The first meeting of the InterAcademy Panel's (IAP) Executive Committee, since members voted last spring to move the secretariat to Trieste under the umbrella of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), was held on 22 January in the Enrico Fermi Building on the ICTP campus. Representatives of 10 science academies--including Africa, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States--took part in the event. Gianfranco Facco Bonetti, Director General for the Promotion of Culture and Co-operation in the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced that the Italian government would provide 1 million Euros (approximately US$900,000) to the IAP over the next two years to help fund IAP's programmes. Additional money, intended to cover IAP's operational costs, has been pledged by the municipality of Trieste, the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the province of Trieste. IAP, which is comprised of nearly 80 science academies worldwide, is designed to bring together academies of all nations to discuss scientific issues of global concern. The panel's first activity, a workshop focussing on strategies for capacity building of science academies in Africa, will take place in Trieste this May. Workshops on science and the media and science and education are also scheduled for 2001.