Scientific knowledge underpins much of the United Nations’ work, from setting international standards and informing global negotiations to supporting development programmes and responding to emerging risks. Yet the UN’s scientific ecosystem is highly decentralized, spanning dozens of agencies, programmes and expert bodies.
In Governing with Evidence: How the UN System Generates, Mobilizes and Uses Science, UNU-CPR examines how scientific evidence is produced, validated, shared and applied across the multilateral system. The report maps the scientific mandates of UN entities, reviews mechanisms for ensuring scientific quality and independence, explores how expertise is mobilized through partnerships and advisory networks, and assesses the role of science-policy interfaces in translating evidence into action.
The report identifies five core functions performed by science across the UN system: generating and disseminating knowledge, facilitating international scientific cooperation, supporting standards and norm-setting, applying evidence to development practice, and bridging science and policymaking through dedicated science-policy interfaces. It also highlights growing efforts to expand open science, strengthen scientific advisory capacity and improve the use of evidence in decision-making.
While the UN produces a vast body of scientific knowledge, the report finds opportunities to improve coordination, expand access to expertise, strengthen monitoring of policy impact and promote more coherent approaches to open science. It concludes with recommendations to reinforce the UN’s role as a trusted global science-policy ecosystem capable of addressing increasingly complex and interconnected challenges.
Read Governing with Evidence: How the UN System Generates, Mobilizes and Uses Science here.
Suggested citation: Adam Day, Caroline Dunton and Madeleine Hamel. Governing with Evidence: How the UN System Generates, Mobilizes and Uses Science : UNU-CPR, 2026.
