By Cornelia Krug, Director of bioDISCOVERY
and Chair of Future Earth’s Implementation Team

The year 2020 is coming to an end, and it has been very different from what many had imagined it to be. Instead of commitment to increase ambition to safeguard the natural world, 2020 has seen many challenges for the global community. Extensive wildfires, the hottest year on record for the arctic, and, above all, Covid-19, have brought into sharp relief what is at stake in our deteriorating relationship with the environment, especially for those of us working to advance global sustainability science.

At Future Earth, we recognize that scaling up global sustainability science is an urgent and crucial step towards transforming our relationship with the environment into one that ensures good and fair lives for all within a stable and resilient Earth system. Last year, Future Earth’s Governing Council commissioned a formal review of the organization’s governance, science programs and research projects, finances, and overall impact, with the aim of scaling up the reach of Future Earth to meet the challenges posed by our growing planetary emergency.

June this year saw Future Earth’s first virtual Summit. Bringing together representatives from its diverse communities, it played a key role in securing their inputs to this reform process. Out of this important collaboration came the establishment of a Post-Summit Committee, mandated to put the decisions of the Summit into action. This Committee has now evolved into an Implementation Team made up of representatives from across Future Earth’s networks working to implement the mechanisms, process and policies for the transition. Since October, the Implementation Team has engaged the entire Future Earth community in extensive consultations and collective decision-making, helping ensure that this reform process is driven from the bottom up.

There have already been several important outcomes of this effort, approved by the Governing Council, that will help scale up Future Earth’s advancement of sustainability science around the globe. First and foremost among these is the opening of a call for expressions of interest to establish new Global Secretariat Hubs. These will help facilitate transdisciplinary research at national, regional, and international levels. A Terms of Reference for this call has recently been finalized and will be released shortly, along with relevant FAQ’s. Additional informational events are planned for early next year.

The Implementation Team, along with Future Earth’s Executive Team, will continue to provide regular updates on this process as we move forward. To that end, you’ll find below a loose timeline of planned updates and announcements:

As this turbulent year comes to a close, the Implementation Team at Future Earth is working to lay the foundations to bring global sustainability science to scale in 2021 and the years to come. Keep an eye on this space for more updates on the process in the weeks ahead.

For more information, please contact: