IUPAC finances going forward

Wolfram Koch

doi:10.1515/ci-2025-0301

Article Open Access

IUPAC finances going forward

Wolfram Koch
©GDCh

Wolfram Koch <wkoch@iupac.org> is IUPAC Treasurer since January 2022. From 2002 until the end of 2020, he was Executive Director of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) in Frankfurt, the German NAO to IUPAC.

Published/Copyright: July 17, 2025

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From the journal Chemistry International Volume 47 Issue 3

Abstract

This is my second Treasurer‘s Column (my first appeared in the third issue of 2022; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2022-0301) and it is also my last one. After serving the Union as Treasurer for four years I decided not to run for a possible second term. The reason for this is that after almost 22 years of service, I retired from my post as Executive Director of the German Chemical Society in August of last year. On the one hand, this means that I no longer have access to the back office support from my society. On the other hand, with my retirement also the focus of my activities has changed. I am very glad to see that two very capable candidates for my successor as Treasurer were nominated by the NAOs from the UK and Germany and, whoever is being elected by Council, I am confident that the finances of the Union will be in good hands. Not the least also due to the invaluable support of the Finance Committee under its Chair (and former Treasurer) Colin Humphris. During my term, I enjoyed the interaction with the Finance Committee very much and want to take this opportunity to express a big Thank You!

The budget of this biennium, decided by Council in 2023 in The Hague, was designed to be balanced, in contrast to the previous one which was characterized by an unhealthy deficit of more than USD 250,000. The consequence was that during this biennium much less funds were available for new projects, which of course had a negative impact on the scientific activities of the Union. I fully understand that this led to a lot of disappointment among our volunteers in the Divisions and Standing Committees. Looking at the financial performance as of today, I can say the IUPAC did well. We are in most aspects on budget or even below budget. There are several reasons for that. We learned our lesson from the Covid times and spent less money on travelling because a major part of the meetings was done online. As an example, the biweekly meetings among the Officers were almost all online and also the Finance Committee met only online. The same applied to most of the meetings of the Executive Board and the Science Board. This saved a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of CO₂! Another reason was the fact that after a two-year tenure with the Union our Executive Director Dr. Greta Heydenrych departed end of last year and Dr. Fabienne Meyers, our long-serving Associated Director assumed the role of interim Executive Director. I want to thank both, Greta as well as Fabienne for all the support I received as Treasurer. All these savings allowed an extra allocation of USD 4,000 to every Division and Standing Committee. Also, our investments developed successfully, thanks to the guidance of the Finance Committee. Finally, even though this does not have an immediate impact on our financial health, I should mention the USD 1 million donation that the Untion received for the Soong prize, which will be awarded for the first time at the upcoming World Chemistry Congress in Kuala Lumpur.

The budget for the next biennium which I will present to Council in Kuala Lumpur includes no big changes from the previous one. The main reason for this is that the budget is highly provisional. In the coming biennium the Union will most probably undergo significant changes. In particular the relocation of the secretariat which is planned for next year will lead to significant savings of the administrative expenses. However, as I write this contribution it is not yet clear what exactly will happen and what the monetary consequences will be. In any case, we assume that soon after the decision is made by Council where the new secretariat will be located and which boundary conditions will apply, an updated budget will be presented to an extraordinary meeting of Council. But already in the current proposal we are able to increase the funds for new projects significantly. Not the least because on recommendation of the Finance Committee the financial liabilities of existing projects will not be carried over to the next budget but will be covered by the reserves.

At the end of my tenure as Treasurer I am happy to handover to my successor a house in good order and look back with pride that I was allowed to serve the Union.

About the author

Wolfram Koch

©GDCh

Wolfram Koch <wkoch@iupac.org> is IUPAC Treasurer since January 2022. From 2002 until the end of 2020, he was Executive Director of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) in Frankfurt, the German NAO to IUPAC.

Published Online: 2025-07-17

Published in Print: 2025-07-01

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