The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015 by all United Nations Member States, offers a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future." The Agenda outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which address a range of global challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, and environmental degradation, among others. Advances in technology and the proliferation of data are providing new opportunities for monitoring and tracking the progress of the SDGs. Yet, with these advances come significant challenges, such as a lack infrastructure, knowledge, and capacity to support big data.
To further examine how the global scientific, engineering, and medical communities can better facilitate the effective use of data to advance sustainability in the context of the SDGs, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Board on Research Data and Information and the Science and Technology for Sustainability Program convened a virtual public workshop on September 9-10, 2021. The workshop examined current efforts and initiatives to harness data and data-driven services to advance sustainability around the world. Workshop discussions also explored crosscutting issues, including strengthening the engagement of scientific, engineering, and medical communities on data-related issues, addressing disparities in the ability of societies to utilize data, and lessons learned from global experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.