Future Earth: Research for Global Sustainability

Future Earth is an ambitious new 10-year research programme with a vision to provide the knowledge societies require to secure a sustainable future.

• Future Earth will pioneer new approaches to international research bringing together many disciplines around a common research agenda.

• Future Earth will provide an international platform for engagement and communication with policy, business and society around global sustainability challenges.

This session convened by the International Council for Science (ICSU) will outline Future Earth’s research agenda and innovative approaches to international communications and engagement, including the power of data visualization tools.

In the first half of the session, Martin Visbeck (Professor, Chairman of GEOMAR Physical Oceanography Helmholtz-Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Chairman of German Committee Future Earth) will present the vision of Future Earth and its research framework.

In the second half Owen Gaffney (Director of communications, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) will explore opportunities within Future Earth to rethink international communication and the power of data visualization to reach across academic disciplines and target new audiences.

Future Earth was launched in June 2012 in the context of the Rio+20 Conference by a broad Alliance of partners comprising: ICSU, the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the Belmont Forum of funding agencies, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as an observer. It will build upon and integrate the existing Global Environmental Change Programmes – the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP), DIVERSITAS – biodiversity science, and their projects.

For more information on Future Earth, please go to: http://www.icsu.org/future-earth