Scientific programme- NESS 2026

Session A: Why Environmental Social Science Needs a Global Assessment: Introducing the International Panel on Earth System Governance

Wednesday 10 June, 13.30-15.00
Location: Eva Netzelius, Blåsenhus

Earth system governance is at a critical juncture. While the interlinked crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and widespread pollution are intensifying, political systems seem incapable of effective change. This situation poses important challenges not only for politics but also for the environmental social science communities studying these issues. To inform decision-making on these important questions, environmental social scientists need to collaborate—effectively, systematically, and in a global community of joint scholarship. To this end, an International Panel on Earth System Governance (IPESG) has been established. IPESG will conduct the first-ever large-scale, science-based assessment of the state of knowledge on earth system governance. This session will present the scope and approach of the IPESG, as well as possibilities for interested scholars to engage with this initiative.

Organizers: Frank Biermann and Max van Deursen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Speakers/panellists:
Mikael Karlsson, Uppsala University, Sweden
Thomas Hickmann, Lund University, Sweden
Aysem Mert, Stockholm University, Sweden
David Schlosberg, University of Sydney, Australia

Session B: From Knowledge to Change: Strengthening the Dialogue Between Science and Policy

Wednesday 10 June 13.30-15.00
Location: Lektionssal 13:136, Blåsenhus

Researchers today face growing expectations to generate societal impact and provide actionable knowledge for policy and practice. At the same time, funders and knowledge users seek more effective ways to support knowledge brokering, cocreation, and the uptake of research in real world decision-making. This session explores how science–policy interaction can be strengthened within environmental social sciences and related fields. Through a panel discussion and interactive elements, the session will explore “societal impact” in different contexts, mechanisms for research–policy engagement, and common bottlenecks and challenges. We will also highlight good examples of successful processes of knowledge brokering and discuss how funders can facilitate knowledge mobilisation, but also raise critical perspectives that interrogate power dynamics at the science–policy interface. A Nordic perspective —drawing on experiences from Swedish and Finnish research policy landscapes —adds further depth. The session offers opportunities for the audience to share experiences and reflections. Researchers and knowledge users are equally welcome!

Organizers:
Anna Kaijser , Formas - Research Council for Sustainable Development
Juha Peltomaa, Finnish Environment Institute
Paula Schönach, Aalto University School of Business

Speakers/panellists:
Olli-Pekka Ruuskanen, Pellervo economic research PTT, Finland
Karin Bradley, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Judit Wefer, Formas, Sweden
Niko Soininen, Professor in Environmental Law, University of Eastern Finland
Kristina Östman, Head of the Climate Unit, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

Session C: The Price of Going Green – Competing Claims on Land

Wednesday 10 June 13.30-15.00
Location: Gunnar Johansson, Blåsenhus

This session explores the growing land use and goal conflicts emerging in the green transition, with a particular focus on the implications of the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act. As Europe accelerates the shift toward renewable energy and strengthens its strategic autonomy, demand for minerals is rising, creating new pressures on landscapes, ecosystems, and local communities. Projects aimed at supporting climate mitigation can intersect with other public interests, including biodiversity conservation, public health, cultural heritage, and the rights of Indigenous peoples.

The panel examines how these “green versus green” tensions manifest in practice, how legal and policy frameworks seek to balance multiple sustainability objectives, and what this means for legitimacy, fairness, and long term environmental governance.

Organizer: Maria Forsberg, Uppsala University

Speakers/panellists:
David Langlet, Uppsala University, Sweden
Diego Marin, European Environmental Bureau
Rikard Warlenius, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Åsa Larsson Blind, Sametinget

Session D: From research to societal impact - tools for collaboration between research, business and society (this session will be repeated after the break - see Session H)

Wednesday 10 June 13.30-15.00
Location: Bertil Hammar Salen, Blåsenhus

This parallel session, hosted by STUNS, explores how research can be transformed into real societal impact through effective collaboration between academia, business, and the public sector. Building on experiences from regional innovation and transition initiatives, the session introduces practical approaches for navigating complex collaboration processes where multiple actors, logics, and incentives meet.

Participants will be introduced to elements of change management, focusing on how researchers and innovation leaders can actively guide transformation processes beyond traditional project boundaries. The session also highlights the role of coaching leadership, emphasizing facilitation, trust-building, and reflective practices that support learning, engagement, and long-term collaboration.

Through short inputs and interactive reflection, the session offers concrete tools and perspectives for researchers seeking to strengthen their capacity to work across sectors and translate knowledge into sustainable societal outcomes.

Organizer: STUNS - The foundation for collaboration between the universities in Uppsala, business and society

Session E: Towards multifunctional landscapes – a dialogue on governance strategies and actors

Wednesday 10 June 13.30-15.00
Location: Hambergsalen, Geocentrum

Join researchers from the LANDPATHS programme to explore how multifunctional landscapes – capable of supporting biodiversity, livelihoods, and social values – can be advanced through transformative governance. Current policy frameworks for forestry, agriculture, urban, mountain, and coastal contexts often prioritise sectoral and production-oriented goals, creating barriers to biodiversity protection. The session will consist of a dialogue addressing the following questions at the interface of science, policy, and practice: How can multifunctional landscape governance be strengthened through reforms of strategies and policy instruments? What roles can diverse actors play, and how might power relations shift in this context? How can local and indigenous communities be empowered to participate meaningfully in such governance arrangements? By engaging diverse perspectives and experiences, the session seeks to identify pathways toward more inclusive and sustainable landscape governance.

