COPERNCIUS Alliance Conference 2016Sustainability Transformation of Science Systems
20. Mai 2016, von Caroline Schwill
Call for contributions to the COPERNICUS Alliance Conference 2016 on Sustainability Transformation of Science Systems, September 14-15th, Vienna.
The goal is to organize this conference under the “Green Meeting” directive of the Austrian Eco Label.
About the conference:
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:
- Inside the university: Required competences, barriers and factors of success for sustainability science and ESD.
- 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.
- 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:
Interactive session
Be the host of your interactive session! Combine a topic with your favourite participative methodological approach and design your concept for either a 45 minute or a 90 minute interactive session. Shorter activities will be grouped together. The COPERNICUS network encourages you to bring your own ideas and methods, however, if necessary, they will support you with their experience. Suggestions for methods can also be found e.g. in the Sustainicum Collection (http://www.sustainicum.at/en/tmethods).
Please send an abstract of your interactive action concept (1. title, 2. author/facilitator and contact person, 3. co-authors / co-facilitators, 4. institution, 5. email, 6. topic description 200-250 words, 7. method + procedure description of 200-250 words) as a word attachment.
If the COPERNICUS network selects your interactive action, you will need to act as the host during the interactive session. You will need to bring all required materials to the conference. If informed sufficiently in advance, they will support your action.
Poster
You may present max. 1 poster (format A0 or A1) as a main author. In the "poster walk and talk" you will be able to present your poster. Participants will be able to rate the posters in view of their interest in the topic. The authors of the 3 posters with the highest ranking will be invited to present their poster to the plenum (10 minutes pitch).
Please send an abstract of your poster (1. title, 2. author/facilitator and contact person, 3. co-authors / co-facilitators, 4. institution, 5. email, 6. abstract 200-250 words) as a word attachment, or the poster screenshot as a pdf attachment if available.
Selected posters need to be submitted as pdf attachment (max. 10 MB) for the digital conference handbook. In addition, posters (format A0 or A1) have to be brought to the conference. Since a 10 minutes pitch for the final session will be expected for the highest ranked posters, you need to prepare the pitch in advance.
Short video
A limited number of selected videos will be screened, in order to enable participants not travelling to Vienna to provide additional stimulations for the participants.
Please send an abstract of the video (1. title, 2. author, 3. institution, 4. email, 5. abstract of the video 200-300 words) as a word attachment. If selected, the video file will need to be uploaded to our server (more information below). Only high quality videos will be accepted (shot with a tripod, 1920x1080, high quality audio and video!).
If your video is selected, you will need to upload the final video file. The duration of the video may not exceed 4 minutes. The preferred format is *.mov; video codec H264, size FullHD 1920x1080, 25fps; audio: AAC, Stereo, 48 kKz; max. size 1GB. Since the movie will be displayed on a big screen, please use a tripod for your recordings. If you upload videos in a different format, the COPERNICUS network will endeavour to convert your video to the required format but we cannot guarantee a successful conversion.
Key Dates:
Submission of interactive session proposals, poster and video abstracts: June 30th 2016
Notification of acceptance by July 31st 2016
Early bird fee till August 14th 2016
Upload of videos by August 22nd 2016
Submission of full poster by August 31st 2016
Last day of registration: September 5th 2016
Conference: September 14th – 15th 2016
(Annual General Meeting for CA members: September 16th 2016)
Please check the website: www.copernicus-alliance.org/vienna2016
Please send all submissions and questions to: office"AT"copernicus-alliance.org