Lorentz Centre result: winner announced for the first Sustainability Challenge workshop in February 2025

8 July 2024

After weeks of reviewing proposals, the moment has arrived: the proposal ‘Human-Biodiversity Relationships Across Scales’ has been selected as the first workshop under the Sustainability Challenge, a joint initiative of the KIN and the Lorentz Centre. The workshop will take place from 3rd February to 7th February 2025 at the Lorentz Centre.

About the challenge

The aim of the Sustainability Challenge is to gather workshop ideas (hence the competition) that address the question of how science and research can facilitate, guide, and accelerate system transitions towards sustainable, climate-resilient, and just societies and environments.

The winning proposal

The authors of the proposal are:

Paco Barona Gómez, Leiden University
Rob Dunn, North Carolina State University
Ana-Liisa Laine, University of Helsinki
Kathryn Stewart, Leiden University
Esther Turnhout, University of Twente

This is what the jury said about it: “There is no doubt that the topic is interesting: developing a transdisciplinary approach to biodiversity is a much-needed advancement. They aim to do this from the perspective of non-matching/synergetic scales. This requires discussions between different groups and actors in society who do not regularly meet. The workshop contributes to bridging these gaps… From a transition perspective, this workshop is an excellent contribution to KIN, as biodiversity is crucial in solving the climate crisis and the developed methods will be useful for KIN.”

The funding

The Lorentz Centre offers in-kind support, covering the costs of the workshop venue and facilities. Additionally, the Lorentz Centre provides a budget of €15,000 to support accommodation, travel, and/or lunch for workshop participants.

We would like to congratulate the authors of this winning proposal and look forward to organizing this workshop in collaboration with the Lorentz Centre. And of course, a big thank you to all other applicants for their time and effort!