HE must be a bold, visible catalyst of global collaboration

In today’s fractured and fragile world, the defining challenges of our era – climate change, pandemics, food insecurity, biodiversity loss and political instability – do not respect borders.

These are shared problems with deeply interconnected causes and consequences. Yet, our institutional and geopolitical systems remain largely siloed, and often struggle to respond effectively. To build not just a sustainable future, but one that is liveable and thriving, we must reimagine how we solve problems, who solves them and how they work together.

Yet, in the midst of this need, we see new challenges arising in an already fractured landscape. The global rise in nationalism over the last decade has festered as an emergent obstacle to longstanding global collaborations, challenging everything from free trade to multilateral cooperation.

In the last few months, we have seen a new spin on this movement, as the United States government has sought to reduce and reframe federal investment in academic research, risking scientific advancement addressing our shared challenges.

These efforts have gone so far as asking universities and scientists in other countries, from Australia to Europe, about their involvement in areas such as climate research.

Amid this complexity, one truth is becoming increasingly clear: despite these challenges, scientific collaboration is more essential than ever.

It is collaboration, not competition that will unlock the breakthroughs we need. Knowledge and innovation are amplified when they are shared, not when they are hoarded behind borders. At the heart of this collaborative potential lies one of society’s most vital and enduring institutions: higher education.

While there are new rules to navigate, universities are emerging as essential platforms for collaboration to advance sustainability and innovation. From convening climate scientists and community leaders to catalysing government-university-industry partnerships, higher education serves as the connective tissue of global problem-solving. They bridge public and private interests, science and policy, local knowledge and global insight.

Cross-sector collaboration in action

Perhaps the most powerful recent example of scientific collaboration is the development of COVID-19 vaccines.

The rapid creation of effective mRNA vaccines was made possible by decades of university-led research, such as pioneering mRNA studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois, combined with private sector innovation from companies like Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech and massive public sector investment through initiatives like SHIELD Illinois.

Global coordination across clinical trials, regulatory approvals and distribution enabled vaccines to reach billions of people worldwide. Without this intricate collaboration between government agencies, university laboratories, pharmaceutical companies and public health organisations, the timeline for vaccine development would have taken years, not months.

The Human Genome Project offers another landmark example. It brought together scientists from multiple countries, universities and private enterprises to develop shared frameworks, data-sharing protocols and joint-funding models, laying the groundwork for modern genomics and biomedicine.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, is yet another example. IPPC unites thousands of researchers globally to synthesise evidence around sustainability solutions and guide global policy decisions.

These examples illustrate that science, when organised around shared human challenges, can transcend divisions and that collaboration is critical for accelerating scientific discovery and impact.

Global knowledge ecosystems

Today, initiatives like Future Earth, a constellation of 26 global research networks, continue this tradition by advancing sustainability science through globally networked knowledge. Future Earth brings together researchers, policy-makers, business leaders and civil society to co-design knowledge agendas that are actionable and inclusive.

Universities are at the core of this work, producing research and acting as conveners, translators and amplifiers of globally relevant solutions.

The Belmont Forum, a partnership of international science funders, breaks down barriers to research funding. By serving as an interlocutor of the national science funding community, Belmont Forum facilitates international collaboration and ensures that projects incorporate societal stakeholders from the start.

This model of co-produced knowledge, embedding academic research within real-world decision-making contexts, is becoming the gold standard for meaningful impact.

The University of Illinois System exemplifies this global shift by actively building an international partner ecosystem. Through initiatives such as the Discovery Partners Institute and Brasillinois, the system connects its three universities to international research collaborators, industry leaders and public agencies to build local solutions with global reach.

SRI2025: A platform for the next era of collaboration

Building on this foundation, the Sustainability Research and Innovation (SRI) Congress, to be hosted in Chicago this June, aims to catalyse the next generation of global collaboration.

The SRI Congress will bring together scientists, policy-makers, Indigenous leaders, entrepreneurs, business leaders and funders from across sectors and continents. It is designed to share research findings and co-create strategies for real-world impact, bridging local action and global goals.

At SRI2025, universities will again play a role as conveners and connectors – designing ecosystems of collaboration to meet the grand challenges of our time with shared knowledge, shared action and shared hope.

Collective intelligence

The challenges we face are urgent and the challenges are real, but they are also invitations to rethink how we work, who we work with, and what we work for.

Collaboration is no longer a luxury; it is the essential operating system of the future. Higher education has long been a quiet force for public good. Now, it must become a bold and visible catalyst of global collaboration, bridging sectors, integrating knowledge and fostering trust.

If we want a future where humanity thrives, not merely survives, we must recognise that the solutions will not come from isolated brilliance, but from collective intelligence. We must act accordingly.

Jason E Lane is professor of educational policy, organisation and leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, and special advisor to the president of the University of Illinois System. An expert on higher education systems, internationalisation and science diplomacy, he is co-founder of the Cross-Border Education Research Team (C-BERT), a member of the international advisory board for the Swedish Foundation for International Collaboration in Research and Higher Education (STINT) and co-editor of the forthcoming book Pathways to Sustainability: Collaborative solutions for a resilient future from the University of Illinois Press.

This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.