The Intergovernmental Science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is designed to be an interface between the scientific community and policymakers that aims at building capacity for and strengthening the use of science in policymaking. Like IPCC, it is being established with the intention of ensuring that the best available science is made available to Governments and decision makers. This session is designed to both educate and update the ESA community on the plans for the IPBES and explore opportunities for involving individuals from that community in the IPBES assessment process. Approved by the UN General Assembly in early 2011, the framework and responsibilities of the IPBES have been negotiated at two plenary meetings in 2011 and early 2012, organized under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in cooperation with UNESCO, FAO and UNDP. This session will describe the agreed IPBES framework, and examine how Like the IPCC, IPBES will have strong peer-review processes in place, and will draw on multidisciplinary expertise from around the world. Unlike IPCC, the scope of the IPBES will be broader, with strong elements of sub-global and thematic assessments in response to the importance of understanding and managing biodiversity at the local scale. Capacity building will be an important element of IPBES activities, as will integration with social sciences. Beyond providing information on IPBES, the speakers and discussion will explore how individual scientists and scientific organizations will contribute to the assessments, and consider how scientific participants will be chosen. The challenges for thescientific community will include both assessing existing knowledge – including design of new and novel methods of collecting, synthesising and presenting information in a manner useful for policymakers at different levels -- and producing new knowledge required for the specifics of IPBES, such as socialdrivers of change and production of scenarios.