ISI is at the start of the journey to refine its strategy for 2026 to 2029 and design an organisational ecosystem for continuous improvement. In this post ISI Vice-President Matthew Shearing calls for members and wider partners to help shape this journey and thereby the future of evidence informed decision making in societies across the globe.
The business case for ISI to review and modify its aims and methods has become increasingly evident in the face of the current tsunami of challenges and opportunities for statistical science: AI, leaps in statistical computing and data science, systemic decreases in funding, new data sources, fast-changing social, political, and digital contexts, and so on, and so on…
Faced with this, for some time now I have heard colleagues inside and outside of ISI talk about emerging global gaps that ISI is well-placed to fill, about the need for ISI to better leverage its independence, its networks, and its long-standing prestige, about the need for it to go even further in its support for statistics, statisticians and data experts, and, to achieve all this, the need for ISI adapt the way it is organised and improve its long-term financial viability.
In February, the ISI Executive Committee reflected on these drivers and some targeted initial consultations with a sample of stakeholders. They agreed to revise the ISI strategy to optimise its relevance and effectiveness, and to establish a new continuous improvement ecosystem to provide agile mechanisms for developing and delivering solutions for achieving the strategy at pace. All this needs to be a bottom-up initiative, driven by members, potential external partners, and the ISI Associations.
An important part of this journey will be to promote and support the ISI Associations. They do amazing work to support statistical and data science for the public good across different statistical disciplines. Other potential priorities identified by stakeholders so far include:
- recognising and supporting existing areas of success
- updating ISI’s overall aims in line with the rapidly changing context and risks for statistics
- optimising the overall governance and committee system
- appropriate commercialisation of our assets and diversification of income sources; external marketing and communications (marcom)
- updated models for conferences and networking, including for enhanced cross-sectoral working within and outside of statistics and data science
- further developing the ISI Academy for Capacity Development, and
- new approaches to membership that drive more benefits for members, for young statisticians and statisticians in all parts of the globe, for ISI and the Associations, and for statistics as a whole.
Following further consultations, the aim is to have a new high-level strategy in place by mid-2026 alongside the foundations of a new continuous improvement ecosystem.
How can you help?
- For those that are already actively volunteering for ISI work, the world needs you to keep up the good work!
- If you are a member and want to get involved in strategy delivery and continuous improvement schemes, get in touch with me via ISI Communities.
- For members and non-members alike, ISI would welcome your views on priorities for ISI strategy and continuous improvement and how we can achieve them, reflecting on where we need to change emphasis from our previous priorities.
- For individuals or organisations that are not yet members but believe in a strong independent global statistical system, then get in touch about becoming a member, sponsoring us, partnering with us, or other contributions.
For ISI members or non-members alike, feel free to directly get in touch with me via the ISI community platform or the LinkedIn messaging service to arrange a more in-depth discussion.
