Flipping the Science Model: A Roadmap to Science Missions for Sustainability

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Both natural and social sciences have made significant contributions to our understanding of the challenges and issues affecting our societies and planet. Notwithstanding that, it is now clear that new approaches are urgently needed if science is to be effectively used to make rapid progress. Following the release of Unleashing Science, coordinated by the ISC, the Council established the Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability in 2021 to explore how these recommendations might be condensed to practice.

This report summarizes the conclusions reached after extensive consultation with experts, detailed in the accompanying TAG report “A model for implementing mission science for sustainability.” As part of the proposed shift in how we tackle the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs with greater expediency, the ISC Global Commission is calling for science in support of progress towards the SDGs to be undertaken and supported differently. We firmly believe that by better integrating science with other perspectives, we can achieve what the 2030 Agenda set out to do: creating the conditions for a fairer and more sustainable world, while living within planetary boundaries.

I welcome the report of the Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability and look forward to seeing a number of such missions deliver sustainable solutions on the ground. Let us do this together, Member States, scientists, and community: let us together contribute actively to implementing sustainable solutions.

President of the UN General Assembly, Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi

Flipping the Science Model: A Roadmap to Science Missions for Sustainability

International Science Council, 2023. Flipping the science model: a roadmap to science missions for sustainability, Paris, France, International Science Council. DOI: 10.24948/2023.08.

Download the report

This will reaquire to supplement and rebalance our current scientific model, by incentivizing collaboration and outcomes between scientists, and of scientists, with other stakeholders, especially civil society, on large-scale sustainability challenges. Furthermore, the current model should shift from intense competition and fragmented science, both in terms of disciplines and funding, to building collaborative science communities.

Just as the global community has used big science approaches to build infrastructure like CERN and the Square Kilometer Array, a similar mindset should be applied, particularly in the Global South, to address sustainable development challenges.

Irina Bokova, Patron of the ISC

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A Model for Implementing Mission Science for Sustainability

The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) proposes a model to set priorities for mission science for sustainability. Based on a co-design process, it details the core principles and institutional, governance and funding arrangements needed to accelerate our progress on the path towards sustainability.

International Science Council, 2023. A Model for Implementing Mission Science for Sustainability, Paris, France, International Science Council.
DOI: 10.24948/2023.09.