International Science Council Science Missions for Sustainability

International Science Council Science Missions for Sustainability

This page is a historical reference for the International Science Council’s Global Call for Science Missions for Sustainability. The call is closed. Its official expression-of-interest deadline was 31 May 2024 at 00:00 UTC, and the International Science Council has not published a new global application deadline on the current programme page. Do not treat this entry as an open grant listing or send a new application using the old form.

The record was previously labelled “International Science Council Global Science Fund,” but that label makes the opportunity sound like a standing grant programme with a normal application window. The official material describes a specific call for Pilot Science Missions for Sustainability. The call was part of the ISC’s wider Science Missions for Sustainability initiative, which brings together scientific organizations, policy actors, communities, civil society and other partners around complex sustainability problems. It was not a general-purpose award for an individual researcher, a routine research-project grant, or an always-open fund.

Verified status

The page above is the best current official reference for the programme. It now presents the Science Missions for Sustainability initiative and its history, partners, pilots and related work. The older call announcement and its application template remain useful for reconstructing the closed cycle, but they should not be read as a current invitation to submit.

What the call was designed to do

The ISC’s call sought to test a different way of organizing science around sustainability challenges. Instead of asking one laboratory to deliver a narrowly bounded study, it invited consortia to co-design Pilot Science Missions that could connect research with policy, communities and implementation. The official announcement framed the missions around complex problems that cross sectors and require coordinated action at regional, global or local levels.

The call aimed to select up to five pilot missions to test the proposed model. Each selected pilot was expected to work through an initial 18-month co-design phase. The point of that phase was not simply to produce a report. Consortia were asked to develop a mission capable of linking scientific knowledge, stakeholder participation, systems analysis and a credible path toward sustainability outcomes. The call also described a later ambition to secure full implementation funding after co-design.

The funding language needs careful reading. The official call said the ISC and its partners aimed to mobilize up to $250,000 for each pilot’s 18-month co-design phase. It also said that no funding was secured when the call opened. That makes the amount a stated target or intended support level, not a guaranteed award that every applicant could claim. Funders were expected to engage with shortlisted consortia, and final funding decisions depended on the selection and funding process.

The initiative was connected to the ISC’s broader mission of treating science as a global public good and to its work on science missions for sustainability. The current programme page identifies the International Science Council as the lead organization and lists partners including Sida, the U.S. National Science Foundation, South Africa’s National Research Foundation, Canada’s International Development Research Centre, UK Research and Innovation, IIASA, Future Earth, the Belmont Forum and Volkswagen Stiftung. Those partnerships describe the programme context; they do not mean that every listed organization was an applicant or that every pilot received the same financial support.

Eligibility and consortium structure

The official call did not define eligibility as “ISC member organizations and partners” alone. That earlier shorthand was too narrow. The call invited novel, innovative, collaborative and diverse consortia of scientists and scientific organizations, policymakers, non-governmental organizations, communities and private-sector participants. It particularly encouraged pilots led by institutions located in the Global South, while allowing bids for missions anywhere in the world.

The official expression-of-interest template made the consortium requirement more concrete. A consortium was asked to include at least three types of stakeholders, with at least one representing the scientific community. Examples in the template included science, policy, civil society, private sector, communities and authorities. A scientific organization could be an academy of science, scientific union or association, research institute, university, international scientific organization or research programme. The template stated that such a scientific organization might or might not be an ISC member.

The lead applicant section requested the lead person’s name, position, nationality, gender, email, phone number, organization, country, stakeholder type and a short organization description. For consortium partners, applicants were asked to provide corresponding information and identify the most significant partners. This structure shows that the call evaluated the composition and capability of a working consortium, not just the reputation of one principal investigator.

The proposed mission also had to address a complex sustainability challenge relevant to a country, group of countries or region. The template asked whether the challenge sat at the intersection of multiple societal sectors or Sustainable Development Goals and whether it had relevance beyond the target geography. A credible historical applicant would therefore have needed to explain why the problem required multiple kinds of knowledge and how learning could matter outside a single institution.

Historical application process

There is no current application process to follow for this closed cycle. The steps below describe what the 2024 call required, so readers can understand the archived opportunity without mistaking it for an active route.

1. Form a qualifying consortium

The applicant first needed a consortium with multiple stakeholder types and a scientific-community representative. The application template asked for partner identities, roles and organizational details. A list of informal contacts would not have supplied the same evidence as a defined group with a shared mission, named capabilities and a plan for stakeholder engagement.

2. Define the pilot mission

The expression of interest asked for a short description of the sustainability challenge, its geographic relevance, its relationship to multiple sectors or SDGs, and a preliminary vision for impact. The template also asked how progress would be assessed. This meant the proposal had to connect the problem, the people involved, the proposed mission and the intended change rather than present a broad topic without a delivery logic.

3. Describe capabilities and expertise

The template asked consortia to identify capabilities such as transdisciplinary stakeholder engagement, links to scientific communities across disciplines, connections to policy processes, complex-systems analysis, theories of change, data management, and facilities for stakeholder engagement. Applicants then had to provide examples of those capabilities and explain how the consortium could co-design and potentially implement the pilot.

