Minutes of the ICSP Executive Board Meetings, Term 2023-2026

Chair: E.R.B. MOORE University of Gothenburg Sweden Vice-Chair: C.M. MANAIA Universidad Católica Portuguesa Portugal Executive Secretary: A. OREN Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel Secretary for Subcommittees: S.L.W. ON Lincoln University New Zealand Treasurer: P. NIELSEN Novozymes, Copenhagen Denmark Members at Large: R. HAHNKE Leibniz Institute DSMZ Germany M. SAKAMOTO RIKEN BioResource Research Center Japan Members of the Judicial Committee Chair: D.R. ARAHAL University of Valencia Spain Vice-Chair: H. CHRISTENSEN University of Copenhagen Denmark Secretary: M. GÖKER Leibniz Institute DSMZ Germany International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes EB-ICSP Meeting 3rd July 2025 – Redacted Minutes Minute 1. The Chair called the meeting to order at 10.00 CEST. Minute 2. Record of attendance The following members of the Executive Board (EB) participated: E.R.B. Moore (Chair), C.M. Manaia (Vice-Chair), A. Oren (Executive Secretary), S.L.W. On (Secretary for Subcommittees on Taxonomy, R. Hahnke (Member-at-Large), M. Sakamoto (Member-at-Large), D.R. Arahal (Chair JC), H. Christensen (Vice-Chair JC), and M. Göker (Secretary JC). An apology was received from P. Nielsen (Treasurer). Minute 3. Minutes of the 2nd June 2025 meeting of the EB The draft minutes of the 2nd June 2025 meeting were approved after a minor correction. A. Oren will distribute the minutes to the members of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), the Judicial Commission (JC), and chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy, and he will send a copy to E.R.B. Moore to be posted on the ICSP website. Minute 4. Matters Arising/Action points from previous meetings A. Oren has forwarded the minutes of the 24th April meeting of the Executive Board to all members of the ICSP, the Judicial Commission and the Chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy. E.R.B. Moore has posted the minutes of the 24th April meeting of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. S.L.W. On has liaised with the chair of the Subcommittee on Borrelia and provide instructions on how to prepare and publish minutes of the subcommittee meetings. S.L.W. On has corresponded with the proposed ICSP Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Neisseriaceae. See Minute 14. S.L.W. On has requested more detailed information and an estimate of the cost involved in the ‘geocaching’ project proposed by M. del C. Montero-Calasanz. No budget was yet proposed. E.R.B. Moore has contacted S.L.W. On to request information about his recent actions taken in the framework of this duties as Secretary for Subcommittees on Taxonomy and member of the Workgroup on Education and Outreach. Page 2 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes A. Oren has reminded M. del C. Montero-Calasanz to post information about the Spanish ‘Give me a Name’ contest on the new LinkedIn account of the ICSP and to send material to be posted on the ICSP website. On 1st July M. del C. Montero-Calasanz sent a text document and pictures that can be posted. A. Oren has circulated the approved agenda of the 19th June plenary meeting among the ICSP members and the chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy. A. Oren has circulated the result of the survey on the use of social media by ICSP members among the ICSP members and the chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy. Several EB members have sent documents relevant to the 19th June plenary meeting to A. Oren, and these were forwarded to the ICSP membership. E.R.B. Moore did not convene a special meeting of the EB to discuss options for ICSP members to submit proposals to the EU Horizon BIODIV call on “Strengthening taxonomic approaches for biodiversity”, due to lack of support for a Coordinator. However, a consortium headed by P. Mattarelli has been established and several members of the ICSP have joined to prepare a proposal. M. Göker has investigated options to set up an online system to upload and process validation requests. See Minute 8. Minute 5. Review of 19th June Plenary meeting E.R.B. Moore and A. Oren reviewed the 19th June plenary meeting. There were 35 participants (Full members, JC members and delegates from subcommittees; apologies were received from 5 delegates. A. Oren has prepared the draft minutes and circulated the document among all participants for comments. On 10th July he will submit the minutes for publication in the IJSEM. S.L.W. On, who did not attend the plenary meeting and sent an apology, requested to see the draft minutes. A. Oren will send him the document; he is pleased to forward it to others upon request. Minute 6. Update on status of co-option of a new ICSP member E.R.B. Moore reported about his proposal to appoint J. Pieters (South Africa) as a member of the ICSP in view of her involvement in attempts to enable validation of names of taxa with type strains isolated in South Africa. Co-option is possible, and one letter of support was already received. Minute 7. Status of the voting on emendation of the ICSP Statutes The voting on the revision of the ICSP statutes is in progress. P. Nielsen and H. Christensen serve as the tellers. The ballot will be closed on 25th July. H. Christensen reported that as of 3rd July, 39 of the 55 eligible members had returned the ballot form, and he presented the outcome thus far. A reminder will be sent shortly before the deadline. To speed up publication shortly after the ballot is closed, A. Oren will soon circulate a draft version of the announcement to be published in the IJSEM to the co-authors of the proposal (D.R. Arahal, M. Göker, R.L. Hahnke, C.M. Manaia, E.R.B. Moore, I.C. Sutcliffe, and S. Ventura) to obtain their comments and suggestions. Page 3 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes The question was raised to what extent the revised version of the Statutes must be applied retroactively to voting procedures that were initiated before the revision takes effect, or the provisions of the older version of the Statutes must be used. This may be relevant to the upcoming ballot to vote on the 2024 revision of the ICNP and on ballots for ratification of JC opinions that are currently being processed. This will be further discussed at the next EB meeting. ERB Moore requested D.R. Arahal to consult JC members of the EB, H. Christensen and M. Göker, and present a recommendation on the mode of action recommended by the JC to the EB. Minute 8. Establishment of an online submission system for validation requests M. Göker presented a proposal for establishing an online submission system for validation requests that will streamline the process and decrease the workload