This article is translated from Norwegian to English by UiOGPT
The Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK) is organizing the IST 2024 conference on behalf of the international academic network STRN – Sustainability Transitions Research Network. STRN is the leading international network for researchers explicitly working on sustainable transformation.
This year's overarching theme of the conference is "sustainable transformation and nature."
This is a current issue in countries all over the world, which was also evident in the Fosen case in Norway, says Taran Thune, professor at TIK and responsible for the execution of the conference.
450 researchers from around the world are coming to Oslo in June to find effective solutions for sustainable transformation. In total, there will be 400 scholarly presentations, panel discussions, and lectures.
Facilitating for researchers from the global south
- There are many different perspectives, research traditions, and disciplines that meet, and numerous issues will be highlighted over the course of three days. Participants come from a variety of countries, and we have consciously made accommodations for researchers from the global south to participate, for instance, through reduced conference fees, explains Taran Thune.
How can we achieve sustainable transformation in a forceful, economically viable, and equitable manner? This is the overarching theme for the field and one of the most important issues of our time, according to Thune, who is pleased that TIK has been given the responsibility to organize the conference.
- For the TIK Centre, it is a great opportunity to be the organizer of such a large and important academic arena. Being an organizer gives us visibility and clout in a rapidly emerging field of study. Hosting the conference means that we have an important position within the academic community, she says.
However, Thune emphasizes that TIK as an organizer is collaborating with other Norwegian academic environments to organize the conference, such as NTNU and Sintef Digital, which are among TIK Centre's most important partners on this topic.
- Among other things, we have two joint research centers on the topic of sustainable transformation – INTRANSIT and NTRANS. We are also part of a joint Gemini Centre "Sustainability Transitions," which is the first Gemini center within the social sciences that UIO participates in.
The relationship between research, sustainable transformation, and politics
Taran Thune is looking forward to experiencing much of what happens at the conference.
- In particular, I look forward to panel discussions on the relationship between research on sustainable transformation and policy development, a panel discussion on higher education and sustainable transformation. Additionally, I am leading several sessions about transformative innovation policy and transformation. This is the most important theme in my research, and I look forward to a series of presentations on this topic, says Taran Thune.