The body responsible for overseeing the periodic table plans to leave its base in the US and is calling for bids to provide it with a new home.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (Iupac) codifies the measures and nomenclature used by chemists, including the official names of elements and their atomic weights. It announced the decision to move on 19 June in a letter, addressed to the representatives of its national member bodies, seeking proposals to host the organisation’s administration.
Iupac’s secretariat has been based at Triangle Research Park, North Carolina for over 25 years, although it was always its intention to move around member nations. It was formed in 1919 and was initially located in Paris, France, at the headquarters of the Société de Chimie Industrielle. Between 1955 and 1967, Iupac’s only address was a postal office box at Zurich airport in Switzerland, before it set up its first independent office in Oxford, UK in 1968. It then spent three decades in the UK, before transferring to Research Triangle Park in 1997. Initially, it had only planned to stay in the US for 10 years and then ‘review the location [of its HQ] every 10 years. This would confirm Iupac as a globally active, international organisation’.
This latest move is understood to reflect the aim to be truly international, with no fixed home, as well as reducing the overhead costs of running an office in the US. It also reflects digital working becoming commonplace, as around half of Iupac’s staff are already based outside of North Carolina and work remotely.
In a letter to members, Iupac stated that the move is a ‘significant undertaking, but it reflects the global nature of our organisation’. Any country interested in becoming the body’s new home must be able to ensure smooth financial transfers; provide office space for up to five staff and rooms for meetings of up to 20 people; offer staffing support including human resources, finance and IT; and help the organisation to establish its legal presence in the host nation.
‘After 27 wonderful years in North Carolina, Iupac is seeking a new home for its permanent secretariat,’ said Zoltan Mester, Iupac’s secretary general. The organisation would be looking for ‘a place that reflects our values and commitment to the global scientific community’, he added.
Countries interested in becoming the new home of Iupac have until 30 September 2024 to apply.
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