NOTE: To attend Science Day 2025 in person, you must be accredited for the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) 2025 or register in advance for a UN-issued special event pass. Please ensure that the name you use during registration exactly matches the name on the government-issued ID you will present when entering UN grounds. In-person registration closes July 5, 2025, though limited same-day entry may be available for HLPF-accredited attendees without a Science Day pass, subject to capacity.
Science Day 2025 marks the third edition of a shared initiative convened by the International Science Council (ISC), the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) in the margins of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF). It offers an open, informal, and independent space for dialogue between the scientific community, policy-makers, UN agencies and a broad range of global actors. Designed to foster exchange across disciplines and sectors, Science Day has become a recognized platform for identifying where science is contributing to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – and where more integration, support, and innovation are needed.
This year’s edition, 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 provides an opportunity to take stock of these challenges, while highlighting how science – particularly when it is transdisciplinary, inclusive, and attuned to local realities – can help overcome them.
As with earlier editions, this year’s Science Day 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.
This edition will thus serve both as a strategic stocktaking moment and a platform for ‘horizon scanning’ – grounded in practice, yet ambitious in scope. It will explore how science is supporting SDG implementation today, where systemic gaps remain, and what kinds of science-policy collaboration will be needed to advance sustainable development in the years to come. It will also consider the complex global context in which this future must be navigated – marked by political fragmentation, financial uncertainty, and strain across multilateral institutions – and how science can remain a credible, trusted, and adaptive partner amid these dynamics.
2025 areas of focus
Science Day 2025 is structured around three interrelated objectives:
1. Accelerating SDG implementation through transdisciplinary science
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.
2. Confronting the gaps in means of implementation
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.
3. Science and the future of sustainable development
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.
Programme overview
Opening remarks
Introductory statements by representatives of the co-convening organizations, outlining the objectives of the event and situating it in the broader context of the HLPF and the SDG timeline.
High-level panel discussion
This moderated panel will feature senior representatives from Permanent Missions, UN bodies, science organizations, and implementation actors. It will focus on both the current state of SDG implementation and the future of the sustainable development agenda.
Case study of science in action
This session will feature a curated set of short presentations showcasing concrete examples of science-policy collaboration, with an emphasis on actionable, transferable lessons, and reflecting the three areas of focus/objectives of this year’s edition.
Closing reflections and audience exchange
The final segment will open space for the audience to share questions and reflections, followed by brief closing remarks from the co-conveners or other high-level representatives. This will also serve to highlight pathways for continued collaboration and future editions of Science Day.
Looking ahead
As we move into a decisive period for the 2030 Agenda, Science Day is poised to grow into a critical platform for rethinking how science informs global cooperation for sustainable development. The 2025 edition not only builds on the insights and relationships established in previous years but also responds to a shared recognition: achieving the SDGs will require more than monitoring progress – it will require renewed approaches to collaboration, stronger interfaces between science and policy, and a clearer commitment to enabling conditions for action.
In that spirit, Science Day 2025 is not just a moment of reflection, but an invitation: to reaffirm the value of scientific knowledge as a public good, to strengthen the means by which it informs decision-making, and to begin imagining the systems and partnerships needed for the decades ahead. It is a space to unlock solutions today and a platform to co-create the pathways to tomorrow.