World Solve

Current approaches to architectural and planning approaches that make cities more equitable and climate-resilient simultaneously either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

Achieving technologies for safe and efficient long-distance transport of hydrogen and ammonia at meaningful scale demands simultaneous progress in fundamental research, engineering integration and socio-technical systems that work for low- and middle-income settings. Existing efforts remain fragmented relative to the magnitude of the challenge.

Current approaches to technologies enabling efficient and low-impact desalination and water treatment at various scales either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

A persistent gap exists in realizing practical, scalable solutions for pathways for integrating traditional ecological knowledge with modern environmental management. Scientific understanding, engineering readiness and institutional capacity remain insufficient to translate promising concepts into durable impact under real-world constraints of cost, skills and governance.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for scalable interventions improving executive function after chronic stress creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for governance frameworks for the ethical development and deployment of human enhancement technologies creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

Current approaches to biotechnologies enabling the production of high-value materials from captured carbon dioxide either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

A persistent gap exists in realizing practical, scalable solutions for affordable and durable solutions for the management of household and industrial organic waste. Scientific understanding, engineering readiness and institutional capacity remain insufficient to translate promising concepts into durable impact under real-world constraints of cost, skills and governance.

Current approaches to real-time digital twins of entire river basins for adaptive management either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

Current approaches to housing and land systems that prevent displacement during climate-driven migration either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

Current approaches to interventions that improve the quality and equity of primary healthcare delivery either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

Establish credible baseline science, governance, monitoring, liability, and precautionary thresholds before commercial extraction irreversibly alters deep-sea ecosystems.

Design roads, railways, pipelines, and transmission lines with wildlife crossings, routing, monitoring, and community safeguards that work at landscape scale.

Create secure, accessible, dispute-aware processes for converting paper and customary land claims into digital records without enabling elite capture.

Develop ethical forecasting methods that identify areas likely to experience forced mobility from climate stress without stigmatizing populations or enabling exclusion.

Achieving early warning systems for social unrest linked to climate and resource stress at meaningful scale demands simultaneous progress in fundamental research, engineering integration and socio-technical systems that work for low- and middle-income settings. Existing efforts remain fragmented relative to the magnitude of the challenge.

Current approaches to pathways for achieving high levels of circularity in the plastics and packaging sectors either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for institutional designs that make long-term infrastructure investment politically durable creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for nature-based solutions for urban stormwater that also enhance biodiversity and amenity creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for circular nutrient management systems closing phosphorus loops at regional scale creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.