World Science Forum 2024 Declaration Calls for Strengthening Trust in Science Globally

The 11th World Science Forum, held in Budapest, Hungary on 20-23 November, ended with a declaration accepted unanimously by the founding and partner organisations and participants of WSF2024. The next Forum will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2026, and will be titled “Science for Global Resilience and Equity”.

The WSF2024 Declaration calls for efficient, trusted and creative science and policy interfaces, responding to disruptive global transformations. 

“Our world is under rapid transformation and facing an uncertain future. Extraordinary scientific and technological advances are at odds with inadequate progress on addressing the challenges of climate change and most of the Sustainable Development Goals, a growing number of conflicts, rising inequalities and the emergence of rapidly evolving and disruptive technologies,” the declaration states. “We urgently need to broaden scientific understanding and to promote evidence-based, science-informed and long-term-thinking decision-making.”

The World Science Forum was created by three founding organisations, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – host of the 2024 event – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Science Council (ISC), and partner organisations the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), and the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC).

Watch the video of the WSF2024 parliamentary closing session here:

Interview with Nur Tri Aries Suestiningtyas, Executive Secretary of the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN):

“Science as a universal language is the evidence-based tool for understanding our world and its future. It should guide society, policymakers and the economy on risks, opportunities and choices. […] We recognise the evolving role of science diplomacy in bringing together science and policy to address these challenges and promote science for peace,” the declaration highlights.

Titled “A Science and Policy Interface and Dialogue at the Time of Global Transformations”, WSF2024 attracted 1,200 delegates from 122 countries, who joined sessions and roundtable discussions including 100 lectures in 19 plenary and thematic sessions over four days on 20-23 November, with the aim of overcoming the present limits of the wide-scale implementation of science-based policy measures on a global level. 

The full text of the declaration can be found here on the World Science Forum website.

The Steering Committee of the WSF selected the application of the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia to host the next World Science Forum in Jakarta in 2026, taking the Forum, for the first time, to Asia and the Eastern Hemisphere.