FAQs about ‘Grand Challenges’

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What is Grand Challenges in Global Sustainability Research?

It is a focused global research initiative centred on five Grand Challenges in Global Sustainability Research* that must be addressed over the next decade if society is to manage the global environmental change that is now underway and cope with the change that we cannot manage.

Why do it?

Over the next 10 years the global scientific community must take on the challenge of delivering to society the knowledge and supporting information necessary to understand what risks humanity is facing from global environmental change, how society can effectively manage that change, and how society can cope with the change that we cannot manage.

Has anyone addressed this at the international level?

Over the past quarter century, the research that underpins the discussions (and decisions) has grown, particularly with the development of four major global environmental change programmes—the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP), DIVERSITAS—and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP).

However, the current research structures do not provide the integrated approach required to answer the most pressing societal issues—protecting the planet and ensuring sustainable global development.

Is there a process to address this need?

ICSU and its partners are leading an international consultative process to: (1)  define today’s  grand challenges of global sustainability;  (2) identify high priority research that must be carried out; and (3) mobilize social scientists, natural scientists and the humanities around an unprecedented 10-year initiative to meet these challenges.

Overview of the process

A three-step, consultative visioning process, spearheaded by ICSU in cooperation with the International Social Science Council (ISSC), has been initiated to respond to the international need for coordination and focus in this area.

• Step 1: Determine research priorities (Jul 2009–mid 2010)
• Step 2: Determine the institutional structures that will invigorate and facilitate the new Earth system research strategy (June 2010)
• Step 3: Determine how to transition from existing structures to the needed structure for the future (end of 2010)

What has happened so far?

An online consultation

• Asked the question ‘What is the most important research question in Earth system research that needs answering in the next decade? Why?’
• During the six weeks of the online consultation there were:
  • 7,227 ‘unique’ visitors from 133 countries
  • 1,016 registered users from 85 countries
  • 323 research questions posted. (A document mapping the posted research question onto the ‘Grand Challenges in Global Sustainability: a Systems Approach to Research Priorities for the Decade’ will be available soon.)

A three-day workshop to draft the research priorities (now called the ‘Grand Challenges’ document that is currently open for comment)

• Participants: early-career scientists, senior scientists, science-policy experts, funders, ICSU and ISSC
• One day set aside for early career researchers meeting
• Distilled the research questions from the online consultation
• Criteria for prioritising questions: scientific importance, policy relevance, broad support, global coordination, leverage

What is the ‘Grand Challenges’ Document?

The online consultation and meeting in September have produced the ‘Grand Challenges in Global Sustainability: A Systems Approach to Research Priorities for the Decade’.

Five ‘grand challenges’ are  proposed which encompass:

• Reducing the uncertainty associated with global and regional forecasts
• Further developing observation systems
• Anticipating, avoiding and coping with dangerous global environmental change
• Determining what institutional arrangements are needed
• Developing innovative responses to achieve global sustainability

Each challenge has priority research questions and expected deliverables

The document is part of an agenda-setting consultation that is intended to guide and stimulate scientific research on global change and global sustainability over the next decade. It is expected to become part of a broader process among scientists and scientific institutions to commit themselves to systematically work together —across disciplines and geographic regions—on agreed priority research questions that are critical to the sustainability of our planet.

What are the next steps?

We are now at a crucial stage in the consultation process and once again seek the opinions of the global community.  As such, we would like your reflections on the draft document, on what current research efforts can be woven into the challenges expressed therein, and on what international research coordination are needed to get the job done.

We are putting the document out to the global community through an online consultation, which is in the form of a survey.

• The draft document and consultation are online at: www.icsu-visioning.org
• The consultation is open 21 December 2009 to 21 February 2010.

The goal is to produce a widely shared vision of the scientific priorities for global sustainability research in the coming decade. In the past, a small group of scientists would be charged with determining such priorities. But with new communication technologies we are reaching the global community—and not just researchers, but technology experts, decision-makers, and citizens.