Achieving sustainable development goals requires societies to tackle complex problems associated with global environmental change. This result rests upon our ability to make decisions that are based on a sound scientific foundation and address societal goals and priorities. Significant advances in the understanding of global environmental change and decision-making with respect to the adoption of adaptation and mitigation strategies are of great utility in the development arena. In particular, information flow from the development community to the research arena and vice versa can inform and shape research priorities that would translate more effectively into useable knowledge. Currently, the traditional ways of doing science are not optimized for informing decisions. Yet, links between research, decision-making, and development can be allied through co-design. New science-based initiatives and international collaborations, encouraging and integrating stakeholder inputs, are lowering the activation energy required for co-design, co-production, and broad engagement of the international research community. In this exciting time of redefining how and why we do science, there is great potential and need to expand the reach of co-design by targeting communities involved in global sustainability, especially those in the area of development. This panel aims to catalyze a conversation about new ways to develop these networks and take the engagement to the next level of actionable knowledge.