This marks the second time the American AIS organization has held its conference in Europe, following the 2019 event at the University of Amsterdam.

The conference will focus on the theme "Shaping the Future in the Era of Polycrisis" and it is intended for all those interested in multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research and teaching at all stages of their research career and in all staff group.

The Session Call is open until November 1st, and the abstract call will open shortly after.

Themes of the AIS25 conference include:

  • Understanding systemic approaches, polycrisis, and interrelationships
  • Sustainability transformation as an urgency
  • Digitalization serving humanity
  • Co-production of knowledge
  • Interdisciplinary education as a tool to shape the future

About this Call for Contributions

The era of polycrisis refers to a state where multiple crises (e.g. climate change, war, energy crisis, biodiversity loss, age of mistrust, education crisis etc.) intertwine, their causes and processes inextricably bound together to create compounded effects. Shaping a better future in this era requires interdisciplinary approaches from researchers and teachers, and systemic approaches on interdisciplinarity.

Inter- and transdisciplinary research, education and understanding complexities are seen as a way to create larger societal impact, renew the economy and foster innovation. Many higher education institutes share the same objectives of reinforcing research and education conditions by strengthening selected areas, reducing fragmentation within disciplines, and promoting inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration.

Our Call for Contributions consists of two stages: Session Call (August 2024 - November 1, 2024) and Abstract Call for the Sessions (mid-December 2024 - mid-February 2025).

Session Call (open now)

In the Session Call we are looking for conveners with ideas for session(s) they would like to lead or present during the conference. Session proposals are reviewed by a review committee which evaluates them, and successful proposals are then included as sessions within the conference schedule. All conveners will be notified of the acceptance or rejection of their proposal by mid-December 2024. After notifying the session conveners, all accepted sessions and their descriptions will be published on this conference website.

Please note that when submitting the proposal, you must confirm that the person(s) responsible for organizing the session will be present in Oulu during the conference days (June 4-6, 2025). All session submissions must be written in English and late submissions will not be accepted. In case the session is open for other contributions, the person(s) responsible for organizing the session also need to commit reviewing the abstracts submitted for the session in the later stage of the Call (between mid-February and mid-March 2025).

We welcome session proposals reflecting a variety of formats:

  • workshops
  • panel discussions
  • roundtable discussions
  • oral and/or poster sessions
  • performances
  • other, please describe in the Session Call proposal

For more information, please visit the conference website.