Nighisty Ghezae, Director
It is with much excitement that I announce the publication of our IFS 50^th Anniversary Booklet, which is available for downloading here. As expressed in its introduction:

This commemorative booklet features essays that we originally published throughout 2022 as blog posts on the IFS website. Following the introductory piece about the founders of IFS, are testimonials from across the community of IFS stakeholders, drawn from surveys of grantees, alumni, Scientific Advisory Committee members and external advisors, Secretariat staff and members of the Board of Trustees. Our IFS grantees, alumni and colleagues responded to questions about defining moments in their own experiences of IFS that exemplify its role in science, what IFS support has meant for them, or why they have supported IFS in their various roles, and their visions for a future IFS. Taken together, these essays and other elements of our anniversary booklet paint a picture of the Foundation’s place in global science that was first imagined by the four founders who once sat around a table, turning an idea into one of their numerous scientific legacies.

I am also pleased to announce that we will be holding the “International Forum in Celebration of IFS’s 50th Anniversary”, whose purpose and objectives are:

Fifty years after its creation, IFS is commemorating the courage, wisdom, and foresight of its founders by convening an international forum that will lead to more significant progress on science for peace, prosperity and justice in the Global South. To be held in Stockholm on 10 November 2022 – in recognition of the UN’s World Science Day for Peace and Development – the forum will have these objectives:

1. Celebrate IFS’s remarkable record of supporting over 8000 early career scientists in more than 100 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean
2.    Identify issues and promising pathways towards:
   • Science for peace, prosperity and justice
   • The decolonization of science, and
   • Strengthening science and impact with indigenous and local community organizations
        
3. Present and discuss IFS 2.0 – A New Strategic Direction, and identify next steps

Stay tuned to this space for a blog post reporting the outcomes of the Forum. Thank you for all that you mean to IFS and for supporting the research of early career scientists in the Global South.

With thanks 

Nighisty Ghezae

Director