On 4 May 2018, a meeting of the organizational committee on preparation and holding events to mark the 25th anniversary of the International Association of Academies of Sciences (IAAS) was held at the NAS of Belarus. The main celebrations are planned to be held on the basis of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus on September 20–21, 2018. Senior officials of the Academies of Sciences of the CIS countries and leading foreign academies, and famous scientists will arrive in Minsk.

The celebration events plan was considered in detail at the meeting. Thus, holding the IAAS Jubilee Session, an International Scientific Conference on Interacademic Interaction and Current Challenges of Our Time, and meeting of the IAAS Scientific Councils were discussed. As a result of the above-mentioned meeting, a collection of scientific reports will be published. The publication "25 years to the International Association of Academies of Sciences" will be prepared to the celebrations. The Chairman of the NASB Presidium Vladimir Gusakov said that holding such a landmark event was a recognition of the Belarusian science achievements. The IAAS Jubilee Session should be held at the highest level.

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For reference. The International Association of Academies of Sciences was officially established on September 23, 1993. On that day, a Constituent Assembly was held at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev, and the Agreement on Creation of the IAAS was signed. The organization’s goals were to unite efforts of scientists, to contribute in solving the most common scientific problems of the society development, to combine fundamental research, to coordinate scientific policies of the Academies of Sciences, to support the most promising research, and to use the unique and expensive equipment. In 2017, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus has become the IAAS headquarters providing its organizational and methodological support. Vladimir G. Gusakov, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Academician, was elected the Head of the International Association of Academies of Sciences (Resolution of the IAAS Council of May 25, 2017 No. 269). The IAAS Council is the highest governing body of the International Association of Academies of Sciences.

To date, the Association includes thirteen Full Members, namely the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the National Academy of Sciences of Georgia, the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia , The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. It also has six Associated Members, namely the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), Lomonosov Moscow State University, the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. Proposals for new academies membership are being considered. There are seventeen scientific councils on library science, biomedicine, botany, geography, geodesy and geophysics, history, sources of energy, book publishing, mathematics, science studies, intellectual property protection, physics, physiology, and functional materials of electronics.

Please visit the IAAS website for more information about it: http://www.int-maan.by