This year’s IST conference will bring together 650 participants from around the world to discuss latest developments in Sustainability Transitions. With help and inputs from the larger transitions research community, we have put together an exciting program with more than 550 full paper presentations, speed talks, posters and special sessions.

The program features two plenary sessions: The first one on ‘Hope’ with Simon Sharpe as the keynote speaker plus Huiwen Gong and Wisdom Kanda who reflect on implications for transitions research. The second plenary is on ‘Impact’ with Veena Srinivasan and Marko Hekkert discussing how researchers can productively interact with decision makers in firms, governing institutions and administration.

The program also includes four semi-plenary sessions on 1) transitions and post-growth perspectives, 2) innovation scaling, 3) complexity traps in policy and 4) interrogating justice in ‘just transitions.’

Most of the parallel sessions are organized along 5 thematic sessions and 18 tracks, including an open track. We also have more than 15 special sessions with interactive formats such as panels, workshops and world cafés. 

Conference theme

The conference theme is ‘Hope – in challenging times.’

Hope that through our individual and collective work, environmental sustainability and social justice can be cultivated – even in times marked by armed conflicts, political polarization and mounting planetary crises. What hopeful storylines can we draw from the transitions scholarship, and how can we mobilize them to transform socio-technical systems that better serve humanity and the planet?

Conference Organizers

The 2026 IST conference takes place at ETH Zurich. It is hosted and co-organized by the transitions and innovations research group Cirus at Eawag and the Group for Sustainability and Technology at ETH. 

Key links

> Program overview

> Travel and accommodation