SciDev.Net

FOUR50 is building a network of experts, activists and enthusiasts committed to preventing the epidemic of chronic disease and raising awareness about its devastating consequences. It aims to do this by focusing on the 3 risk factors (poor diet, lack of physical activity, tobacco use) that lead to four chronic diseases (CVD, diabetes, chronic lung diseases and some cancers) contributing to more than 50% of deaths worldwide.

This is a portal to the websites of associations that aim to advance our understanding of oncology and how to better treat patients with cancer, both in the developed and developing worlds.

Each partner association is represented in the portal with a website describing and providing information relating to the organisation, its structure, news, research projects, activities, membership, resource information, selected links, and so on.

Cancerworld also hosts the Cancer Media Service, operated by the European School of Oncology and aimed at journalists. The independent service aims to put cancer research into context, which it does by publishing well written and easy-to-read summaries of the latest cancer research. Perhaps even more useful is its list of resources for journalists that includes links to several medical dictionaries and cancer organisations worldwide.

GBEP aims to unite G8+5 countries in a commitment to promoting bioenergy for sustainable development. Its primary activities relate to energy security, food security and sustainable development.

GBEP aims to produce an updated inventory of networks, initiatives and institutions dealing with bioenergy. It also seeks to: identify gaps in knowledge or areas of weak understanding; carry out feasibility studies for market building activities, in cooperation with developing countries; establish mechanisms for raising awareness and dealing with internationally relevant issues, such as environmental standards, food security and trade, and gaps in technology and policy; and formulate standard guidelines to measure emission reductions gained by promoting and using biofuels in the transport and energy generation sectors.

IEA Bioenergy was set up by the International Energy Agency in 1978, with the goal of fostering collaboration between countries with national bioenergy programmes. It undertakes a series of 'tasks', each with a work programme led by a participating nation. Ongoing tasks include analysing bioenergy systems and producing biomass from sustainable forestry.

ISESCO aims to promote the separate and distinct educational, scientific and cultural heritage that combines the 57 OIC member countries. The primary purpose of the organisation is to coordinate the activities of specialist agencies responsible for similar functions within each of the OIC member countries.

ISESCO has helped develop a number of action plans and strategies on an OIC-wide basis in areas such as water resources, university education and Islamic culture. ISESCO has also started awarding prizes in education and literacy, sciences and university research, and culture and communication to individuals within the OIC member countries.

JCOM is an online journal on scientific communication, which is trying to become an interdisciplinary melting-pot capable of providing some theoretical guidelines for science communication. Each article undergoes multidisciplinary peer-reviewing by experts belonging to different areas of competence such as science, communication and theory of communication.

The Communication of Science and Technology network (PCST) Academy is responsible for the creation of the documentary basis of the Public Communication of Science and Technology network (PCST) and its main task is the selection and organized collection of reports on particular topics in the field of communication and social understanding of science.