GSDP is an initiative to develop a research program for the study of global systems in an ongoing dialogue with decision makers. GSDP will operate as an open network evolving through workshops, working papers, publications, and open conferences. It will consolidate an international community of researchers engaged in dialogues with decision-makers, and will generate a variety of research and consultancy projects in Europe and elsewhere.GSDP will operate over a period of three years. In the first year, researchers and practicioners will meet in workshops and seminars to produce reports on the state of the art in the relevant fields. They will not only assess the scientific literature, but also carefully look at how the science-policy interface is currently defined. At the end of the year, a first annual conference will help to synthesise the different reports in view of the envisaged research program.In the second year, analogous reports will be produced about challenges and questions in research and at the science-policy interface. The first two years will provide answers to three questions. What do we need? What do we know? What are we struggling with? In the third year, these answers will be transformed into a research program for global systems science by first producing a set of components, then combining them into a coherent picture.The researchers involved come from computer science, physics, economics and a variety of other fields. GSDP is embedded in an active network of more than 100 researchers, and in a variety of stakeholder relations with businesses, political authorities, and NGOs. Many links exist to the U.S., and care has been taken to establish strong linkages with China.The work will be broken down into seven work packages that operate in parallel, synchronized by annual conferences and interacting through meetings, documents, and intensive use of ICT.