The selection of the new International Teams for 2022 has been announced after the expert reviews by the Science Committee. Our sincere congratulations to the four accepted joint ISSI/ISSI-BJ International Teams:
Baptiste Chide (US): Planetary acoustics: A brand new sense with which to explore atmospheres in the solar system
Wladimier Neumann (DE): Timing and processes of planetesimal formation and evolution
Primoz Kajdic (MX) & Xochiti Blanco-Cano (MX): Impact of upstream mesoscale transients on the near-Earth environment
Xiashua Zhu (CN) and Luli Chifu (DE): Magnetohydrostatic models of the solar atmosphere with new datasets
These four teams together with those selected in 2020 and 2021 will become the backbone of the scientific program of ISSI-BJ in the post-pandemic era. Perhaps because of the travel restriction imposed by the need of pandemic control, no proposal for meetings at ISSI-BJ only was submitted in this round. We believe that this situation will completely change in 2023. We are therefore looking forward to receiving many excellent proposals for ISSI-BJ teams and joint ISSI/ISSI-BJ teams.
I have had the opportunity to read the comments on individual proposals by the Science Committee and would like to share with you the following points that might be useful for writing an IT proposal.
1. Are the scientific topics/questions important, timely, novel, and cutting edge?
2. The work plan should not be too ambitious or too broad such that it cannot be completed within the time duration of the IT.
3. Concerning the composition of the team members, it is useful to identify the role and expertise of individual members; the geographical diversity (not limited to 2-3 institutions/countries) and gender balance (i.e., female/male ratio > 1/3) are also essential. The team is also expected to include early career researchers.
4. The main idea of the International Teams is to compare and integrate datasets from different space missions. Whether the datasets are in existence and readily available is then an important factor.
5. Whether the proposal is well-written or not might determine the evaluation score.
6. Finally, it is advisable to have internal review(s) before proposal submission.
There were a number of good proposals that just missed the acceptance mark, I would like to encourage them to re-submit their respective proposals after careful revision. Please remember that criticisms can be utilized as a tool to improve your plan and failure is a road sign to success.
"Technology is local, science is global" as Ex-ISRO Chairman, Prof. A.S. Kiran Kumar, once said famously. Such words of wisdom are needed much more than ever in today's world. Indeed, ISSI-BJ aims to be a center of peaceful international cooperation in space science by following the principle of scientific excellence and neutrality.
I hope that the global scientific community will support the continuous growth of ISSI-BJ by submitting more high-quality International Team Proposals in the time to come. Many thanks in advance.
Stay safe and be at peace.
Wing Ip
Executive Director, ISSI-BJ
