Registrations are now open for the conference “Towards a just and habitable world: exploring the role of technology,” taking place at the University of Lausanne on 2-5 June 2026.
In an era of polycrisis the need to interrogate the role of technologies in shaping our shared future has never been more urgent. This interdisciplinary conference will explore technological systems in all their diversity — from water and energy infrastructures, agroecology and nature-based solutions to synthetic biology, and digital technologies. Which technologies can foster well-being within planetary and local boundaries, and which of them carry the risk of exacerbating ecological overshoot and social injustice? How do we navigate between illusions of high-tech salvation and the urgent need for democratic, grounded and large-scale responses to the hard limits of adaptation?
The conference opens on the afternoon of June 2nd, with a dedicated opening forum “Research and higher education for just transformations in turbulent times”. This forum offers an opportunity for the academic community to explore the interconnected pressures facing universities and research today — including threats to academic freedom, the spread of AI, the corporatization of higher education, and the fragmentation of international collaboration — and to share the diverse responses and resilience strategies emerging across our communities.
You can find the conference programme here.
Early bird deadline: 30 April 2026
Register now → Click here
Organisers
University of Lausanne, Centre des Politiques de la Terre (Université Paris-Cité) and Future Earth Pathways Initiative.
Co-organisers
CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research), DKN (German Committee Future Earth), INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment), IRD (French National Research Institute for Development) and SRI – SCNAT (Sustainability Research Initiative – Swiss Academy of Sciences), Future Earth Switzerland.
Programme Committee
Andy Stirling, University of Sussex; Anke Schaffartzik, Central European University; Christian Pohl, ETH Zürich; Gabriel Dorthe, ETH Zürich & Research Institute for Sustainability at GFZ; Helmut Haberl, University of Vienna; Josef Settele, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ; Julia Steinberger, UNIL; Klement Tockner, Senckenberg Society for Nature Research; Maud Devès, Paris Cité University; Nathalie Blanc, CNRS; Nelly Niwa, UNIL; Peter Verburg, Free University of Amsterdam; Pierre Cornu, INRAE ; Priscilla Duboz, CNRS; Thomas Potthast, Tübingen University; Wolfgang Cramer, CNRS
