Global Forum of Funders - International Science Council

The Global Forum of Funders (GFF) Initiative is an open platform framework that seeks to scale up collective action within funding and science systems throughout the world in order to maximize impact of science towards the implementation of the SDGs.

More specifically, the strategic objectives of the Global Forum of Funders are threefold:

To present a framework for global action on mission-oriented research that will help accelerate SDG implementation in the next decade;
To discuss with science funders how to enhance science systems globally to support societal transformations towards sustainable development; and
To explore strategies and mechanisms for accelerating collaboration between science funders to support mission-oriented science.

The first Forum took place in 2019 and was hosted by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. Eighty leaders, representing national research funding agencies, international development aid agencies, private foundations and scientific institutions, called for the scaling up of game-changing collective action within funding and science systems throughout the world in order to maximize impact of science towards the implementation of the SDGs and, as an outcome of this call, launched the Decade of Global Sustainability Science Action.

During the first Forum, science funders asked the International Science Council to convene the insights and ideas of the global scientific community on the critical priorities for science that will support and enable societies to accomplish the SDGs by 2030. To this end, the ISC launched a global call for inputs in October 2020 to shape a priority action agenda for science, with more than two hundred submissions that formed the basis for the reports on highlighting the research gaps and on a framework to unleash mission-oriented science.

Key findings of the reports A Synthesis of Research Gaps for Science to Enable Societies to Accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and Unleashing Science: Delivering Missions for Sustainability, were presented at the 2nd Global Forum of Funders, in April 2021. The second Forum built on the success of its predecessor, presenting a strategic agenda, Missions for Science to Enable a Prosperous Future for All, and opening discussions with the heads of some of the world’s primary science funders at the Forum. The second GFF also agreed that the ISC would initiate a consultative process that would identify institutional arrangements and funding mechanisms for delivering mission-oriented science for sustainability, which led to the establishment of the Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability.