The Belmont Forum is a partnership of funding organizations, international science councils, and regional consortia committed to the advancement of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science. Forum operations are guided by the Belmont Challenge, a vision document that encourages:

International transdisciplinary research providing knowledge for understanding, mitigating and adapting to global environmental change.

The Belmont Forum was the former Steering Committee of The International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA) and has merged according to the decision made at the IGFA meeting on the 8th of October 2014. It aims to accelerate delivery of the environmental research needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. In addition, it pursues the goals set in the Belmont Challenge by adding value to existing national investments and supporting international partnerships in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary scientific endeavors. Forum members and partner organizations (Fig. 1) work collaboratively to meet the Belmont Challenge by:

• Issuing international calls for proposals

• Committing to best practices for open data access

• Providing transdisciplinary training

• Building capacity

• Conducting transnational environmental change research

• Implementing a global open data policy

• Improving data management

• Promoting data planning and stewardship