Complex issues facing the planet, and society, call for more sophisticated inter-disciplary collaborations between diverse stakeholders. The Co Lab organized a salon engaging next generation scientists, innovators and policy makers to discuss how best to tackle this challenge.  Recognizing that our current model has many scientists and institutions working in parallel, each in a particular focus area, the participants discussed what could be done to better link next generation scientists with others around grand challenges.  They noted that the National Science Foundation has helped universities learn how to form alliances by assigning grant awards to one lead institution that require that other institutions be brought into the project.  Discussion underscored that the enterprise will not work well overall until we address fundamental issues that affect trainees, PhD students and post-docs. Further, though most young scientists do have a passion to make a difference, this does not seem to be generally recognized.  The group felt that we need to be more proactive about the next generation of scientists, including enabling a culture of collaboration, getting students more engaged, and identifying champions who are passionate about engaging with the next generation of scientists around these broad themes including the Millenium Development Goals.