Call for Contributions, COPERNICUS Alliance Conference 2016, Vienna, Austria, September 14-16th

6th June 2016

The 2016 COPERNICUS Alliance Conference focuses on the sustainability transformation of institutional, national and international science systems. It will reflect on policies and practices that support or hinder researchers and educators of higher education institutions to practice inter- and transdisciplinary approaches of sustainability science.

Sustainability requires new approaches to knowledge and education. Universities must take on a key role in contributing to a transformation towards sustainable development. This transformation requires an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and holistic collaboration at the interface of education, research, policy and practice. The concept of sustainability science has been recognized by UNESCO in its medium-term strategy (2014-2021) as an integrated, problem-solving approach to science and engineering for sustainable development.

In order to walk the talk, the two day conference will - in addition to a few invited keynotes - provide a variety of participative opportunities, such as a "poster walk and talk", parallel interactive sessions fully designed by participants, and a screening of short-videos of contributors who cannot attend in person. A digital conference handbook will provide a guide to the posters and interactive sessions. After the conference, participants will have the chance to submit full papers with findings from their discussions and research to partnering indexed journals.

Themes and questions:

Participants of the conference will elaborate on:
1. Inside the university: Required competences, barriers and factors of success for sustainability science and ESD.
2. Interface between University and Society: Possible ways to open up universities towards a more integrative exchange of knowledge and mutual learning processes with society and policy.
3. Policy framework: How do global policies like the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the UNESCO Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development or the European Research Programme on Responsible Research and Innovation, impact higher education and what challenges do we face?

Call for contributions:

The deadline for submitting proposals is 30th June 2016.  Within the framework of the given themes and questions, you are invited to propose:

Find out more about the conference and submitting a proposal here. 

All submissions and questions to: office@copernicus-alliance.org