Multidisciplinary science funding is more than ever a planetary priority: Reflections from the Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA) program
Global change poses “wicked problems” that have become ever more complex, pervasive, and damaging. Developing innovative solutions increasingly require diverse research approaches. The Franco-German Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA) program was designed to create a unique international network of top-level research, from fundamental to solution-oriented projects. MOPGA stands out from other large research initiatives by focusing not on a singular central research challenge but on facilitating multidisciplinary interactions between traditionally separated fields. MOPGA recognized that social, natural and engineering sciences share a unifying aim to address global change. In addition to addressing timely and innovative research questions within disciplines, MOPGA worked to improve communication across disciplines via annual meetings for all laureates and their research groups, scientific board exchanges, and public online seminars. Drawing on our MOPGA experiences, we discuss how such exchanges should be extended to meet the needs identified by the scientific community, international policy-makers, and regional stakeholders. In the current political landscape of scientific suppression and heightened mistrust in scientific expertise, the need for such bold, independent and collaborative scientific initiatives is greater than ever.
Authors
- Chloé Carbonne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9817-3812)
- Redouane Lguensat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0226-9057)
- Davide Raffaele Ceratti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4496-0674)
- Benjamin Mark Sanderson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8635-4624)
- Bruno Turnheim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0395-2501)
- Virginie Guémas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6340-3558)
- Stavana E. Strutz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4584-3285)
- Nilanka M. Keppetipola
- Giuliano Giambastiani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0315-3286)
- Titouan Dubo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8546-0561)
- Isolde van Riemsdijk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9739-6512)
- Gabrielle Rodrigues de Faria (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6614-1525)
- Pierre Amato (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3168-0398)
- Andreas Goldthau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9814-6152)
- Núria Teixidó (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9286-2852)
- Lionel Villard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8743-9213)
- Jhan-Carlo Espinoza
- Stéphane Blanc
- Ignacio Palomo
- Pierre Valla
- Marion Carrier
- Emilie Capron
- Lara Hughes-Allan
- Ashley Ballantyne
- James Clark
- Orestes Rivada-Wheelaghan
- Alberto González-García
- Guillaume Monnain
- Helmuth Thomas
- Heechae Choi
- Delphine Renard
- Katsumasa Tanaka
- Alessandro Forte
- Chien Wang
- Henry Wu
- Christhel Andrade
- Emmanuel Vincent
- Lorie Hamelin
- Barbara Ervens
- Philippe Lucas-Picher
- William Dewar
- Gayane Asatryan
- Julien Boucharel
- Vincent Vadez
- Venkatramani Balaji
- Michael Zuerch
- Sanjay Jatav
- Louis Derry
- Sara Todorović
- Amir Hoveyda
- Frédéric Bouchard
- David Lazarus
- Christopher Cantrell
- Alessandra Giannini
- Eric Hill
- Clemens Scheer
- Alexey Fedorov
- Yutsung Tsai
- Ludmila Cojocaru
- Ugo Javourez
- Konstantinos Christoforodis
- Volkan Özen
- Carol Eunmi Lee
- Madalin Parepa
- Camille Parmesan
- Monalisa Mallick
- Oliver Bossdorf
- Marc Barbier
- Rainer Kiko
- Takaya Uchida
- R Subramanian
- Christina L Richards
- Valery Ridde
- Irina Melnikova
- Anna Possner
- Philip Schulz
- Thomas Lauvaux
- Jed Kaplan
- Matthias Tesche
- Joenio Marques da Costa
Publication Details
- Journal
- PLOS Climate
- Published
- 2026-03-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000849
- Primary Topic
- Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00