U24A-03 Lessons from three decades of global change research at MIT (Invited)

Abstract: Funded by an international consortium of sponsors including industry as well as government and foundations, The MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3) conducts actionable, evidence-based research to improve understanding of sustainability challenges. While it was renamed and reorganized in 2024, CS3 builds on three decades of experience under MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and MIT's Center for Global Change Science (two existing centers which it incorporated and succeeded). We draw lessons from this longstanding history of working with industry, highlighting the need for combining fundamental scientific advances with applications, and diversifying funding sources to help ensure credibility and legitimacy. We provide concrete examples of our research working with industries in different sectors. Finally, we emphasize the importance of working across disciplines in a problem-focused way, in order to overcome traditional barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration.