The next Leibniz Environment and Development Symposium (LEADS) will be held on Sept 12-13, 2018, in Berlin. LEADS aims to foster exchange on interdisciplinary and international research and stimulate collaboration on global societal challenges among early career researchers and senior scholars. 

Global societal challenges like achieving food security for all, decreasing social inequalities, preventing and overcoming violent conflicts as well as securing ecosystem functions and services necessarily require strong international and inter-disciplinary research collaboration. New ideas and fresh research approaches are required to meet such challenges. Young researchers in particular play a key role in doing so.

To address these important research challenges and help overcome these structural barriers within academia, the five German research institutes ATB, GIGA, IGZ, ZALF and ZMT have initiated the Leibniz Environment and Development Symposium (LEADS).

The aim of LEADS is to foster exchange on interdisciplinary and international research and stimulate collaboration on global societal challenges among early career researchers and senior scholars. As such, LEADS also understands itself as a contribution by the research community of the Leibniz Association to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations.

The next LEADS takes place on 12th  and 13th September 2018. The symposium will be followed by the Leibniz Associations Conference on Sustainable Development Goals with a keynote address by Johan Rockström on the evening of the second day. There will be ample opportunities for academic discussion, interaction with policy experts, and network building. Participants are encouraged to explore new research collaborations and to arrange a research visit at one of the five research institutes.

Call for papers

The call for papers is now open. We invite submissions of original and unpublished research papers, with a preference for empirical papers addressing issues at the intersection of socio-economic, ecological and technical questions of global relevance.

Please send your extended abstract in English and a short CV (maximum two pages) in PDF format by email to leads2018@spam.atb-potsdam.de by May 15, 2018.

Decisions will be communicated by late May 2018. The accepted papers (completed or draft version) are due by 30th August 2018.

The conference language will be English.

For further information visit http://www.igzev.de/leads2018 
or email to leads2018@spam.atb-potsdam.de 

Academic Committee:
- Tilman Brück (IGZ)
- Philipp Grundmann (ATB)
- Anna-Katharina Hornidge (ZMT)
- Kerstin Nolte (GIGA)
- Lasse Loft (ZALF)
- Achim Schlüter (ZMT)

Organizing Committee:
- Philipp Grundmann (ATB)
- Achim Schlüter (ZMT)