[CODATA-international] CODATA Statement on the War in Ukraine

Fri Mar 4 08:13:23 EST 2022

Dear Colleagues,

It’s difficult to find the relevant words in this situation, and beyond the words to take the right decisions.

Here is the official message we received this morning, also published on our web site<https://www.inrae.fr/actualites/conflit-russie-ukraine-position-officielle-dinrae> (INRAE is a French research organization specialized in agri-food and environment). I’m translating it below :

·       we will welcome Ukrainian scientists who wish so to our laboratories with the help of the PAUSE program<https://www.campusfrance.org/en/pause-program-urgent-aid-scientists-exile> (National Assistance Program for the Reception of Scientists in Exile).

·       we suspends all scientific collaborations with Russia.

·       Russian students, researchers and teacher-researchers working in INRAE laboratories can continue their activities normally.

·       we will provide all necessary assistance to our Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian students and contract workers, at the level of each research center. Special follow-up of INRAE employees of Ukrainian nationality will be provided according to their family situation, by facilitating the procedures for them with support structures, for example.

I’m not aware of CODATA membership rules and governance, but I guess this question of “suspension” should be addressed at the proper level of CODATA governance and not on a mailing list even if I find this thread really interesting and maybe supportive for our Ukrainian colleagues.

My best wishes

Odile

De : CODATA-international [mailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org] De la part de Hans Pfeiffenberger
Envoyé : vendredi 4 mars 2022 11:49
À : codata-international at lists.codata.org
Objet : Re: [CODATA-international] CODATA Statement on the War in Ukraine

Dear Kostiantyn,

I wish you and the people of Ukraine the best possible outcome in your fight for your freedom and your lifes!
(And I know this may sound lame, but I do not know how to better express my thoughts and feelings ...)

You urged "to initiate the termination of all forms of cooperation with Russian scientific organizations".

30 hours after the begin of invasion, i.e. on Friday, 25 Feb, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research issued a statement that cooperation with Russia in science and research as well as in vocational training is currently stopped. All current and planned measures with Russia would be frozen and critically reviewed. There will be no new cooperations for the time being.

Individual research organizations rushed to implement this directive, e.g., on Tuesday from an institution with strong research cooperation with Russia, which is quite important to its mission:

"1) Cooperation between <NNN> with Russian state agencies will be discontinued immediately (discussion formats will be cancelled)"

(It is made clear in such implementation guidance that this will apply to Belarus as well)

best wishes,

Hans

Am 04.03.22 um 03:05 schrieb Kostiantyn Yefremov:
Dear friends!

Let me, on behalf of the World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development team and the Ukrainian scientific community, express gratitude for the words of support expressed in the CODATA Statement on the War in Ukraine and your personal messages and letters. It is very important for each of us to feel the support of friends and colleagues in this difficult time!

I'm afraid that you do not quite accurately imagine the scale of what is happening in Ukraine. Russia is waging a full-scale war on the Ukrainian territory. The Russian army has invaded along the entire length of the border between Ukraine and Russia, and is also attacking from the territory of the Republic of Belarus (the total length of the border is about 3,000 km).

The Russian army uses aviation, rocket artillery, vacuum and cluster bombs. The Russian army cannot achieve superiority over the Ukrainian military and launches rocket and bomb attacks on civilian targets, killing and injuring civilians. Entire residential areas of a number of large Ukrainian cities were destroyed, including Kharkov, Sumy, Chernihiv. Constantly carried out rocket attacks on the capital of Ukraine, the city of Kyiv. Many small towns were affected. Tonight, as I am writing this letter, Russian troops are shelling the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, from tanks, and a fire has already started on the territory of the plant.

The tragedy of this war has already affected every family in Ukraine. Putin declared denazification as one of the goals of the war, which implies the destruction of Ukrainian culture, traditions and their bearers - i.e. genocide.

Reliable information about the course of military operations and the basic needs of the defenders of Ukraine is published quite quickly on the website https://war.ukraine.ua/ and twitter https://twitter.com/StratcomCentre.

We are very grateful to the international community for their help. Thanks to the international support of partners from all over the world, the armed forces of Ukraine are now holding back the onslaught of one of the strongest armies in the world. We understand that Putin will not stop to the conquest of Ukraine. In future plans - to unite under the auspices of Russia all the countries of the Warsaw Pact, which threatens to destroy the fragile balance of global security.

Therefore, it is now extremely important for all progressive forces to unite and repulse the aggressor in all possible directions. Tough times call for tough decisions. We encourage the international scientific community to express their support for Ukraine not only in words but also in deeds. In addition to the sanctions imposed by your countries, we ask you to initiate the termination of all forms of cooperation with Russian scientific organizations (including the consideration of applications for new projects, the termination of funding for existing projects, the temporary exclusion/restriction of participation in the international scientific councils and unions, and etc.).

