Posted in BRIDGES IPO news, News on May 12, 2026.
Unfolding today: This week, a dedicated global delegation of BRIDGES colleagues is gathering in Sigtuna, Sweden, for a series of transformative consultative workshops.
This assembly, including members from our global BRIDGES Hubs, Governing Council, and wider coalition, brings together a powerful synthesis of strategic partners, including representatives of UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme, and the International Science Council; civil society leaders; social innovators; academics; and policy advisors. Working alongside systems thinkers; ethics experts; global thought leaders; and cultural advocates; these international facilitators are engaging in high-level dialogue to advance the coalition’s mission of humanities-informed, community-anchored sustainability science.
The location of Sigtuna holds significant historical weight for the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES coalition, as it was the site of one of the foundational BRIDGES workshops in 2019. These 2026 sessions represent a "returning to the roots" for BRIDGES, some seven years later.
Supported by the ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Lab, The Club of Rome, and BRIDGES, the workshops are being held at the Sigtuna Foundation from 12–14 May 2026.
This gathering represents a cornerstone of a year-long effort by the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition to bridge the gap between humanities-based insights and practical policy. Building on consultations launched in March, this work integrates the human understanding found in the arts and humanities into the science-policy interface.
The primary goal is to produce a suite of ‘guiding instruments’; practical frameworks and policy toolkits designed to help UNESCO Member States translate qualitative, contextual knowledge into actionable wisdom for complex sustainability challenges.
This gathering aims to ensure that humanities-driven science has a permanent seat at major policy tables. The outcomes from Sigtuna will directly inform the coalition’s four strategic priorities:
Youth: Empowering the next generation of global leaders.
SIDS: Addressing the unique climate risks of Small Island Developing States.
Priority Africa: Strengthening local research and policy capacity.
Indigenous Knowledge: Centring marginalised voices in global sustainability.
These workshops are a vital component of the broader initiative: “Building Bridges from Knowledge to Policy Formulation and Impact: Mobilising humanities expertise in a rapidly changing world.”
By centring the arts, social sciences, and local knowledge, the coalition is humanising the global science-policy interface to better reflect the complexity of our changing world.
We look forward to sharing further developments as this initiative progresses.
Globethics; University of Pennsylvania; UNESCO; Club of Rome; C4SA (Consortium for Sustainable Agrivoltaics) and Food Alert Workshops; University of Southampton; Leonardo/ISAST; IntegraLight Transdisciplinary Institute for Consciousness, Society, and Wellbeing; Instituto Terra e Memória, Portugal; HAITC-Hainan University; University of Toronto; Arizona State University; PHGD; Tamkeen for Our Humanity Foundation; University of Cologne; University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Polytechnic University of Tomar, Portugal; International Science Council; Trinity College Dublin; University of Edinburgh; University of Gävle; University of Oslo; and UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES.
