Sandra van der Hel is a PhD student at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at the VU University Amsterdam. Her PhD project deals with contemporary transformations in global change research towards a new “science for global sustainability.” She is interested in the emergence of novel ideas about science and its role in society, particularly in the context of the Anthropocene. Solution-orientation, interdisciplinarity, geographical inclusiveness, and co-design and co-production of research with stakeholders are a few examples of new “design principles” for knowledge production that have gained prominence in recent years; in her PhD project, she studies how these principles emerged, and what their impact is on scientific practices and on the relationship between science and society. Sandra is also interested in the political implications of the increasing reliance on scientific experts in dealing with complex problems in human–environment systems. The empirical focus of her work is the recently established international research program “Future Earth,” a new global initiative that aims to contribute to “the transition to global sustainability” through new modes of scientific knowledge production. She follows this initiative to provide a reflexive perspective on the contemporary changes in knowledge production for global sustainability. Prior to starting her PhD, Sandra studied “Future Planet Studies” at the University of Amsterdam. This interdisciplinary, problem-oriented program allowed her to gain an understanding of the magnitude and complexity of sustainability issues in the twenty-first century. As she is mainly interested in the human component of these developments and challenges, she subsequently enrolled on the social science research Master’s degree at the VU University Amsterdam, where she specialized in global environmental governance. She is now a fellow of the Earth System Governance Project.