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IIASA corner In February, IIASA Director General and CEO Albert van Jaarsveld led a delegation from the institute to participate at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society. The focus of this year’s event was on how science can bring together people, ideas, and solutions from across borders, disciplines, and ideologies to address the most pressing problems of our time. IIASA is uniquely positioned to provide extensive expertise on these topics, as they are fundamental to the institute’s multidisciplinary approach and its commitment to the promotion of scientific cooperation at the local, regional, and global level. IIASA organized two conference sessions as part of the proceedings, the first of which focused on cross-disciplinary science, while the second addressed science diplomacy. Delegates from the institute also presented a career workshop exploring the gender dimension in science advice. Speakers at the session on cross- disciplinary science emphasized that understanding cross-disciplinary science will be critically important to those responsible for formulating policies and strategies to achieve sustainable development. They also highlighted that there is a need for an integrative systems approach to develop transformational pathways showing how the simultaneous objectives of economic development, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion can be met. Key to achieving such an ambitious objective will be for the scientific community to establish innovative partnerships with other stakeholders. This will require bringing together leaders from the science, policy, business, and funding arenas to explore the systemic dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and revitalize global partnerships. The session on science diplomacy looked at the role that IIASA science has played in building bridges across political divides since its establishment in 1972, and highlighted the institute’s increasingly important role in the international discourse about sustainable development, particularly in terms of the SDGs. In light of rising tensions between East and West in contemporary geopolitics, speakers also reflected on how facilitating scientific training across borders through platforms like the IIASA Young Scientists Summer Program can aid in easing tensions between countries with troubled relations. Science advice to government is a rapidly evolving field, but the number of female science advisors worldwide is still limited, as is the number of female heads of government. The career workshop, which was organized and moderated by Acting Chief Operations Officer at IIASA, Jan Marco Müller, explored different views on why and how the gender dimension matters in providing science advice to government, both on the side of those advising and those receiving the advice. Discussions during the session, which featured among others, Canadian Chief Science Advisor Mona Nemer and the former UNESCO Deputy Secretary-General Flavia Schlegel, focused on how to encourage more women to engage in science advice to policy. In summarizing the institute’s engagement at the AAAS meeting, Müller reiterated that IIASA is uniquely positioned to provide a neutral platform for sharing best practices at the global level. www.iiasa.ac.at/events/AAAS-19 INSTITUTE NEWS Written by: Ansa Heyl Transcending the boundaries of science and policy www.iiasa.ac.at 27OptionsSummer 2019