Ecological restoration projects work to return an ecosystem to a more desirable and functional state and then set it on a positive trajectory over time. Across ecosystems, the outcomes of ecological restoration, the metrics for success, and the challenges encountered vary widely. In some cases, these challenges might be unique to a particular ecosystem, but we also expect common themes to emerge across systems. In our session, we include ecologists whose work is rooted in both basic ecology and the applied challenges of achieving ecological restoration success. We ask these scientists to identify the most important challenges they encounter in ecological restoration, and our goal is to identify both the common themes and unique components encountered across diverse ecosystems. While a connection to the unique challenges of local systems will remain necessary to meet restoration goals, identifying generalizable principles will improve our ability to confront environmental change on a global scale.