Call for sessions - deadline 22 January

The Swedish Biodiversity Symposium 2025 is a science-policy interface-orientated forum for communication, dissemination, and discussion of science-based knowledge on biodiversity. It provides an opportunity to gain new perspectives, learn from each other, and engage in networking and collaboration. The symposium's main theme is: Transformative change – from knowledge to action. Hence the focus of the conference is on implementation and solutions. Within this frame, the conference allows for deeper discussions from many different perspectives: conservation, governance, changes in biodiversity over time and space, ecosystem services/nature’s contribution to people, nature-based solutions, restoration measures, communication, spatial planning, psychology, climate, land-use, health, economic incentives, food security, pollution and more.

We now invite interested researchers and practitioners to submit proposals for sessions at the conference. The call is open until 22 January 2025. Once the sessions are set, the call for abstracts will open.  

A session should be organised under a unified theme that addresses transformative change in relation to biodiversity research, implementation and related issues. Sessions are intended to allow organisations, projects, or any other group of people to create a setting that highlights and problematises an issue from different perspectives.

Session format

Sessions may come in different formats, for example:  

• Mix of invited speakers and submitted abstracts (call for abstracts), 
• Only invited speakers,  
• Only presentations of submitted abstracts (call for abstracts),  
• Panel discussion,  
• Workshop,
• Interactive sessions with societal groups, e.g., youths,
• ....or a mixture of the above.  

We encourage interdisciplinary sessions and the involvement of actors outside of academia. Sessions can be either in English or in Swedish. A typical session is 90 minutes, but a proposal may suggest a double session.

How to apply for a session

We invite you to submit your proposal to sbs2025@gu.se: the proposal should be 0.5–1 page in Times New Roman, 12 pt. 

The application should contain the following:   

• Session title,  
• Responsible organisation/s,  
• Contact person, e-mail, and  
• A description of the planned activity (focus, planning to have invited speakers or call for abstracts, is there an intention to produce some kind of documentation from the session, planned products, etc.).  
• The proposal should be submitted to sbs2025@gu.se  indicating “Call for sessions” in the subject area and submitted no later than on the 22 January 2025.

Proposers are, if accepted, responsible for defining the full contents of the session. Namely the session chair/s, authors, presenters, and others engaged. This symposium focuses on in-person meetings, but options for online participation can be discussed.  The program committee of the Swedish Biodiversity Symposium will evaluate the submissions, give feedback, and may suggest that the proposers team up with other overlapping proposers in organising a joint session. Decisions on proposals will be communicated in late January or early February 2025.  

N.B. Symposium fees will not be subsidised for successful session organisers or their invited speakers.