Call for symposia and workshops for the ECCB2018

Call for proposals for symposia, workshops, and poster symposia has closed. We thank everybody for great proposals. Call for abstracts is now open until 10th of  January 2018.

Theme of the ECCB2018

The European Congress for Conservation Biology (ECCB 2018) will focus on Planetary Wellbeing, responding to the need for environmental conservation that captures both human and ecosystem wellbeing. Experts in conservation and social science, education, public health, policy, and administrative processes will join us to share knowledge and experiences, and to develop solutions for some of the greatest challenges faced by humanity.

We live in the Anthropocene, which is characterized by a growing global human population, urban expansion, massive income disparity, unsustainable consumption, and fast-paced global warming. Although many international conventions have committed to halting and even reversing land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change, the empirical evidence shows irrefutably that negative environmental trends continue, and we continue to fail to determine sufficient actions or policies to maintain and improve human and ecosystem wellbeing. We envision ECCB2018 as a place to advance creativity, innovation and knowledge sharing across diverse expertise to advance and demonstrate how groups across Europe and the world are working to overcome challenges faced with sustaining global human wellbeing and the integrity and sustainability of Earth's ecosystems. As part of the outreach and developing dialog with the society and in particular businesses exploiting natural resources, we have planned a special stakeholder day with a focus on ecological compensations and biodiversity offsetting.   

Call for symposia and workshops

The Scientific Committee of ECCB2018 is soliciting proposals for symposia, workshops, and poster symposia (collectively sessions).

Proposals for the sessions must be submitted on the Peerage of Science abstract portal (submit.peerageofscience.org/conference/ECCB_2018) by 8th of September 2017. They will be reviewed by the ECCB2018 Scientific Committee on the basis of the criteria listed below, with final decisions to be made by 1st of October, 2017.

We encourage creativity in planning the sessions, and we will give preference to proposals that bring together participants from diverse backgrounds and expertise, and to proposals that demonstrate opportunities for audience engagement and dialogue. Moreover, rather than seeking only likeminded professionals to your session, we encourage you to facilitate dialogue among different views on your topic.

Symposia (2 hours in duration). Symposia will consist of 8 talks. The time allocation to each talk must be 15 minutes (12 minutes for presentation and 3 minutes for questions).

Workshops (2 hours in duration). Workshops are aimed at encouraging interaction and dialogue between a limited group of speakers and the broader audience. The format of workshops is flexible. As an example, a workshop might consist of a few short talks providing an overview followed by a facilitated discussion aiming at furthering the field, or they may be focused, round-table type discussions to synthesize participants’ insights of a particular challenge for humanity.

Poster symposia (30-60 minutes in duration). A poster symposium shall comprise of a set of posters (e.g. 10) that thematically belong together. They will be exhibited so that the poster walls will form a semi-closed meeting space allowing for more private discussions of the posters. In a poster symposium, each poster presenter is expected to deliver a short presentation in front of their poster. A poster symposium may be a stand-alone session or it may be combined with a normal symposium defined above.

Proposal criteria

Symposia, workshop, and thematic poster symposia proposals should all be clearly related to the conference theme Planetary Wellbeing. Proposals related to the focus-area of the stakeholder day i.e. ecological compensations are also welcomed. Proposed contributors in all sessions should demonstrate a balance across career stages and gender and consider under-represented groups where feasible. While selecting the symposia, 

the Scientific Committee will ensure the sessions reflect the international diversity of SCB Europe. It is considered as a merit for a proposal if there is an output planned to be produced from the session. An output can be targeted to the general public or the scientific community, and it can take any form from a press release to a policy brief or from an opinion piece to a review article.

Finally, we are excited to announce that we will gather a Special Section around the theme of Planetary Wellbeing to be published in Conservation Biology (link to http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1523-1739). Session proposals that incorporate innovative approaches and analyses, present critical but solution oriented perspectives, or offer new empirical evidence for a specific challenge around the themes of planetary wellbeing or ecological compensations are encouraged. You may consider compiling your session proposal with a goal of creating new collaborations and producing a paper for the Special Section as a group effort. Please indicate clearly in your proposal if you consider your session to be able to contribute to the Special Section and provide a short justification for why your session should be considered. Assisted by the ECCB2018 Scientific Committee, the Special Section Guest Editors (Janne Kotiaho, Panu Halme and Mikko Mönkkönen) will make the selection of the potential lead contributors and topics based on the proposals. The Editor-in-Chief of Conservation Biology (Mark Burgman) will make the final decision on the selected topics as well as the final acceptance of the papers after a full peer review procedure. Note that invitation to submit a paper to the Special Section does not imply that your paper will be accepted for publication in the Special Section. Peer review will be conducted on the Peerage of Science platform.

Proposal content
  1. Title
  2. Type of event: symposium, workshop or poster symposium
  3. A list of the proposed speakers, including a brief statement about how their work fits into the topic or theme proposed for the symposium/workshop/poster symposium, and indicate which of the proposed speakers have agreed to participate if the proposal is accepted.
  4. A sentence or two to answer each of the following:
    1. What is the goal or objective of the proposed session;
    2. How the proposed session contributes to the Planetary Wellbeing theme or to the focus-area of ecological compensations;
    3. How the proposed session will ensure a creative approach or different points-of-view about a topic;
    4. What is the anticipated audience of your session with expected number of participants;
    5. Do you plan for an output and if yes what will it be;
    6. Do you consider your session to be able to contribute to the Special Section in Conservation Biology and if yes, please provide a short justification for why your session should be considered?
  5. Abstract of maximum 300 words with a maximum of 6 numbered key references. References excluded from the word count.
  6. Name(s) and affiliation(s) of session Organizer(s) and Chair(s).

Note: Please be aware that the ECCB2018 Scientific Committee may suggest revisions to proposals to ensure representation and diversity within proposed sessions. Efforts may also be taken to combine proposals to ensure that excessive duplication of topics is reduced, and to work to ensure a diverse set of topics and perspectives are present at ECCB2018. Please do not make commitments to speakers regarding financial support.

Submitting your proposal

Submission of the symposium proposals as well as all communication including the final decision about the fate of the symposium are via Peerage of Science. There will be a dedicated portal in Peerage of Science for the ECCB2018 symposia, workshop, and poster symposia proposals (submit.peerageofscience.org/conference/ECCB_2018). Remember proposals are due 8th of  September 2017.