Since 2001, the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) has sought to support the detection of global change signals in mountain regions; the analysis of the expected impacts of global change on mountain regions; and the provision of advice for the sustainable management of mountain regions. Over time, MRI gradually shifted its focus from system knowledge to target knowledge and transformation knowledge, culminating in its successful bid to become a Sustaining Partner of Future Earth. At present, MRI is undergoing a threefold transition: a thematic consolidation around mountain observatories and social-ecological systems; a leadership change with an enlarged scientific advisory body and a new director; and an institutional move from the National Science Foundation to the Academy of Sciences, where mountain issues are being merged with landscape and spatial development. These changes reflect recent trends in mountain research and international mountain policy, including the challenge to maintain the relevance of mountains as a separate yet cross-cutting issue on scientific and political agendas such as Agenda 2030; the trend towards a disaggregated view of mountains as bundles of resources or functionally specialized regions; and the growing urgency to make mountain science societally relevant and hence accepting of inter- and transdisciplinary approaches.