Session 1. Scientific Data for Sustainable Development

• Information society and innovations;
• Data sources, criteria, and models for sustainable development;
• New directions in international scientific data coordination: the role of ICSU and its interdisciplinary bodies;
• Building a community of data scientists: promise and pitfalls;
• Preservation of and access to scientific & technical data in developing countries;
• International social science data archives: models, policies, & principles;
• External threats to freedom of access;
• Crossing the digital divide: recent progress in improving data management in the developing world;
• Role and operation of data centers and data services in the future;
• Panel on issues and concerns of data-oriented young scientists and curricula in data management and informatics.

Session 2 . e-Science and e-Science Networks

• International multi-disciplinary large data projects for science and education and for business applications; Global scientific data sharing and application;
• Regional and global e-science and cyberinfrastructure developments;
• Grid infrastructure and standards for resource sharing across networks and institutions;
• Advanced cluster computing algorithms for data processing in computational fluid dynamics, structural crash analysis, MEMS design, financial modeling, factory scheduling, etc.;
• Advanced distributed data processing methods for science and engineering applications;

Session 3. Infoscience and Computational informatics

• Theory, models and methods of the distributed data processing and archiving;
• New approaches to data transfer, storage and processing;
• Long - term data stewardship and digital preservation: institutional approaches and technical concerns;
• Data ICT and applications;
• Role of data for promoting public understanding on science;
• Preserving and digitizing legacy data.

Session 4 . Data Mining/Knowledge Management

• Enhancing the transformation of data to knowledge;
• Artificial Intelligence applications in science - based decision-making;
• Developing community databases: lessons from biodiversity, geochemistry, neurology, health, and other disciplines;
• Data security in Information and communication systems.

Session 5. Interoperability and Data Integration

• Interoperability of heterogeneous data systems on materials, environments, human sciences and other fields;
• Development of open access, data commons, information commons and open culture: building links between regional, disciplinary, and interdisciplinary initiative;
• Addressing linguistic barriers to scientific data integration and application;
• Data assimilation approaches and the role of interoperability standards in modeling and simulation applications;
• Human science integration and its synthetic research methodology;
• New frontiers in human science data integration.

Session 6. Earth and Environmental Data

• Sensor webs and networks for real-time monitoring and analysis;
• The emerging global earth observing system of systems: technical and policy issues;
• Implementing geospatial data infrastructures: progress at local, national , global levels and in geoscience data management ;
• Polar Year data policy and management;
• Strategy for IPY data management based on the scientific questions formulated in the IPY 2007-2008 Science Plan;
• Special needs of the social sciences, the Education, Outreach and Communications Plan, and the general public;
• Organizational data flow structure (including procedures of access, transmission and archival of data );
• Progress and problems in geoscience data management for the I*Ys;
• Role of data in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Session 7 . Biological Science, Medical and Health Data

• Bioinformatics; Proteome Database; Genetic Data Issues;
• Biodiversity; Observation and Specimen Records (Access to Biological Collection Data)
• Risks Data of dangers for safely life (disasters, illnesses, etc.);
• Measuring people and their health: scientific and ethical issues;
• Organizing disaster and health risk in support of disaster management;
• A challenge to scientific risk estimation on health effects of Chernobyl dose radiation.

Session 8 . Physical Science Data

• The Fundamental Constants: cross-disciplinary coordination and standards issues;
• Materials science data and its multidisciplinary applications.
• Gas Hydrates;
• Informatics in energy resource management;
• Managing Astronomical Data ; Lessons learned in the development of virtual observatories.