of the Editorial Office staff. The option of hosting the system on a IUMS or Microbiology Society server should be investigated. There will be financial implications when the system will be hosted on a thirdparty commercial server. Before advancing the proposal, we need to inquire whether the Microbiology Society, which had established the current validation procedure, will agree with the proposed change. M. Göker will make the necessary inquiries with the Microbiology Society staff (J. Kelly, N. Froude). Minute 9. Development of a consortium to submit a proposal to the EU Horizon BIODIV call M. Göker reported that P. Mattarelli is coordinating the preparation of a proposal in which a number of ICSP members are already involved. He invited all parties interested to join to contact P. Mattarelli. Minute 10. Update from the JC D.R. Arahal had no updates to report. Minute 11. Update from the Editor-in-Chief of the ICNP A. Oren reported extensive activity on the Slack channel in the past two weeks with many minor corrections and adjustments being proposed to improve the draft 2024 revision of the ICNP. Most of those comments and suggestions were posted by M. Göker and M.-S. Li. A. Oren has incorporated all comments posted on the Slack channel into an annotated version of draft revision. Such a document can later be sent to the voting members as part of the ballot material. The members of the editorial board of the ICNP have received the latest updated version of the document. A. Oren is willing to share it with others upon request. A. Oren will prepare a draft ballot form for voting on the emendations of the ICNP and send it for comments to all members of the ICNP editorial board for comments and suggestions. Minute 12. Update from the IJSEM and the Publications Committee The 2024 impact factor of the IJSEM is unchanged at 2.0; now it is in the third quartile, while last year it was in the fourth quartile. M. Göker reported that Candidatus List no. 6 was just published, the first Candidatus list in the new format after Section 10 of the ICNP came into effect. Candidatus List no. 7 was submitted for publication. Page 4 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Minute 13. Update from the Treasurer P. Nielsen apologized for his absence. He notified the EB that he had reimbursed two IJSEM editors for travel expenses (~₤2200). He will submit the annual treasurer report no later than 31st July. Minute 14. Update from Subcommittees on Taxonomy S.L.W. On reported on his correspondence with the colleagues who had proposed re-establishing the ICSP Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Neisseriaceae. He had received satisfactory replies to his questions and a revised version of the proposal. The EB had no further objections to the establishment of the subcommittee. S.L.W. On will notify the initiators that the EB has approved their proposal. S.L.W. On noted that the list of active Subcommittees on Taxonomy as given on the ICSP website is not up-to-date as it lists a number of subcommittees that have been discontinued or are no longer active. The information published in 2021 (S.L.W. On, Current status and future perspectives of taxonomic subcommittees of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), IJSEM 2021;72;005046) was not entered on the website. E.R.B. Moore will update the website accordingly. S.L.W. On expressed deep concerns regarding proposed changes to subcommittee communications likely to be implemented in the newly revised ICSP Statutes. He pointed out that none of the changes suggested had been communicated to him directly in his role as Secretary for Subcommittees, which he regarded as very poor practice. Stephen also felt that relegation of publication of Subcommittee minutes to media such as Zenodo diminishes their visibility and, indeed, further reduces the (supposed) importance of Subcommittees to ICSP. Given that much importance is attached to Subcommittee work in preparing minimal standards, that in reality are recommendations only, Stephen expressed doubts as to the wider ICSP valuation of Subcommittee work. These views were compounded by work undertaken by the Subcommittee on Campylobacter and Related Bacteria to communicate to the scientific community nomenclatural recommendations agreed unequivocally, which were reviewed and deemed unworthy of publication in IJSEM on the basis of brevity and lack of novelty. These points were discussed by the EB and it was recommended that S.L.W. On present at the next EB meeting his proposals for any action to be taken. M. Göker reminded the EB that the Secretary for Subcommittees on Taxonomy should also be in charge of ad hoc committees, and report about their activities. Closing matters R. Hahnke apologized in advance for not participating in 2-3 upcoming EB meetings after the birth of his third child. The meeting was adjourned at 12.45 CEST. Minutes prepared by A. Oren, 5th July 2025. Page 5 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Action points A. Oren, to forward the minutes of the 2nd June meeting of the Executive Board to all members of the ICSP, the Judicial Commission and the chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy. E.R.B. Moore, to post the minutes of the 2nd June meetings of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. A. Oren, to send a copy of the draft minutes of the 19th June plenary meeting to S.L.W. On. E.R.B. Moore, to contact J. Peters and ask whether she prefers to wait for the appointment letter as a Full member from the South African Society for Microbiology or to process her nomination as a Co-opted member. P. Nielsen and H. Christensen, to send a reminder shortly before 25th July to those members who had not yet returned the ballot form for emending the ICSP statutes. A. Oren, to circulate a draft version of the publication of the revised Statutes to the co-authors of the proposal. D.R. Arahal, to consult H. Christensen and M. Göker and make recommendations to the EB on whether the revised version of the Statutes must be applied retroactively for voting procedures on ballots for ratification of JC opinions that were initiated before the revision takes effect. M. Göker, to contact J. Kelly and N. Froude of the Microbiology Society, to discuss the option of establishing an online submission system for validation requests. A. Oren to prepare a draft ballot form for voting on the emendations of the ICNP and send it for comments to all members of the ICNP editorial board. S.L.W. On, to notify the initiators who had propose re-establishing a Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Neisseriaceae that the EB has approved their proposal. E.R.B. Moore, to update the list of active Subcommittees on Taxonomy on the ICSP website.