Learn more about the ISC’s involvement in the High-level Political Forum 2025.
Science Day 2025, held under the theme “Unlocking Tomorrow’s Solutions, Today”, builds on the momentum of the two previous events (2023 and 2024) while responding to a moment of growing urgency.
As the international community approaches the final stretch of the 2030 Agenda, there is widespread recognition that progress across many of the SDGs remains alarmingly slow. This is especially true in areas related to means of implementation – including financing, capacity, and institutional coordination.
Science Day 2025 will showcase innovative tools, insights, and practices that support evidence-informed, integrated, and participatory decision-making – but it will also open space for forward-looking reflection. While implementation of the current SDGs must remain a global priority, early thinking is beginning around the shape of a future sustainable development agenda. Science Day 2025 aims to contribute to that conversation – ensuring that science, in all its diversity, is not only part of the analysis of today’s challenges but also part of co-designing the pathways ahead.
Watch the live broadcast on UN Web TV on 15 July 2025 at 10:00 (EST).
10:00 – 10:30 Opening
Welcome
Facilitator
Dr. George Gray Molina
Head of Inclusive Growth and Chief Economist, UNDP
Opening remarks
H.E. Ambassador Carlos C. Fuller
Permanent Representative of Belize to the United Nations
10:15 – 11:45 Case studies – science in action
Facilitator
Mr. James Waddell
Science Officer, International Science Council
Case studies and presenters
11:45 – 12:30 High-level panel discussion
Facilitator
Ms. Anna Morath
Director & Head of New York Secretariat, Sustainable Development Solutions Network
Panelists:
Dr. Robbert Dijkgraaf
President-Elect, International Science Council
Dr. Astra Bonini
Chief of Integrated Policy Analysis Branch, Division for Sustainable Development Goals, DESA
Dr. Ed Carr
US Centre Director, Stockholm Environment Institute
Dr. Daniel Goroff
Vice-President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Dr. Yensi Flores-Bueso
Chair, Global Young Academy
Dr. George Gray Molina
Head of Inclusive Growth and Chief Economist, UNDP
12:30-13:00 Reflections and closing remarks
Lead discussant
Dr. Marcia Barbosa
Vice-President for Freedom and Responsibility in Science, International Science Council
Facilitation and closing remarks
Dr. Astra Bonini
Chief of Integrated Policy Analysis Branch, Division for Sustainable Development Goals, DESA
We are calling on visionary funders to build strategic partnership and collaboration to pioneer a transdisciplinary and engaged science model.
Join us to pilot carefully selected science missions designed to deliver actionable solutions where they are needed most.
The complexity of today’s challenges calls for knowledge that cuts across disciplines, sectors, and geographies. The event will showcase how transdisciplinary approaches, which integrate natural and social sciences with policy, practice, and local knowledge, are helping to accelerate progress on SDG implementation, especially when deployed through collaborative partnerships. This includes the use of novel tools, data platforms, dashboards, and emerging technologies that aim to inform policy decisions more effectively – while also raising important questions about accessibility, equity, and governance in their deployment.
Many of the barriers to SDG progress are not due to a lack of knowledge, but a lack of support for the science-policy interface. Science Day 2025 will look at where the 2030 Agenda is falling short in terms of the means of implementation, and explore how targeted support to science systems, innovation ecosystems, and cross-sectoral interfaces could help close those gaps.
As the world begins to consider what comes after the SDGs, Science Day 2025 will open space for forward-looking reflection. The event will explore the kind of science, collaboration, and governance models that may be needed to support the future of sustainable development – recognizing that this process must start now, even as implementation of the existing goals must urgently go on. It will also reflect on the broader global context in which this future must be imagined – one shaped by geopolitical tensions, financing constraints, growing inequalities, and multilateral fatigue – and explore how science can help navigate these complexities while remaining solution-oriented and inclusive.
Read more about UN and global policy processes 
