The scientific community has tremendous potential for promoting global health, agricultural progress, environmental well-being, energy needs, and other pressing issues, yet it lacks an institution that can play an overarching role in mobilizing its members and organizations for these benefits. Such an institution is needed now more than ever, with the growing realization that integrated rather than narrow approaches are crucial for addressing key challenges such as extreme poverty and the glaring health problems that accompany it. Guided by the UN Millennium Development Goals and in collaboration with a broad network of institutions and individuals in the developing and the developed world, the Academy is creating such a body.

As a first step, Scientists Without Borders will focus on four under-addressed opportunities:

•Aligning Organizational Initiatives With One Another

•Aligning Individuals With Organizations

•Aligning Needs With Resources

•Aligning Past and Future Projects


Register in the Database
(http://scientistswithoutborders.nyas.org/)

why can't society like ACS do the job?

and the "Scientists without borders" skipped Asia and South America in their presentation of possible scenarios for scientific help :mad:

nice

Scientists Without Borders has a very interesting mandate, and may be useful when it is finally launched. I'm wondering, though, why this nascent hasn't advanced much in the year and a half since its "launch".

In November 2006(!) NYAS held a huge gala celebration in NY City in the presence of many highly influential people, to announce the launch of the SWB web portal, with over $ 1 million raised to support it. Why did NYAS (and the Millennium Project?) choose to launch the Portal when it was still just a concept? And why is the portal itself STILL a concept (the home page, which invites organizations to apply, provides no further information). Was the "launch" essentially selling a bill of goods?

Now that organizations are finally being asked to sign up, i.e., join the community, there is no clear strategy as to how these organizations would actually benefit from the portal’s resources. The portal is a “web-based matching service” between the various organizations signing on. However, with the backdrop of Google, Wikipedia, social networking sites, libraries, and the broad availability of informational resources, the added value of the SWB portal is not obvious. Why would an organization having these resources freely available to identify, say, funding sources, go to the SWB Portal?

Unlike doctors and at least some other professions, SWB will not have professionals in the field assisting those in need. Because of this, the Portal will need to provide the user community much clearer reasons to add its link to their list of Favorites.