Institutes and Centres in the Natural Sciences

Category 1 Institutes

UNESCO’s Category 1 institutes, which are an integral part of UNESCO, institutes build scientific capacity in Member States, essentially in developing countries.

• Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) 
  Trieste, Italy

  ICTP is a driving force behind global efforts to advance scientific expertise in the developing world. Although operating with significant autonomy, the programmes of this institute are an integral part of the UNESCO Natural Sciences Sector programme.  ICTP hosts The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS), a UNESCO programme that works to support sustainable prosperity through research, education, policy and diplomacy. GenderInSITE, an international initiative to promote the role of women in science, innovation, technology and engineering, and a programme unit of UNESCO, is hosted by TWAS.
   

• UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS)
  Montreal, Canada

  As part of its mandate, UIS collects and disseminates science statistics across the United Nations system gathering data from more than 200 countries and territories through its biennial survey and partnerships with key organizations. Science statistics are used in particular to compile the UNESCO Science Report. 

Category 2 Centres and Institutes

Category 2 centres and institutes contribute to the execution of UNESCO’s programme through capacity building; the exchange of information in a particular discipline; theoretical and experimental research; and advanced training. They are under the auspices of UNESCO but are not legally part of the Organization; they are associated with it through formal arrangements approved by the General Conference. These centres and institutes form a vast network of associated centres in the fields of water, renewable energy, science policy, biotechnology, geosciences, the basic sciences and remote sensing.