SCICOM Progress Report 2018

This annual report to the ICES Council summarises the scope, scale and impact of ICES science in 2018 and the plans of the Science Committee (SCICOM) for supporting future science delivery. The science committee is the main scientific body in ICES. SCICOM is ultimately responsible for the scope, scale and impact of ICES science and for implementing the science plan with the support of the ICES com-munity and Secretariat. The general objectives of SCICOM are to keep the science programme dynamic, internationally relevant, and impactful; to ensure seamless links between science, data and advice; and to engage with scientists in ICES member countries and beyond by planning an annual cycle of meet-ings, workshops and conferences as well as the Annual Science Conference (ASC).ICES science outputs and activities during 2018 included reports, books and papers from 104 expert groups; an ASC hosted by Germany and attended by 650 scientists from 34 countries; three co-spon-sored symposia covering topics related to climate change, sustainable development goals and historical ecology; five training courses; publication of seven Co-operative Research Reports (CRR), one ICES Techniques in Marine Environmental Sciences (TIMES) and four Identification Leaflets. Many new sci-entists were welcomed into the ICES community during 2018 as they joined three additional expert groups focusing on aquaculture or the first meetings of expert groups addressing economics and social indicators respectively. Capacity to track and highlight science outputs facilitated by ICES was im-proved with the introduction of a new database of ICES-facilitated peer review publications and the finalisation of a plan to recognise authors on the covers of expert group reports.Throughout the year, SCICOM focused on building closer working relationships with the Advisory Committee (ACOM) and more actively engaging with expert group chairs. Interaction with ACOM is being formalised by bringing all expert groups in ICES under the parentage of steering groups, and all steering groups will now report to ACOM and SCICOM. ACOM and SCICOM chairs have developed draft guidance on accelerating uptake of science into advice. For expert groups, ACOM and SCICOM have sought to emphasise more strongly their central role in the delivery of ICES science and to better understand and provide the support they need to work effectively. Additional support is being pro-vided by a new forum, additions to the guidelines for ICES groups, an expanded annual chairs meeting (69 attendees in 2018) and other regular meetings and events to bring chairs together from across steer-ing groups and committees.