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!

Between 30 March – 5 April 2025, over 21 next-generation climate leaders from eight countries (and 13 nationalities), will attend Warwick’s pioneering Sustainability Training Academy in Venice. Launched in 2023 by the Institute of Global Sustainable Development (IGSD), and supported by the COP29 Scientific Council, the Sustainability Training Academy equips early career researchers (ECRs) with the interdisciplinary analytical, methodological, and practical skills needed to address the systemic challenges of climate change, climate justice and climate transition.

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Dr Pitidis attended the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference which took place in London between 27-30 August. This year's theme of the conference was mapping and Vangelis presented his work on 'Dialogical participatory mapping as a method for creating alternative urban visions' under the session (Counter)Mapping and spatial representation of disaster risk, summarising the work he has led and participated in in Europe and Latin America during the last 5 years.