09.00 in the Norðurljós room with SCICOM Chair Manuel Barange giving a presentation of ICES draft Science Plan (2014-2018) and scientific highlights of the ICES network over the past year. This will be followed by four parallel SCICOM open sessions running from 10.30-12.00;, these sessions are opportunities for the Science Steering Groups, the SCICOM structures that coordinate the work of the 75 or so ICES science expert groups, to review their activities, strategize their science, and address common challenges.
Open sessions often result in new proposals for working groups, workshops or theme sessions for forthcoming ASCs. Three of these steering groups are meeting this year, with the extra task of looking at ramifications of the new Science Plan in terms of the running of expert and steering groups.
In addition, a meeting of the ICES-PICES Strategic Initiative on Climate Change and Marine Ecosystems will be held to review the recent and future activities of this coordinated activity on climate change in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
On Wednesday, 25 September from 14.00 – 17.00 there will be an Open Session entitled 'The challenge of integrated ecosystem understanding'
These sessions are open for all ASC-registered participants to attend.