Organizer: Jayne Glass, Uppsala University

Speakers/panellists:
Sara Holmgren, SLU, Sweden
Tuija Hilding-Rydevik, SLU, Sweden
Johanna Tangnäs, SLU, Sweden
Malgorzata Blicharska, Uppsala University, Sweden
Frida Öhman, Uppsala University, Sweden
Fanny Möckel, Uppsala University, Sweden

Session F: How do we navigate goal conflicts in sustainability transitions?

Wednesday 10 June 15.30-17.00
Location: Plantskolan, Segerstedt

In this session we will together explore how goal conflicts in societal transitions towards sustainability can be identified, analysed and navigated. A framework for analysis will be presented, and we will discuss an ongoing project within the construction sector.

Organizer: Mats Målqvist, UUnicorn, Uppsala University

Speakers/panellists:
Mats Målqvist, UUniCORN, Uppsala University, Sweden
Ivo Zander, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden
Christine Holmström Lind, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden
Ann-Kristin Bergquist, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden
Malgorzata Blicharska, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden

Session G: Fractal Approaches to Scaling Transformations to Sustainability

Wednesday 10 June 15.30-17.00
Location: Lektionssal 13:136, Blåsenhus

This hands-on workshop will explore how the concept of social fractals can help researchers to design projects and initiatives that contribute to shifting systems and cultures across scales. We’ll first talk about what fractals are, including how they are generated in mathematics and how they show up in nature and society. We’ll then consider fractal approaches to transformative change as an alternative to top-down/bottom-up or global/local approaches. Using the Three Spheres of Transformation, participants will explore how their work can be strategically designed in a way that shifts patterns in a just and sustainable manner. Key to this are the values and principles that are inherent to all, such as equity, integrity, and dignity. Connecting the practical, political, and personal spheres of transformation, this “patterning” approach to scaling transformations highlights how any project, regardless of size, can generate impacts that contribute to a just and sustainable world.

Organizer: Karen O’Brien, Uppsala University

Session H: From research to societal impact - tools for collaboration between research, business and society (this session is a repeat of Session D, not a continuation)

Wednesday 10 June 15.30-17.00
Location: Bertil Hammar Salen, Blåsenhus

This parallel session, hosted by STUNS, explores how research can be transformed into real societal impact through effective collaboration between academia, business, and the public sector. Building on experiences from regional innovation and transition initiatives, the session introduces practical approaches for navigating complex collaboration processes where multiple actors, logics, and incentives meet.

Participants will be introduced to elements of change management, focusing on how researchers and innovation leaders can actively guide transformation processes beyond traditional project boundaries. The session also highlights the role of coaching leadership, emphasizing facilitation, trust-building, and reflective practices that support learning, engagement, and long-term collaboration.

Through short inputs and interactive reflection, the session offers concrete tools and perspectives for researchers seeking to strengthen their capacity to work across sectors and translate knowledge into sustainable societal outcomes.

Organizer: STUNS - The foundation for collaboration between the universities in Uppsala, business and society

Session I: Beyond emblematic species – public attitudes and protective strategies

Wednesday 10 June 15.30-17.00
Location: Gunnar Johansson, Blåsenhus

Public and political interest in protecting biodiversity has been shown to focus predominantly on well-known species, not least mammals and birds. While there are strong motives for such conservation efforts, biodiversity consists of a multitude of genes, species, and ecosystems, many of which are poorly known but are also important to protect, in line with public policy objectives from the local to the global level. This session raises three questions in this context: What is known about public attitudes towards biodiversity at large? How can the public be made more aware and supportive of the protection of non-emblematic species, for instance including insects, plants and fungi? What is known about public policy strategies that reach beyond emblematic species?

Organizers:
Mikael Karlsson, Uppsala University
Karin Lexén, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

Short talks followed by a panel with the speakers:

• Beyond emblemativ species – an introduction
  Mikael Karlsson, Associate Professor Environmental Science, UU
• Fungi – forgotten biodiversity?
  Judith Lundberg-Felten, Docent Biology, UU & SLU
• Biodiversity, public attitudes and policy support
  Sverker Jagers, Professor Political Science, GU
• Are policies really listening to biodiversity?
  Melissa Chapman, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy, ETH Zürich
• Raising public awareness – beyond emblemativ species
  Karin Lexén, Secretary General, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

Session J: From disruption to durability: strategies of participation for successful sustainability transformations

Wednesday 10 June 15.30-17.00
Location: Eva Netzelius, Blåsenhus

This panel will discuss the conditions under which different forms of political participation contribute to successful sustainability transformations. Moving across a spectrum of engagement—from protest and civil disobedience to everyday resistance and legal action or institutional advocacy—it asks what success looks like in practice and for whom. Contributions explore outcomes such as policy change, shifts in power relations, institutional reform for sustainable transformation, and movement endurance. By comparing diverse repertoires and arenas, the panel seeks to identify mechanisms that link participation to tangible environmental and social outcomes, as well as trade-offs among disruption, inclusion, and long-term transformation.

Organizer: Katrin Uba, Uppsala University