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This report provides an account of the process and content of the 3rd Consultation of IIASA-ISC Consultative Science Platform “Bouncing Forward Sustainably: Pathways to a post-COVID World”. IIASA and ISC are committed to ensuring appropriate levels of transparency. This report is made publicly available in light of this commitment. The report is in three parts. The first part of the report outlines the process of the 3rd Consultation. The second part of the report provides a summary of the general discussion and the discussions in two break-away groups which were grouped around the draft recommendations put forward in the Third Background Paper. Input to the 3rd Consultation (link) produced for the 3rd Consultation. The discussions at the 3rd Consultation addressed only some aspects within each draft recommendation. In some cases, the discussion covered aspects which were not originally included in the Third Background Paper. This report presents only what was discussed in the 3rd Consultation. This report should be considered as complementary to the Background Paper (link), the 1st Consultation Report (link), the Second Background Paper. Input to the 2nd Consultation (link), and the 2nd Consultation Report (link). Correspondence and off-line discussion with the participants, as well as work to analyze collected material continue. Hence this report should be treated as a work-in-progress. Participants are encouraged to provide further comments and suggestions.

Systems map depicting interlinkages among major issues relevant for the agility, reliability and science-policy-society interface as three dimensions of potential improvement of the science system to enhance its capability to respond to crises triggered by extreme events like COVID-19.

This Background Paper was prepared to frame the discussion in the 1st Consultation on Strengthening Science Systems within the IIASA-ISC Consultative Science Platform “Bouncing Forward Sustainably: Pathways to a post-COVID-19 world”. The paper briefly discusses the response of science and scientists to the COVID-19 crisis, the dissemination of research results and the input of the science community into public policy. While science responded fairly rapidly with appropriate research and the communication of research to the public and to policy makers, there is clear room for improvement. Drawing from the experience of the COVID-19 crisis, three axes of improvement are identified, namely increased agility, enhanced reliability, and a more effective science-policy-society interface. The paper identifies barriers that constrain and inhibit the effectiveness and efficiency of the science system in terms of these three axes. The barriers include misinformation and pseudoscience; the lack of access to data and to mathematical models; the slow pace of peer review; funding challenges both overall and in efficient allocation to critical issues; public trust in, and understanding of, science. Finally, in relation to science for policy, there are issues of transparency, contestation between scientists proffering advice, the need to widen the disciplinary base of science advice and the importance of adopting an interdisciplinary and systemic approach.