But to realize this goal, sustainability LY294002 research buy science must itself break through formidable barriers of inertia and lack of political will (Van der Leeuw et al. 2012). Investment in science in most developed countries is predicated upon a (unwritten) social contract between science and society. (Lubchenco 1998) The vast explosion in knowledge since World War II is in large measure due to these investments that carried with them the expectation that a substantial investment in scientific research

will result in societal benefits (Ibid., Skolnikoff 1993). For many decades this relationship or “contract” worked to the benefit of both the scientific enterprise and society, as standards of living, health and and security rose in those countries to the point where the 20th century has been called by some as “the golden age of science”. As science developed to address specific deficits and needs in society, it became increasingly compartmentalized and specialized, and the distance between human values Cobimetinib and science gradually increased. (Komiyama 2014, 17) Moreover, with ever increasing acceleration over the same time period and, especially, in the last 30 years, man’s

impact on the biosphere has increased dramatically and led to a myriad of profound changes that are occurring faster than they can be interpreted. Today, no ecosystem on Earth is free of pervasive human influence and many scientists believe that the changes are so great that we have entered a new geological age, which they call the Anthropocene (Vitousek et al. 1997; Steffen et al. 2007). Recognizing that socio-ecological problems and deficits that result from the consequences of these very changes (climate change, ecological degradation, biodiversity loss, dramatic changes in landscape, war and entrenched poverty) are not amenable to strict disciplinary approaches has led to many experiments in disciplinary border crossing between the physical and natural sciences and social sciences (Frodeman et al. 2001). There is an active debate and

urgency in academia and civil society on methods and approaches to help integrate the vast amounts of knowledge being produced to help make it more relevant to the increasingly complex problems our world faces (Frodeman et al. 2010; Jacobs 2014).2 The emergence and development of sustainability science is emblematic of this scientific advancement (Kates 2010 and 2011). Yet, the question raised in a special issue of Sustainability Science in 2012 on bridging the gap between science and society remains: considering that research and education are valuable but not sufficient contributions to solving sustainability problems, what is a reasonable mission for sustainability science (Wiek et al.