Warwick's Sustainability Training Academy (STA) in Venice (WVC) has now come to a close, but what an event it was bringing together 21 ECRs from 13 countries, to share and develop their creative skills, and engage with critical theories and interdisciplinary methods! Blue skies, organic food from Sant'Erasmo farm, and new CA'Foscari friends; amazing cookies from Chiara at WVC and loads of pasta, pizza and aperol spritz - what else you could wish for!! All of these however was made so special and possible by the whole bunch of people and we at IGSD are indebted to them - Prof Harini Nagendra, Dr Bryan Brazeau, Dr Harriet Richmond, Dr Adela Glyn-Davies, Nargiz Ismayilova, Dr Anar Valiyev, and Dr Fariz Ismailzade!

We are also immensely fortunate to gather such a fantastic group of ECRs, and we hope to keep in touch with every single one of them! We are also grateful to our former ECR @TieazaSantos from NASA Open Science, for sharing NASA learning resources with us, and to everyone who made this STA a success, including the support from Warwick's Sustainability Spotlight and COP29 Scientific Council Azerbaijan. Watch the space for 2026!

Professor Elena Korosteleva was invited to give a talk on 'Why we should think 'Resilience' when we talk about Green Transitions?' to the CAPTURED project organised by Warwick's Policy Lab. Elena focused on understanding the Anthropocene through the lens of a VUCA-world and complexity-thinking, and why we need to understand resilience as a way of living, relating, and managing complex life. Green transitions - whichever ways we think of them - will not happen if we 1) don't have a holistic approach; 2) don't change our thinking & behaviour; and 3) don't facilitate agential change, through nurturing resilience as political agency.

Professor Korosteleva was invited to contribute a piece on resilience to the strategic volume of Key Concepts for the Future of the EU, published by the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS), 3 March 2025. The volume came together at the request of policy-makers, and covers key themes that the EU and global leadership will work with in 2025+, including geopolitics, resilience, security, democracy etc. It offers innovative and creative perspectives, to ensure that the challenges posited by complex geopolitics and the Anthropocene, are adequately considered, going forward. It is available for a free download.

Call for Papers - 2025 CTTN Research Grants Program: Envisioning a Greener Future: Crafting Strategic Financing Pathways for the Green Transition in CAREC Region

- submit grant application along with the draft proposal (maximum 5,000 words, excluding references).

- Successful applicants will receive grants of up to US$5,000 to expand their manuscripts into full policy research papers.

- The research grant is for nearly six months from the date of grant approval.

- Deadline is 1 April 2025; announcement of results on 15 April 2025.

https://www.carecinstitute.org/news/call-for-papers-2025-cttn-research-grants-program-envisioning-a-greener-future-crafting-strategic-financing-pathways-for-the-green-transition-in-carec-region/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIAS3xleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTaF9fP_wRZbSgeorXgIHPnOCYhpZ8T7kZABlJ-zW0O8m0BLXdDAx4xsWA_aem_OU_8EPU7LykaZRXGMVcXvA.