In challenging times, answers matter! Researchers and scientists are pushing forward across the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, bringing evidence into real-world solutions.
On 29 January 2026, COST organised a COST Connect event in Brussels, bringing together key United Nations (UN) agencies and COST Actions. The event highlighted how science, research and innovation developed within COST Actions contribute to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The initiative aimed to identify synergies and explore future collaboration to support COST Actions in navigating the UN agencies. Additionally, this supports UN focal points in identifying new opportunities, facilitating connections with relevant agencies and partners, and providing guidance on funding and key events to enhance the impact of research.
Trust in science
At a time of growing global challenges, the event underscored the importance of rebuilding trust in evidence-based approaches and reaffirming the central role of science in informing effective, sustainable solutions.
“Today, we are gathered here for a very specific purpose: to turn Science into Action. Our theme focuses on solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals, and we are zooming in on the collaboration between science and policy, specifically the power of networks. The collaboration between the UN and the COST Association represents a powerful synergy. The UN provides the global vision and the framework of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. COST provides an excellent pool of researchers. By linking the multidisciplinary networks of the COST Actions present today with the UN’s strategic objectives, we are ensuring that the world’s most pressing challenges are met with evidence-based, peer-reviewed reality. The goal today is to provide our researchers and innovators with direct channels to feed their results into the policymaking channels of the United Nations. It is about making sure the scientific contribution of COST Actions is visible, acknowledged, and, most importantly, used.”
Dr Ronald de Bruin, Director of the COST Association
“This in-person workshop was an opportunity for the UN Brussels Team to deepen its connection with the COST community of researchers, allowing us to collaborate more closely and give greater visibility to the important scientific research happening across Europe. Science and evidence are at the heart of everything the UN does –whether it’s advancing climate action, improving food systems, promoting gender equality, or building more resilient societies. Each Sustainable Development Goal relies on research and the insights that science provides.”
Caroline Petit, Deputy Director of the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC)
Science Summit
Pilar Gómez, Project Director of the Science Summit, highlighted the shared focus of all event participants on how science can contribute to development and to the SGDs, and explained key opportunities and collaboration pathways for COST Actions, with a focus on engaging in the Science Summit that runs in parallel with the UN General Assembly every year in New York City.
From Boundaries to Breakthroughs: Science for a Regenerative and Equitable Future
Science Summit 2026 will focus on how science, technology, and innovation can drive regeneration — restoring ecosystems, rebuilding equity, and renewing trust in the scientific enterprise. It will explore the transition from boundaries to breakthroughs, where knowledge becomes the catalyst for global transformation.
Common goals
Initial contact was established already last autumn to assess areas of synergy. This time, COST Actions pitched their research network to all the UN agencies’ representatives. The event focused on mapping potential synergies concretely through interactive sessions to strengthen connections further and discuss the benefits and expected outcomes for the UN agencies and the COST Actions.
Participants from 18 COST Actions brought interdisciplinary expertise to life, demonstrating the power of collaboration across fields, covering a wide range of research areas such as biosecurity, migration, waste, sustainable hydropower, climate resilience, climate change, swine influenza, forest protection, island resilience, livestock phenomics, migrant birds, blue economy, crop resilience, health, circular economy, agrifood, career guidance, bullying and wellbeing at school, to name a few. This is a representative sample of the fields covered by the Actions that meet the 17 SDGs, thanks to their interdisciplinary nature. The potential is extremely enriching for UN agencies and COST Actions research networks.
COST Actions and the SDGs
“At a time when science is increasingly questioned and challenged, achieving the SDGs —further reinforced by the UN Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development— requires all sciences to work together in multidisciplinary and socially grounded frameworks, supported by international cooperation and science diplomacy instruments. EU programmes such as COST play a critical role in sustaining these efforts by enabling long-term interdisciplinary networks, fostering science-policy-society dialogue and supporting meaningful engagement with UN agencies. Climate and sustainability transitions are profound societal transformations involving governance, values, institutions, culture, inequalities and public perception, and therefore demand the integration of Social Sciences, Humanities (SSH) and the Arts with the Natural Sciences. In this context, SHiFT strengthens the role of SSH by connecting research, policy and societal practice through interdisciplinary cooperation. It provides a structured space for research, training and knowledge exchange, in convergence with UN agencies’ priorities —namely UNESCO and FAO— promoting culture-nature relations, education and capacity-building, heritage and knowledge sharing, and science as a public good.”
