24.04.2020ABCD: All continents, balanced gender, low carbon transport and diverse backgrounds

Published in Nature Ecology and Evolution a paper proposing a new format for conferences aims to facilitate much-needed change in science by authors Florian Altermatt (Professor of Aquatic Ecology of the University of Zurich Research Priority Program on Global Change and Biodiversity and group leader at Eawag),  Rosetta Blackman (postdoctoral researcher at University of Zurich Research Priority Program on Global Change and Biodiversity and Eawag) and co-author Ole Seehausen(head of the Division Aquatic Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern).

ABCD: All continents, balanced gender, low carbon transport and diverse backgrounds. These criteria should shape scientific conferences of the future. Researchers from all over the world, from all gender and from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, are to be explicitly invited to scientific conferences and research networks. It is well known that mixed and inclusive groups are better at facilitating novel insights and promoting solutions to complex problems. At the same time, this new format aims to reduce the environmental footprint of conferences and workshops. The research team also immediately put its proposal into practice to test and demonstrate its feasibility in their session, Aquatic Biodiversity: state and challenges aheadWorld Biodiversity Forum from 22 to 28 February 2020 in Davos, Switzerland.

Read the news release here

Read the manuscript here