Dear IFAC Friends and Colleagues,
At the 2019 IFAC Council meeting in Vienna, Austria, it was decided to change the proce-dure for selecting IFAC presidents and IFAC World Congress locations. In the past, these two decisions were made as one. A country bidding for organizing the Congress was bound to bring forward an IFAC compat-ible President candidate. Conversely, people deeply committed to IFAC could serve at this decisive presidential level only if backed by a solid team capable of organizing this World class event. Starting from now, the decision about the location of the congress is separate from the decision about the IFAC president. Overall, the procedure contains three stages.
The first stage aims at gathering Expres-sions of Interest (EoIs) from National Member Organizations (NMOs). Every country is invited to express the interest for organizing the World Congress in the future. The application files are very minimal: limited to three pages, typically one about the strong IFAC oriented activities of the NMO, one about the suggested congress location and one about the planned organizing team. These EoIs are not only applications to organize the event, but also expressions of a country’s wish to participate more in IFAC activities. EoIs are submitted for evaluation by the Council eight years ahead of a World Congress. IFAC Secretariat is currently collecting all EoI for the Congress to be held in 2029. The deadline of EoI submission was extended to May 15. The Council at its July 2021 meeting shall decide which bids are selected for the second stage and may provide recommendations to all countries having submitted EoIs.
The second stage lasts for one year, during which the selected candidates prepare a concrete detailed description of their proposal for hosting the World Congress. From these the IFAC Council chooses one bid. The 2022 Council meeting will select the organizing team and location for the 2029 Congress.
The third stage of the procedure, which is now separate from the two others, is the choice of the IFAC President for the triennium that precedes the Congress. Presidential candidates must be eligible according to the criteria in Article 17 (b) of the IFAC Constitution. IFAC Council shall appreciate the fit between the Congress organizing team and the President, when selecting the president-elect. The next choice of a president for the 2026-2029 triennium shall occur during the 2022 Council meeting.
For now, I wish good luck to all NMOs submitting Expressions of Interest for the 2029 World Congress. For any question or feed-back about the new procedure please feel free to contact me or the IFAC Secretariat.
Hajime Asama, IFAC President 2020-2023