The four actions listed below are the initiating measures from which all else would follow; the other recommendations in this report - and the coalitions in different parts of the world that would implement them - will largely depend on the success of these urgent actions. As such, they should be undertaken immediately.

1. Strengthen national academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine and the national S&T communities. Academies are critical organizations that should be the leading voices of science and technology in each country, and they should reflect the positions of the nation's entire S&T community. These national academies, in fact, are deemed the key advocates for many of the actions recommended in this report. In cooperation with their nations' universities, disciplinary societies, and professional associations, they should actively work with government, the international community, and the media to expand S&T capacity and pursue its most productive and humane applications. They should be in close contact with their national leaders and key decisionmakers, and influencing them to act on these issues. In countries in which national academies do not exist, the InterAcademy Panel (IAP), Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS), and InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) should continue to promote their creation, meanwhile fortifying and engaging professional scientific and engineering associations (Section 4.4).
2. Mobilize the international S&T community. Scientists and engineers throughout the world, acting individually and through their organizations, should translate their wishes to fortify developing nations' S&T capacities into real actions that directly mobilize the local and regional talent. A special role is anticipated here for the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the International Council for Science (ICSU), in addition to the direct involvement of the InterAcademy Panel (IAP) (Section 3.3).
3. Raise the level of public awareness. In general, given the reality that public pressure engages decisionmakers, the launching of coalitions pertaining to this report's recommendations should be accompanied by major public-awareness campaigns. These efforts at public education (and the general popularizing of science and technology) will critically depend on the degree of scientists' and engineers' cooperation with the media. And the dialogue, by definition, should go both ways: S&T practitioners should be open to learning about society's problems and people's concerns,
   for reasons of ethics and effectiveness. The science, engineering, and medical communities should also enlist the aid of professional S&T educators and media specialists in their campaigns (Section 2.3).
4. Protect public goods and define the boundaries of the public/private interface. This goal requires urgent attention simply because international negotiations on intellectual property rights currently under way could potentially compromise the ability of developing and especially S&T-lagging countries to build their capacity and join the global economy. Governments desperately need the input of the S&T community in these complicated negotiations (Chapter 5).

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