Mustapha Mokrane

Executive Director of the ICSU-WDS International Programme Offices

Mustapha Mokrane is the first Executive Director of the ICSU-WDS International Programme Offices Since March 2012. He worked previously at the International Council for Science (ICSU) as Science and Information Technology Officer coordinating ICSU's Scientific Data and Information activities and liaising with its partners. He was also responsible for the information technology related activities. After moving from Algeria, his home country, he trained as molecular biologist in France. His scientific background covers genetics and bioinformatics and he developed a strong interest for scientific data and information. He holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Aix-Marseille University.

About ICSU-WDS

Under the auspices of International Council for Science (ICSU), the World Data System (WDS) supports ICSU’s mission of ‘strengthening international science for the benefit of society’ by leveraging universal and equitable access to, and long-term stewardship of, quality-assured scientific data and data services, products, and information covering a broad range of natural and social sciences. WDS aims at facilitating the scientific research endeavours under the ICSU umbrella by promoting Trusted Scientific Data Services for the provision, use, and preservation of the relevant datasets. To fulfil its remit, ICSU-WDS is striving to build worldwide ‘communities of excellence’ for scientific data services by certifying member organizations—holders and providers of data or data products—from wide-ranging fields using internationally recognized standards. WDS Members are then the building blocks of a searchable common infrastructure with which to form a data system that is both interoperable and distributed.

ICSU-WDS & RDA
Engaging data practitioners is a key to success for improving scientific data interoperability. ICSU-WDS membership consists of data centres, data services, and networks thereof. It represents a wealth of scientific data management experience, which the WDS Scientific Committee is trying to harness and engage into activities to realize its vision. Considering the common objectives of RDA and WDS, and the possible involvement of WDS-affiliated individuals or organizations in RDA, the WDS Scientific Committee endeavours to coordinate and collaborate with RDA on activities of common interest, in particular through joint Interest and Working Groups.