Pacific Futures
The collective voice and action of the Pacific's young and emerging scholars. Early and mid-career researchers drawing on evidence and Indigenous knowledge for the benefit of all Pacific peoples
ABOUT PACIFIC FUTURES
Our Story
We began at a Congress in Samoa in February 2026, when a group of early career researchers came together and found, often for the first time, others who understood exactly what they were working with and what they were up against, without a word of explanation. We started out as the “Young Academy.” Before long, we had the beginnings of real structure, people to hold the day-to-day together, and we opened our doors, welcoming anyone doing the work, wherever they were and whatever they were working with.
The turning point came when we stopped seeing ourselves as defined by our age and started seeing ourselves by where we’re headed. So, we changed our name. We became Pacific Futures.
It’s still early days. Every young academy starts small, and ours is no different, except that ours begins with generations of knowledge behind it.
Who We Are
We are Pacific Futures: early and mid-career researchers, innovators, and community leaders from across the Pacific region, part of a global movement of young academies working to put early-career voices into policy and public decision making on the strength of evidence.
What sets us apart is what we’re arguing for. Elsewhere, young academies push for a seat at a table that already exists. We’re doing that too, but we’re also making the case that Pacific generated evidence, built on Pacific research methods and Indigenous knowledge systems, deserves to be treated as evidence in its own right, not measured against a Western yardstick before it counts. That’s not a lesser standard. It’s a different, equally rigorous one, and we intend to prove it, one piece of research at a time.
We don’t pretend the road here is easy. Funding is tighter, infrastructure is thinner, and many of us are the only person in our field on our island. We name that honestly. But it’s the starting condition, not the story we’re telling. The story is the work.
Our Region
Our members come from across the Pacific, including the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, and West Papua, among others.
We’re spread across one of the largest, most diverse regions on earth. The ocean between us has never been a barrier; it’s the road that has always connected our peoples, and now connects our research.
Vision
Our vision is a Pacific where science and Indigenous knowledge work side by side to serve our communities, and where the next generation of Pacific researchers has the voice, the backing, and the influence to shape the decisions that affect us all.
Mission
Our mission is to draw on evidence-based research and Pacific knowledge systems to inform policy, strengthen scientific capacity across the region, and advance science for the benefit of all Pacific peoples. We do this the Pacific way, relationships first, respect for those who came before us, and communities at the centre of the work, not at the edge of it.
Governance
Pacific Futures is guided by a Reference Group, working alongside the Pacific Academy of Sciences Council and Secretariat. Our Terms of Reference set out how we make decisions, who holds responsibility for what, and how we stay accountable to our members and communities.
We keep our governance transparent on purpose. If we’re asking for Pacific evidence and Pacific voices to be taken seriously in the rooms where decisions are made, we hold ourselves to the same standard of openness we ask of others.
Strategic Plan
Strategic Plan 2026:
We’re building our first Strategic Plan and Workplan, setting out where we intend to put our voice, our research, and our evidence over the next three years, and how we’ll influence the decisions that shape the Pacific’s future. It launches in September 2026, alongside our Mentoring Programme.
Strategic Plan 2028:
Who Can Join
If you’re an early or mid-career researcher, innovator, or professional with roots in the Pacific, there’s a place for you here, whatever your discipline, whatever your institution or lack of one.
We’re looking for people who ask good questions, who back their work with evidence, and who respect where their knowledge comes from, whether that’s a lab, a library, or a conversation with an elder. If you want your work to influence real decisions for the Pacific, you already qualify.
Membership sits within the Pacific Academy of Sciences. Full eligibility details and the application are just a click away.