Global Repository for Sustainable Development presented at SRI2025

The upcoming Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress (SRI2025), set to take place in Chicago from June 16-19, 2025, will feature a poster presentation focused on a critical initiative by The Earth-Humanity Coalition: building a global repository for transdisciplinary research on sustainable development. This project aims to create a vital resource for the scattered community working in this crucial field.

The poster will introduce attendants of the congress to a new, dedicated collaborative and equitable repository space being developed within a well-respected, open, and trusted generalist repository committed to long-term data storage and open science, whose name is Zenodo. Zenodo is hosted by CERN.

This repository is developed in partnership with the Belmont Forum. Projects funded through its calls will be invited specifically to participate to the co-construction, and also to post their results on the platform.

Any kind of digital object

The repository is designed to accommodate any kind of digital object, or “artifact,” relevant to transdisciplinarity for sustainable development, including scientific papers, videos, photos, datasets, and audio recordings: it is not limited to just scientific articles. This inclusivity is key to facilitating the use of the platform by non-scientists and providing visibility for actors outside of academia who may lack access to specialized repositories or face barriers to publishing open access in traditional journals.

A core aspect of this initiative is its co-constructed approach. The repository will be built collaboratively with users – including scientists, non-scientists, funders, and policymakers – to ensure it meets their needs and challenges. The poster at SRI2025 will serve to present technical aspects and existing use cases of Zenodo, engage participants in this co-construction process, and even initiate the creation of working groups to help implement the community.

Ultimately, this global repository seeks to connect the transdisciplinary community focusing on sustainable development, ensure a long-time archive for research artifacts, and accelerate progress towards the sustainable development goals. By providing an open platform and promoting the open access publishing of results, it aims to sustain the commons character of all knowledge, in a fair and equitable way, fostering epistemic justice on a global scale.

SRI2025 is organized jointly by Future Earth and the Belmont Forum.

Luc Allemand