This regional programme complements the earlier stages in the overall Summit programme and emphasises solution building. As evident across the full summit, there is a wealth of research that pervades the global disaster research effort, active through multiple contributors both formalised and well-known, or more hidden. However, despite efforts to build large integrated research programmes such as the European Union’s Horizon Europe funding programme for research and innovation, this myriad of contributions often remains less than the potential sum of their individual parts. As we see it research and innovation is not keeping pace with a rapidly building demand for more impactful science sufficient for dealing with every day and rapid onset risk and sustainability challenges. This part of the event selected four areas within which researchers worldwide may actively contribute to transitioning solutions for current demands, bridging gaps in collaboration, knowledge, policy and inter-generationally. Each also assumed the context of COVID-19 as pertinent to growing awareness.