More than one hundred Early career Researchers (ECRs) from over 30 countries gathered at the Business School on 29-30 May to discuss, learn and present their research on sustainability transitions. The School’s Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) hosted the 10th annual Network for Early Career Researchers in Sustainability Transitions (NEST) conference 2025, an initiative started by the SPRU PhD students 10 years ago at Sussex.
This year’s NEST was also led by the SPRU PhD students, in spirit, planning, organisation and fund-raising for all aspects of the conference to be inclusive, accessible and diverse. With the thematic aim of ‘Bridging the Gap between Research and Reality’, the 2025 conference was a rich demonstration of the School’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDG)-driven research and its many collaborations with scholars in the Global South.
A defining feature of this year’s event was its truly international scope, with scholars from Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia, contributing perspectives from diverse socio-political contexts, embodying thediversity and inclusion principles of our campus.
Dean Ingrid Woolard opened the event by encouragingECRs to cultivate a greater focus on attentive listening and to value the plurality and complexitythat defines academic discourse. She further advised them to consider their privilege and positionality when engaging with colleagues' research, advocating for a collaborative approach to conference contributions by mutually elevating one another.
The two plenary discussions focused on the role of innovation in global sustainability transitions, and the role of justice in navigating transitions in the Global South and North. This set the stage for wide-ranging discussions, followed by 30 conference parallel tracks. Scholars also organised parallel workshops to encourage interactive debate and co-learning on topics including - colonial modernity in transitions, feminist utopias and gender equity, role of identity and emotions in sustainability research, role of place in transitions and transformative innovation policy.
Designed specifically for ECRs, NEST 2025 provided a platform for emerging scholars to share research, receive mentorship, and gain insights from established academics at Sussex and IDS, such as Professors Karoline Rogge, Andy Stirling,Peter Newell, Tim Foxon, Matthew Lockwood, Steve Sorrell, and Adrian Ely as well as Dr Marie Claire Brisbois, Dr Saurabh Arora, Dr Bipashyee Ghosh, Dr Divya Sharma, Dr Katerina Psarikidou, Dr Marias Ramirez, Dr Dominic Glover, and Dr Max Lacey-Barnacle among others.
Thanks to the generous financial support of The Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN), the Energy Demand Research Centre (EDRC), the University of Manchester, Young Scholars Initiative, The University of Sussex Business School (USBS) and The Development Cafe, the conference fostered an inclusive and accessible space, ensuring that voices from historically underrepresented regions could actively contribute to shaping the discourse.
As the event concluded, reflections centred on sustaining global collaborations beyond the conference and strengthening the impact of research on policy and practice. With a decade of NEST behind it, this year’s gathering reinforced its role as a leading forum for fostering transformative research and international academic exchange towards driving sustainability transitions.
The Business School continues to actively foster spaces for PhDs and ECRs to grow as critical researchers, recognising their importance in the research process, creating an environment that offers opportunities for their development and for engagement with their peers.