 UNU-WIDER has for more than 30 years been associated with some of the most advanced thinking in development economics and the practice of development. Since 1985 the Institute has created a global network of thousands of researchers and policymakers and over the past decade we have implemented two work programs on finance, food and climate change and on transformation, inclusion and sustainability. The UNU-WIDER conference builds on about a decade of UNU-WIDER work. It takes stock of where we've been and thinks about where we're going next. Many of the values underpinning the sustainable development goals are under threat so we're going to be debating how we can put the world back on track to a better future. Conferences are great things. We can do a lot these days remotely but you just can't replace the face-to-face interactions. The research presented usually speaks to reality and ultimately policies and that's what I'm looking forward to. I work with about 50 colleagues around the world to deal with issues of social welfare. This is a great platform for researchers in the Northern South to share experiences about what has happened in their countries. If you want to hear from the leading figures in the field of development economics, share ideas and network then you should come to UNU-WIDER. So just being there and interacting with policymakers and academics leads to a great exchange of ideas and this is something that you can't get by just reading emails. The acronym WIDER was chosen to highlight that WIDER is meant to ask big questions about development. This is what we have indeed aimed to do in the last two work programs and this is why we have named the September conference Think Development, Think WIDER.