23-24 September 2026
Tampere University, City centre campus, Main building (address: Kalevantie 4)
About the conference
Strategic research programs’ biennial conference: “Bridging societal and environmental fractures:
creating futures”
In recent decades, societies around the world have experienced increasingly visible fractures that threaten social cohesion, environmental vitality, and just development. The global rise of authoritarian governments has coincided with the deepening polarization, widespread disinformation, and culture wars intensifying political disagreements and eroding trust within and between communities. Meanwhile, escalating geopolitical tensions contribute to a pervasive sense of insecurity, and the triple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution continue to undermine the ecological foundations of our societies. These trends reinforce complex, interconnected socio-environmental and economic challenges on a global scale.
Addressing these challenges requires more than diagnosing crises – it calls for actively developing new pathways for living, learning, and governing. It invites us to reimagine futures by redesigning policies, technologies, and everyday practices for social justice and ecological sustainability. It also encourages a shift away from the narrow individualistic models of development toward collective visioning, a call for collaborative imagination of alternative possibilities.
Our choices and actions shape our future – across political structures, technological systems, and daily routines. The Strategic Research Council’s programs play a crucial role in generating science-based societal, economic, and environmental impact by analyzing and creating alternative pathways for the future. As researchers, we engage with policymakers, the private sector, and civil society to inform decisions that can change the direction of our shared future for better.
We invite contributions from all strategic research programs and beyond to present research, discuss, and reimagine futures at our biennial conference. The event welcomes all scholars interested in advancing sustainable social, economic, and environmental wellbeing through research and debate.
The conference is organized and subsidized by the Strategic Research Council’s (SRC) research programs.
Important dates
Abstract submission now open here.
Final date for submission of abstracts: 27 March 2026
Information of approvals and opening of registration: 7 May 2026
Final program: at the beginning of June 2026
Conference: 23-24 September 2026
Main page image: Jousia Lappi, City of Tampere
Organisers
