The acronym UNESCO narrowly missed not having the ‘S’ for science, because when plans were being laid for the foundation of the Organization towards the end of the second world war, education was the main theme, and the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education had proposed a UNECO. The ‘S’ was added in November 1945 by the preparatory Commission that also met in London. The change was made in response to pressure from higher education and scientists’ groups, particularly in the United Kingdom. The appointment of Sir Julian Huxley as UNESCO’s first Director-General ensured that activities in the sciences and in technology would play an important role in UNESCO, Huxley himself being not only a distinguished scientist but also an accomplished popularizer of science. This latter talent led to his being awarded UNESCO’s own prize for science popularization, the Kalinga Prize, in 1953, after he had retired as Director-General.

Julian Huxley recognized the potential of science and technology for development in his first publication about UNESCO, in 1946. ‘The Application of Scientific Knowledge’, he wrote, ‘Science provides our chief means for raising the level of human welfare’.[...] After the war, science was seen as a field in which international co-operation, regarded by UNESCO’s founders as essential if another catastrophe was to be avoided, should be practised. This was the first time that an international organization had been given a major responsibility for the development of international relations in science, which previously had been the field of competence of non-governmental organizations. Henceforth, UNESCO was to work hand in hand with these organizations.

Since, nearly all the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations contribute to the application of science and technology to development, and to the strengthening of research and the training of scientific and technological personnel.

Like these Agencies, UNESCO promotes scientific and technological development in developing countries, and assists in the training of specialized personnel.

In addition, UNESCO helps establish and operate institutions engaged in higher education, research and the provision of services in science and technology, promotes the formulation of national science policies and encourages public understanding of the impact on society of scientific and technological advances.

While the other United Nations Organizations or Agencies deal with training and research in specialized branches of social activity, UNESCO is responsible for research and training in the basic sciences (physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology), in the applied sciences (especially natural resources and environmental sciences) and in the engineering sciences. In effect, UNESCO provides much of the substrata for the specialized programmes of the other United Nations Organizations corresponding to activities in those fields.

Internationally, UNESCO has played a key role in the founding of research centres in several fields. It contributed to the establishment of CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research – now one of the world’s leading laboratories in the investigation of the nature of matter and known as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. In co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it operates the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, which receives about 700 developing country researchers every year. It helped found the International Centre for Pure and Applied Mathematics (ICPAM) in Nice, France, and both the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and the International Cell Research Organization (ICRO) were set up on UNESCO’s initiative.

Since 1973, UNESCO has supported the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (ICMS) in Udine, Italy, which trained more than 2,500 young researchers from about 70 countries between 1969 and 1980.

UNESCO on the Eve of its 40th Anniversary, UNESCO, 1985.