DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200554

Summary
Against a backdrop of rapidly changing social, economic and geopolitical settings and ideologies, the world is facing a wide range of challenges, including in biodiversity, climate, energy, the environment, food, health and water. These can only be addressed by fully harnessing key capacities that science offers. However, there is a crisis of trust in science which affects some sections of society and some policy-makers, impairing the capacity of science to deliver its essential roles. This damaged relationship between science, society and policy has immense health, economic and social consequences and implications for sustainability of the entire planet. Scientists must strive collectively to re-establish trust by society and politicians where it is damaged, and reinforce conviction of science's central importance in underpinning policy. Science's roles must in turn be acknowledged by policies that sustain innovation and freedom to work without political interference or constraints. A well-functioning and trusting relationship between science, society and policy-makers offers a potent means to thwart and mitigate emergent global challenges.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
As a source of knowledge, useful applications, solutions to problems and evidence-based advice, science and technology (S&T) are pivotal to people's quality of life and prosperity in the twenty-first century. These capacities that science offers need to be accepted and acted upon, which requires an ethos and approach to evaluating information that enables individuals, communities and those enacting and implementing policies at local, national and international levels to take evidence-informed decisions. Notwithstanding all the proven and potential benefits of S&T, its advances also generate some hazards. These include unethical and/or harmful practices in research, manufacturing and application, as well as unforeseen negative impacts of technologies. Consequently, it is incumbent on countries to consider the roles that governments must play with regard to S&T. One is to determine the appropriate levels of investment in science and its applications. In addition, the investment in science needs to include cultivating the educational and intellectual infrastructure that ensures an adequate supply of well-trained scientists. It also requires the development of a sound science literacy in the general population—fostering a broad-based understanding of the potentials and limitations of science, respect for its methods and scepticism about unsupported or untested claims. A further key role for the state is to determine the appropriate protections required, both for individuals and for society as a whole, against risks that may flow from unbridled profiteering and marketing, ideological motives or negligent behaviour. These protections include regulating processes and products, ensuring they are safe and not mis-applied in unethical or harmful ways. Such protections often require cross-border cooperation based on a shared, global level of understanding of and respect for scientific methods and evidence.

Point of Strength
Multiple global challenges are unfolding that threaten immense health, economic and environmental consequences for the whole planet. In all these cases, science is leading in the identification of the problems, in pointing to pathways to solutions and in contributing, in combination with other knowledge streams, to credible foresight analysis. However, developing and fully implementing the solutions cannot be done by science alone. Society and politicians need to accept the facts, understand the threats, sift and weigh the projections, options and predicted outcomes and make informed choices that balance health, economic and environmental costs according to ethical principles and humane priorities.
It is only through working together that science, society and policy can serve as a dependable vaccine to prevent and prepare for the adverse impacts of emerging threats and as a potent antidote that can treat and minimize ensuing harm to health, economies and the environment. The essential glue that bonds this combination together is trust—in science, honesty and ethics.
This compact between science and society must also recognize that uncertainty is intrinsic to the human condition and that it is necessary to expect the unexpected. Science, for all its own uncertainties and continuous need to verify and sometimes revise or update its conclusions, remains the best available guide on the pathway to navigate uncertainty.