LEADS aims to foster interdisciplinary and international research collaboration dealing with global societal challenges among early career researchers and senior scholars. ATB together with IGZ, ZALF and ZMT have established the Leibniz Environment and Development Symposium (LEADS) to discuss global societal challenges like achieving food security for all, decreasing social inequalities, preventing and overcoming violent conflict and maintaining biodiversity.

Strong inter-disciplinary and international research collaboration is needed to address global societal challenges. Research at the interface of the environment and development is often hampered by traditional academic boundaries. New ideas and fresh approaches are required to understand such challenges and for research to help overcome them. Young researchers in particular can play a key role in doing so.

To address these exciting research challenges and to help overcome these structural barriers within academia, the five German research institutes ATB, GIGA, IGZ, ZALF and ZMT have established the Leibniz Environment and Development Symposium (LEADS). The aim of LEADS is to foster interdisciplinary and international research collaboration dealing with global societal challenges among early career researchers and senior scholars. As such LEADS also understands itself as a contribution by the German research community to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations.

The symposium is organized by IGZ and will take place in Berlin. 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 research visits at one of the five research institutes.

Call for Papers

We invite submissions of original and unpublished research papers, with a preference for empirical papers addressing questions at the intersection of socio-economic and ecological questions of global relevance. Submissions by early career researchers (those studying for a PhD or within five years of completion of their PhD) and from researchers based in the Global South are especially encouraged. Some limited financial assistance for early career researchers based in the Global South may be available.

Please send your completed paper (in English) and a short CV (maximum two pages) in PDF format by email to leads2018@spam.igzev.de  by 15 October 2017.
Decisions will be communicated by early November 2017.

The conference language will be English.

Further information
www.igzev.de/leads2018  or send an email to leads2018@spam.igzev.de

Academic Committee

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

Organizing Committee

Tilman Brück (IGZ)
Marina Korn (IGZ)