4. Explain engagement and resourcing

Applicants had to describe the stakeholder-engagement process and identify key stakeholders. The form also asked whether the consortium could co-fund the co-design phase and offered percentage bands for describing possible co-funding. Co-funding was not a prerequisite according to the template. Applicants could also identify in-kind contributions such as salary support, administrative support, research or data infrastructure, meeting facilities and communications support.

5. Submit an expression of interest

The call announcement estimated an expression of interest at about 2,000 words. It directed applicants to submit through an ISC online form and supplied a Word/PDF template for preparation. The deadline was 31 May 2024 at 00:00 UTC. That submission window has passed.

6. Continue only if shortlisted

The call stated that only shortlisted expressions of interest would be invited to develop a full bid. The ISC later reported that it received more than 250 expressions of interest and identified 23 shortlisted expressions of interest. Shortlisted consortia were invited to matchmaking events with funders and then to submit full bids for further assessment. The later stage was therefore selective; submitting an expression of interest did not create an entitlement to funding or a full-bid invitation.

What happened after the call

The ISC’s later announcements confirm that this was a completed selection process rather than an uncompleted listing waiting for a new date. In its shortlist announcement, the ISC described the 23 shortlisted consortia and said final funding decisions would cover the 18-month co-design phase. The announcement included missions addressing issues such as water security, food systems, climate adaptation, biodiversity, urban heat, plastic reduction, health and livelihoods across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific and other regions.

In a January 2025 announcement, the ISC reported that two pilots had received initial co-design funding and had launched at a Global Knowledge Dialogue in Muscat, Oman. The announcement highlighted the Asia Science Mission and a biodiversity-conservation and sustainable-livelihoods mission in Amazonia. It also said that the ISC was seeking additional funders and partners for the wider set of pilot projects. This is evidence of programme progression, not evidence that the original application window remained open.

The ISC later described twelve transdisciplinary Pilot Missions in its announcement about the programme’s endorsement under the UN International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development. The current programme page presents the initiative as in progress and includes later regional work, including the Asia Science Mission. It does not publish a replacement global deadline for the closed call. The appropriate status for this entry is therefore historical reference, not rolling opportunity.

What readers can use from the archive

Researchers and organizations preparing for a future ISC announcement can still learn from the call’s design. A future opportunity might use different dates, funding, countries, stakeholder requirements or submission forms, so none of those should be copied forward without a new official notice. The durable lesson is the emphasis on a real consortium, a cross-sector problem, an explicit theory of change and a plan for turning knowledge into action.

A team using this archive should first establish whether the ISC has announced a new call on the current Science Missions for Sustainability page or through a new ISC news item. If a new call appears, read that notice and its attached application materials from the beginning. Check the current deadline, eligible lead organizations, geographic priorities, funding status, co-funding terms, required partners, word limits and submission portal. A future round might be connected to the same programme without repeating the 2024 global call’s rules.

For internal preparation, a prospective consortium could keep a concise partner map, a problem statement tied to a defined geography, evidence of stakeholder relationships, examples of relevant scientific and policy capability, a preliminary impact assessment and a transparent resource plan. Those preparations are useful only as readiness work. They do not constitute an application to the closed cycle and should not be sent to an old form unless the ISC explicitly reopens it.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Global Science Fund currently open?

No current global application round is verified here. The official record describes the closed Global Call for Science Missions for Sustainability, and the current ISC programme page reports the programme’s pilots and related work rather than a new global deadline.

What was the real deadline?

The expression-of-interest deadline was 31 May 2024 at 00:00 UTC. The date in this page’s front matter preserves that historical closing date so the archive entry does not imply that an invented future date exists.

Was $250,000 guaranteed?

No. The call described a goal of mobilizing up to $250,000 per Pilot Mission for the 18-month co-design phase, while also stating that funding was not secured at the time of the call. It was a target for the co-design phase, subject to funder engagement and final decisions.

Could an individual researcher apply?

The official materials were structured around consortia. The expression-of-interest template required partner information and at least three stakeholder types, including one scientific-community representative. An individual researcher without a qualifying consortium would not match the documented structure.

Did applicants need to be ISC members?

Not according to the application template’s description of scientific organizations. It listed several kinds of scientific organizations and said they might or might not be ISC members. The relevant historical requirement was a suitable multi-stakeholder consortium, not a blanket rule that every participant had to be an ISC member.

Where should a future applicant look?

Start with the current official ISC Science Missions for Sustainability page at https://council.science/our-work/science-missions/. Use only a newly published ISC call and its linked application documents to determine whether a future round exists. The archived 2024 form is not a current submission portal.

Official sources used for this historical entry

• ISC programme page: https://council.science/our-work/science-missions/
• ISC global call announcement: https://council.science/news/call-science-missions-sustainability/
• ISC expression-of-interest template: https://council.science/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ISC_Global-Call_Application.pdf
• ISC shortlist announcement: https://council.science/news/science-missions-for-sustainability-announcing-the-shortlisted-consortia/
• ISC pilot-launch announcement: https://council.science/news/science-missions-for-sustainability-pilots-launch-to-transform-science-and-deliver-real-world-solutions/
• ISC programme-endorsement announcement: https://council.science/news/isc-science-missions-un-decade-sustainability/