This session aims to synthesize and celebrate IMBeR’s key achievements under Grand Challenge 2 and discuss the strategic opportunities for building on these achievements and taking advantage of IMBeR’s unique strengths in IMBeR 3.0.

Over the past decade, IMBeR’s Grand Challenge 2, “Improving scenarios, predictions, and projections of future ocean-human systems at multiple scales,” has focused on integrating our understanding of the drivers and consequences of global change on marine ecosystems and human societies into models to project and predict future states. Activity under this challenge has led to significant advancements in developing integrated data systems and approaches for predictions and projections, utilizing predictive models (including best-practice methods for downscaling and integrating social processes), and creating scenarios that bridge physical, biological, and social sciences.

Now, there is a rapidly increasing global demand for information, tools, and approaches to support equitable actions, solutions, and interventions for climate adaptation, mitigation, and nature repair. This presents a unique strategic opportunity for the IMBeR community to leverage its established leadership and expertise in model and scenario development while strengthening the integration between climate and biodiversity science and incorporating diverse knowledge systems, including Indigenous science. In the next phase of IMBeR’s work, it could lead the development of best-practice approaches for evaluating such actions, solutions, and interventions to support the sustainability of marine social-ecological systems and ensure equitable outcomes. This work will be crucial in guiding evidence-based decision-making for ocean sustainability in the coming decades, and would build upon IMBeR’s established leadership position in this space.