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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The Berlin University Alliance (BUA) invites researchers, practitioners, and societal actors from around the world to submit abstracts for presentations or posters that showcase how innovative, cross-disciplinary research can generate solutions to pressing global challenges. Under the theme "Joint Research for Better Futures," the Grand Challenges Conference will bring together around 300 participants from academia, politics, business, culture, and civil society in Berlin to foster collaboration and explore pathways toward a sustainable future. Among the first confirmed keynote speakers are transformation researcher Prof. Dr. Maja Göpel and British science policy expert Prof. Andy Stirling.
Through this new conference format, the Berlin University Alliance reaffirms its commitment to advancing excellent and responsible research that addresses global, complex, and interconnected challenges of high societal relevance — the so-called Grand Challenges — in close collaboration with society.
"The pressing questions of our time are global, complex, and deeply intertwined — no single discipline or institution can address them alone. With the Grand Challenges Conference, we are creating a space for collaboration across disciplinary and institutional boundaries, to contribute to new ideas and to help shape the future responsibly," says Prof. Dr. Günter M. Ziegler, President of Freie Universität Berlin and spokesperson of the Berlin University Alliance.
The conference invites diverse perspectives on how to address grand challenges and explores how joint research can generate knowledge that enables innovation through cooperation.
These conversations will unfold around the following five grand challenges:
• Social Cohesion – strengthening trust, participation, and democratic resilience
• Global Health – advancing equity and preparedness in a changing world
• Responsible Innovation in Times of Transformation – ensuring that technological and social innovation serves people and the planet
• Climate & Water under Change – adapting to and mitigating the impacts of environmental transformation
• Quantum Technologies – unlocking transformative potential of quantum systems to tackle tasks of information processing and communication
The conference builds on the Alliance’s research engagement across its five thematic areas and translates it into an international forum for exchange. It offers experts from around the world a platform not only to discuss the grand challenges themselves but also to further establish Grand Challenges research as a recognized approach to knowledge creation. Designed to foster inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration, the conference brings researchers together with actors from politics, business, culture, and civil society. In doing so, the Berlin University Alliance strengthens Berlin’s position as an international hub for responsible research and innovation.
The Berlin University Alliance—a network of excellence comprising Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin—is positioning Berlin as one of the world’s leading knowledge and innovation hubs for integrated collaboration across various disciplines and sectors of society. Together, this ecosystem contributes to the sustainable success of major transformations. The Berlin University Alliance is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMFTR) and the State of Berlin as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.
Further Information:
Submissions and Conference Program: https://gc-conference-bua.de
Media Contact
Suhana Reddy, Head of Communication, Berlin University Alliance, E-Mail: suhana.reddy@berlin-university-alliance.de
https://Submissions and Conference Program: https://gc-conference-bua.de
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists
interdisciplinary
transregional, national
Scientific conferences, Transfer of Science or Research
English
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