Call for Abstracts

We are pleased to announce that the 11th Annual NEST Conference will take place in person from March 28 to 29, 2026, at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. The theme of this conference is “Interlinked Transitions: From Global Visions to Local Realities”.

Being a flagship initiative of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN), NEST provides a global networking platform for early-career researchers and doctoral candidates specializing in sustainability transitions. The annual conference series of NEST is a premier international event, organized bottom-up by its members, where early-career researchers and doctoral students from across the globe gather to share their work, collaborate, and inspire discussions on sustainability transitions. The 11th edition is a milestone, as it marks the first time in its decade-long history that the NEST Conference will be hosted in the Global South. Hosting the conference in India recognizes the Global South as a vital site of innovation, knowledge, and lived experience in sustainability transitions. The location is not just symbolic, but a unique opportunity to explore ways to theorise and enact transitions for diverse contexts that take cognizance of historical injustices and unique developmental challenges in the pursuit of ‘just and climate resilient futures’. 

Conference Theme—Interlinked Transitions: From Global Visions to Local Realities.

This year’s theme explores the two-way relationship between the global sustainability transitions and the local realities in which these transitions unfold. It recognizes that transitions are not only shaped by global agendas and international norms, but also by specific local histories, cultural contexts, politics, varying ecologies, and socio-economic structures. While the climate and sustainability challenges we face today transcend conventional territorial boundaries, local sustainability goals and priorities are shaped by structural preconditions, regional development trajectories, resource endowments, policy subsystems, and diverse governance models. This reflects an ongoing tension between a universal understanding and local manifestations of sustainability and societal challenges. 

Hence, transitions take on different meanings in changing contexts. Recognition of these nuances has created an opportunity to challenge, adapt, and develop new theories and frameworks that account for emerging socio-political and ecological contexts, as well as diverse cultural backgrounds. We can observe this development, especially with reference to the Global South, which is not a homogeneous category in itself. 

Transitions unfolding across sectors, such as mobility, energy, and agriculture, require coordination among multiple actors, at various scales (local, regional, and national), and across different regions to achieve the shared goals of sustainability while dealing with climate change impacts. Ultimately, this conference aims to demonstrate how sustainability and context must be more deeply considered to better understand their roles in facilitating or limiting opportunities for sustainability transitions. 

With this broad theme in the background, the following are the different tracks for abstract submission. The descriptions of tracks are not exhaustive.

Track 1: Reframing and Theorising Sustainability Transitions from the Global South

• This track examines how ideas and theories ajbout sustainability transitions can be reevaluated from a Global South perspective. Recent decades have witnessed a growing focus on the lived experiences, colonial histories, and institutional realities of the Global South. For instance, decolonization, post-development, and pluriversal approaches to study sustainable transitions in diverse cultural contexts are challenging the established frameworks. Overall, this track aims to reimagine and reconceptualize ways of understanding transitions that are more inclusive, grounded, and relevant to diverse realities.

Track 2: Case studies in Sustainability Transitions

• We invite case study submissions that examine how global sustainability goals and transition agendas are interpreted and implemented in specific local contexts. Contributions may explore place-based transitions, spatial inequalities, and resource geographies, such as land, water, or (critical) mineral dynamics, that shape how these transitions unfold in practice. Broadly, we welcome empirical and comparative studies that employ diverse methodologies to reveal the tensions, trade-offs, and unevenness arising from the interaction between global visions and local realities.

Track 3: Bottom-up transitions: Role of civil society and social movements

• This track focuses on exploring how civil society organizations, social movements, and community-led initiatives shape just and sustainable transitions from the ground up. We welcome contributions that examine how collective action, advocacy, and grassroots innovation shape policy, challenge structural inequalities, foreground indigenous knowledge systems and facilitate just transition pathways across various sectors and regions. 

Track 4: The Role of Policy and Practice in Sustainability Transitions

• This track pertains to how global sustainability agendas are translated into concrete policies, institutions, and governance practices at national and local levels. It invites contributions that analyze how policy frameworks, institutional innovations, and cross-sector strategies, spanning energy, agriculture and food systems, transport, and mobility, shape (un)just and (un)inclusive transitions. Topics may include economic diversification, regional development, reskilling and social protection, as well as the evolving role of institutions in linking global visions with grounded local implementation.

Track 5: Adaptation in Sustainability Transitions

• We invite papers that explore how climate adaptation and resilience efforts are shaped by local social, ecological, and governance contexts. Submissions may focus on local climate planning, cities and regions as testing grounds for adaptation, or community and indigenous responses to climate risks. We also welcome work using participatory and mixed methods that deepen understanding of local vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and pathways to more resilient futures. 

Track 6: Clean Electricity in Sustainability Transitions

• We invite papers that examine how electricity systems are evolving in the transition to clean and renewable energy. This track focuses on the role of policy, regulation, and markets in shaping these transitions, as well as the changing responsibilities of actors across the generation, transmission, and distribution sectors. We also welcome critical analyses of energy transition modelling, including hybrid and multi-scale approaches that capture the technical, economic, and social dimensions of electricity sector transformation.

Abstract Submission

We invite abstract submissions from Early Career Researchers (doctoral candidates and scholars within three years of completing their PhD) from around the world. Abstracts should clearly outline the research question, methods, key findings, and relevance to the field. All submissions must be in English.

We welcome contributions in the form of paper presentations (450-500 words) and poster presentations (250-300 words). Please submit your contribution under any one of the six tracks mentioned above. If your research overlaps with more than one track, please select the track that is most closely related. 

Submit your abstract using the link provided here!

Scholarships

A limited number of scholarships are available to support up to 30 international and domestic participants from the global south with travel and accommodation assistance. Funding will be awarded on a competitive basis, with priority given to applicants demonstrating financial need, quality of the abstract and alignment with the conference themes. Applicants wishing to be considered for a scholarship must submit, along with their abstract, a 300-word statement outlining their motivation for attending the conference, how their research aligns with the conference themes, the expected benefits of participation for their academic and professional growth, and a brief justification for financial support.