Orienting international science cooperation to meet global 'grand challenges'

Abstract

Present address Institute of Seismology, P.O. Box 68 (Gustaf Ha¨llstro¨min katu 2b), FI-00014University of Helsinki, Finland*Corresponding author. Email: michael.keenan@oecd.orgOver the coming decades, science will play a key role in society’s response to emerging global‘grand challenges’. The agenda-setting, coordination and conduct of science, and the ways inwhich scientific knowledge is diffused and used, are therefore critical. Increasingly, such issuesneed to be framed at a global level, reflecting both the international nature of science itself andthe scale of the challenges it seeks to address. Longer-term perspectives must also beincorporated to reflect the time horizons of key global challenges and the uncertainties involvedin future global governance regimes. Foresight offers a means to explore these dimensions ofscience. The International Council for Science (ICSU) has been applying foresight as a centralcomponent of its strategic planning. This paper describes the most recent ICSU exercise, whichhas explored how two decades hence international collaboration in science could foster progressin science and address global challenges.Keywords: research foresight; international science cooperation; scenarios;International Council for Science.