We also urge you to temporarily suspend Russia's membership in CODATA.
We have many great colleagues in Russia, we know them personally, we know that many of them do not support the government's actions to attack Ukraine. But now we are not talking about individuals. The proposed restrictions should concern institutions. It so happened that Russian scientific and educational institutions are one of the pillars of the current regime in Russia. Therefore, it is extremely important to send a strong signal to such organizations through the introduction of restrictions.
With hope for the victory of Ukraine and  all progressive forces,
Kostiantyn

--
Kostiantyn V. Yefremov
, PhD
Director, World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development

National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”
Address: 37, Peremohy ave., 03056, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Phone: (+380 44) 204 8014<tel:%28%2B380%2044%29%20204%208014>
Fax: (+380 44) 204 8153<tel:%28%2B380%2044%29%20204%208153>
E-mail: k.yefremov at wdc.org.ua<mailto:k.yefremov at wdc.org.ua>
Web: http://www.wdc.org.ua<http://www.wdc.org.ua/>

ср, 2 мар. 2022 г. в 17:24, Asha CODATA <asha at codata.org<mailto:asha at codata.org>>:

[https://codata.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CDT_logo-sub_blue@3x-100-1024x451.jpg]CODATA joins with our parent body, the International Science Council<https://council.science/current/news/isc-statement-ukraine/> (ISC), with other partners, including ISC members<https://council.science/statements-international-scientific-community-conflict-ukraine/>, in stating its deep dismay and concerns about the military operations being carried out in Ukraine and the resulting humanitarian crisis.

As the Committee on Data of the ISC, we call for the respect for international humanitarian law, and the preservation of scientific institutions and their valuable data resources. Most of all, we demand that the safety and well-being of our fellow scientists, data experts and colleagues be maintained.

Ukraine and Russia are both members of CODATA, and we work closely with many dear colleagues and friends at scientific and data institutes in both countries. Kyiv, now under attack, hosted the 2008 CODATA Conference and is the location of our partner organisations, the World Data Centre for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development<http://wdc.org.ua/>, the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute<https://kpi.ua/en> and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine<https://www.nas.gov.ua/EN/pages/default.aspx>. Many colleagues from these institutes, colleagues who have attended CODATA conferences and workshops, and young scientist alumni of our training activities, remain in Kyiv and are in danger. These women and men are our scientific colleagues, our partners in advancing the science of data and our friends in global collaborative work to use data better. Their freedom to pursue their scientific and human activities and their safety is paramount.

CODATA’s mission<https://codata.org/about-codata/our-mission/> is to connect data and people to advance science and improve our world.  We exist to bring scientists and data experts together to share knowledge and to collaborate across borders.  Our origins lie in the bold and determined actions of scientists reaching across the Cold War divides in the great data gathering exercises of the International Geophysical Year of 1958, and subsequent concerted efforts to gather fundamental reference data in a host of research domains. We will continue to work in this spirit with all our colleagues. As stated by ISC we are “committed to continue advancing the equal participation and collaboration between scientists in all countries in its activities and the principle of the free and responsible practice of science which is enshrined in its statutes<https://council.science/what-we-do/freedoms-and-responsibilities-of-scientists/>”.

The Officers, Executive Committee and Secretariat of CODATA are united in their wish for a peaceful resolution and are committed to the internationalism and collaboration that has been a notable feature of CODATA’s history.

CODATA Officers and Executive Committee, 2 March 2022

Download the above statement<https://codata.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CODATA-Statement-on-Ukraine-FINAL.pdf>

--
___________________________

Overview of ISC data-related activities, CODATA and WDS: recordings from ISC members’ sessions 15 and 16 February 2022<https://council.science/members/isc-data-activities/>

January 2022 publications<https://codata.org/january-2022-publications-in-the-data-science-journal/> in the CODATA Data Science Journal<https://datascience.codata.org/>

Stay in touch with CODATA:

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___________________________

Asha Law | Program Assistant, CODATA | http://www.codata.org<http://www.codata.org/>

E-Mail: asha at codata.org<mailto:asha at codata.org>
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The CODATA International list is for announcement of of activities, events and outputs by CODATA and by other organisations and initiatives.  It is also for discussion of all issues related to data.  It is an open subscription list with only lightweight moderation to remove spam.  Messages posted on the list by third parties do not necessarily imply endorsement by CODATA.

--

Hans Pfeiffenberger

Consultant, scientific data infrastructures & policies

www.hans-pfeiffenberger.de<http://www.hans-pfeiffenberger.de>
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