The climate crisis is a multiscale problem that requires transdisciplinary expertise for understanding and engineering climate resilience. Cells are the first responders of the biosphere and yet cell biology is rarely considered in discussions of climate change. The goal of this workshop is to develop intellectual and strategic frameworks to link cell biologists to climate science problems and solutions. This EMBO Workshop will convene a group of experts and thought leaders from the fields of cell biology, medicine, ecology, evolution, engineering, and the physico-chemistry of climate change along with key policy makers and funders of science.
This 3-day workshop is designed as a collaborative forum, encouraging open dialogues, cross-pollination of ideas, and innovative thinking. There will be an initial series of keynote conceptual speeches, followed by panel discussions (Cell Bio, Plants, Aquatic, Health and Bioengineering), where speakers will be relating from different perspectives cell biology and climate change. This should ensure a good understanding of the different, yet diverse topics, as well as highlight what is common, which is how cell biologists can contribute to climate resilience (independent of the specific topic). The program will then proceed to focused discussion sessions nucleating teams that transcend traditional academic boundaries to work on this urgent problem with transdisciplinary solutions. These teams will present their work at the end to each other, to funders and policy makers and will result in a white paper and video content, which will outline strategies and recommendations for promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and driving effective climate action. The goals of these outputs will be to inform funding agencies, inspire agencies, inspire conferences, and activate societies to support the intersection of cell biology and climate science.
Participants are expected to engage during the meeting and after, defining, disseminating, and implementing strategies and recommendations that stem from this EMBO Workshop.
Organizer: Mónica Bettencourt-Dias
Website: https://meetings.embo.org/event/25-climate-resilience