A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will organize a virtual workshop to explore critical areas of sustainability science that can help societies meet the goals of sustainable development. Presentations by speakers and discussions with participants will clarify what has been learned through scientific research about six cross-cutting issues of importance to sustainability progress in any sector, and what more is needed to make that knowledge most useful to decision making. Major objectives of the workshop will include:

• To explore scientific progress and gaps in six cross-cutting areas, such as (1) measuring progress toward sustainable development; (2) promoting equity and justice in sustainability efforts; (3) adapting to shocks; (4) linking knowledge and action; (5) fostering innovation for transformational change; and (6) managing and governing complex social-environmental systems;
• To discuss opportunities for scientific efforts that could contribute to research-based knowledge around sustainable development and sustainability, and the use of such knowledge in decision making; and
• To provide scientific input to the discussions of the NAS Grand Challenges in Science and the Nobel Prize Summit science session in Spring 2021.

The workshop will include participants from academic and non-academic research institutions as well as practitioners from government, the private sector, and non-governmental sector who are concerned with linking knowledge with decision making in the pursuit of sustainability. A Proceedings of a Workshop--in Brief will be prepared by a designated rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines and distributed broadly to interested parties, including those involved in the Nobel Prize Summit.