On September 4-6, 2023, the International Symposium on Open Science Clouds (ISOSC) was held in Beijing. The symposium was co-organized by the Committee on Data of the International Science Council (CODATA) and the Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Over 200 experts from 30 countries, including Canada, Mongolia, Japan, Australia, and USA, attended the symposium.

Based on the vision and strategies for Open Science, ISOSC aimed to review the current state of developments of the international open science clouds or platforms from policy, scientific, and technical perspectives. It facilitated discussions on the successes so far and the challenges ahead in pursuing the Open Science vision and encouraging collaboration across various Open Science e-infrastructure initiatives.

On September 5, Prof. Gretchen Kalonji, Dean of the Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction, Sichuan University-The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, gave a keynote speech entitled “Open Science for Disaster Mitigation”. Prof. Kalonji gave an overview of the links of the challenges of disaster risk reduction and response and the paramount importance of Open Science for addressing all the challenges. Furthermore, she called for effective transformations in higher education sector, and for more support for youth and young professionals in development of their multinational networks.