Prof. Maria Fernanda Rollo, Chair of the COST Action SHiFT and UNESCO Chair on Biodiversity Safeguard for Sustainable Development
“SMILES is a reminder of the need to protect the thousands of natural and cultural laboratories scattered across the high seas, in an effort to put them back on the political agenda under increasing global environmental change.”
Prof. Ioannis Vogiatzakis, Chair of the COST Action SMILES
“Sometimes dismissed as merely elite whining, academic freedom and the autonomy of higher education institutions are actually fundamental to the pursuit of knowledge and societal progress, the functioning of a democratic society, and the right to education: to learn and to teach. SDG17 is not only the partnership goal; it also highlights the importance of science and technology to achieving all the other SDGs. Without academic freedom and institutional autonomy, we will not be able to produce the science needed for effective and useful policy and action for sustainable development. By mobilising interdisciplinary research and comparative analysis across European contexts, the COST Action ‘Rising nationalisms, shifting geopolitics and the future of European higher education/research openness (OPEN)’ analyses these key issues while strengthening the capacity of policymakers to respond to threats to openness, academic freedom, and international cooperation.”
Prof. Moira Faul, member of the COST Action OPEN
“Migratory birds need international protection because of their intrinsic biology, anchoring them to broad areas over different times of the year. They interact with local fauna, flora, and with humans and are a pivotal part of the ecological processes at a large geographical scale. Often, simple conservation measures can go a long way to protect them, and can be beneficial for overall biodiversity and for humans altogether. Our COST Action aims at improving the scale of monitoring and research over areas where knowledge on these species is reduced, to inform policy and conservation efforts efficiently and with a solid data basis.”
Dr Ivan Maggini, Chair of the COST Action EUFLYNET
“The European Network on Livestock Phenomics (CA22112) illustrates how coordinated scientific networks can effectively support evidence-based policymaking. By promoting harmonised, high-quality phenotypic data and integrating advanced phenotyping technologies with genomics and environmental information, EU-LI-PHE provides robust scientific foundations to inform policies on sustainable livestock production. The Action strengthens the science–policy interface by translating complex biological data into actionable knowledge, directly contributing to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals related to food security, climate action, resource efficiency, animal welfare and quality education at European and global levels.”
Mr Samuel Agyabeng, young PhD from the COST Action EU-LI-PHE
Looking at the future
The event fostered new connections between UN focal points and COST researchers, opening pathways to monitor and support the progress of four-year COST Actions. It also showcased how scientific outputs from COST Actions can inform and accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Clear next steps of common interest to all participants were identified, including joint ad-hoc webinars and coordinated dissemination and communication activities linked to international days. In conclusion, COST Actions expressed a strong interest and readiness to create permanent exchange mechanisms connecting COST Actions with UN policy needs. COST & UN collaboration can serve as a powerful catalyst for Science for Policy and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Additional information and further reads
What is COST Connect?
Science in Action: solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals (COST Connect, January 2026, Brussels)
Advancing research to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (COST Connect, October 2024, Brussels)
Building synergies to achieve the UN’s Global Goals (COST News, October 2024)
COST Action contributions to United Nations’ objectives (COST News, September 2023)
Marine Animal Forest of the World endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade (COST News, May 2023)
Advancing marine connectivity science for the ocean we want (COST News, November 2021)
NET4Age-Friendly is recognised by the United Nations as a good practice! (COST News, July 2021)
UN in Brussels and UN Brussels Team
UNRIC Info Point & Library Newsletter