Sustainable development is an objective for societies world-wide. But transitions to sustainable production and consumption have been studied primarily in rich, developed countries. However, the transformative changes now occurring in the rapidly urbanising and industrialising Asian economies and societies suggest a new focus. Transitions towards more sustainable development pathways are also fundamental challenges in Asia.

Achieving a profound decoupling of economic growth and development requires innovation based on industrial and technological capabilities, as well as deep-seated social, institutional and behavioural changes. Such large-scale, structural change we term ‘system innovation’.

Previous research has shown that system innovation occurs through a quasi-evolutionary interaction between innovations emerging in niches and opportunities for change opening up in socio-technical regimes. System innovation involves the destabilisation of incumbent regimes and the emergence of new regimes involving novel configurations of technologies, actors, behaviours and rules. System innovation takes time, typically periods of decades.

An important new research challenge is to apply these concepts and ideas to rapidly developing cities, regions and countries. In these contexts, socio-technical regimes are already undergoing modernisation, but often following models from technologically-leading countries. The question is whether niche-based innovations generating sustainable alternatives in these contexts can change development pathways by linking to and transforming emergent socio-technical regimes in key sectors like energy, water, transportation, the built environment and food and agriculture. Part of the research challenge is to understand better how niches, regimes and development pathways are embedded within global knowledge, production and governance networks. These connect and shape innovation in niches and regimes, and provide the channels by which they grow and come to have a wider influence on development locally and globally.

This conference will focus on the nature and role of sustainable system innovation in transforming Asian development pathways in field such as energy, mobility, sanitation, nutrition and housing in urban and rural areas. The conference will take stock of what has been learned in the International Human Dimensions Programme Core Project on Industrial Transformation (IHDP-IT) over the last ten years, as well as move forward a new research agenda supported by the APN (Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research) and the Research Council of Norway. We welcome an international network of researchers, practitioners, policy makers and other actors who are interested in innovation and in exploring how it influences alternative, more sustainable development pathways.

Prof. Tilman (Minnesota University) is one of the most influential ecologists of the past decennia. In September he will receive the Dr. A.H. Heineken prize for Environmental Sciences of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), for his contribution to ecological research. During his visit to the Netherlands, he will also give a lecture at Wageningen University.

The title of the lecture is 'Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Experimental Tests and Theoretical Implications'.

Everyone is welcome to attend this lecture!

In the context of the international Biodiversity year, the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group of Wageningen University, together with the Department of Sociology of Lancaster University and the London Natural History Museum, are organising an international symposium on 'Living with Biodiversity: People, Knowledge, Politics'.

Recently, the proposal "Ecology of the Bio-based Economy" was awarded for funding as an "Emerging Science Topic" of the research school PE&RC. The objective of this EST project is to study how soil ecology will be affected by the increasing demands that the biobased economy will make on limited soil resources. Within the project, a series of symposia will be organized, and a field experiment will be initiated.

In order to mark the kick-off of this project, a symposium will be organized on Tuesday, September 14th. The objectives of this symposium are (i) to provide a general outline of the challenges that the biobased economy poses for soil and society; and (ii) to review the current state of knowledge of the effect biochar amendment has on soil quality -ecology.

In addition to CO₂, methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), fluorocarbons (CFCs, HFCs, SF₆, etc.), black carbon, aerosols and tropospheric ozone (O₃) contribute significantly to climate forcing. Reducing these emissions is often more cost-effective than reducing CO₂ emissions. This leads to an enhanced interest in, and need for significant NCGG-emission reductions. Roadmaps addressing NCGG-reduction measures from policy towards implementation are still missing or incomplete in many countries. Integrated studies at the science-policy interface, that take into account international trends will support the development of efficient NCGG policies and measures.