What science do we need to effectively respond to the societal challenges of the 21st century?

Science is a driving force for the development of human civilization – it is an efficient rationalistic tool to overcome existing issues and a valuable source for new transformational ideas. Significant shifts in organizational principles and values of society often have a deep impact on science, but major shifts in scientific paradigms have an even bigger impact on societies. The rapid development of globalization, interconnectivity, and the increasing complexity of technologies and concepts like Artificial Intelligence, the circular economy, and sustainable technologies require reshaping the science itself to better adapt to new circumstances in an unevenly developed world. This editorial paper examined the existing state of modern science and how it corresponds to these tendencies and identified some promising directions of science development to effectively respond to the societal challenges of the 21st century. Particularly science can benefit from adopting more inter- and transdisciplinarity, shifting from narrow specialization to more polymathy, and integrating theory and practice. We shaped the scope of Aurora: A Journal of Contemporary Science to advance these scientific directions by supporting high-quality research within corresponding areas.