Symposium Program
Please find the latest symposium schedule below (subject to change - please check back for updates).
| Time | Location | September 1, 2025 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00-9:00 | Akademie Foyer | Registration | ||||
| 9:00-9:30 | Akademie | Welcome address by the Empa directorate (Prof. Matthias Sulzer) & "Urban Futures and 10 years of the UESL" (Dr. Georgios Mavromatidis) | ||||
| 9:30-10:15 | Akademie | Keynote: Urban Planning in Research - Prof. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey (ETH Zurich) | ||||
| 10:15-10:45 | Akademie Foyer | Coffee break & poster session | ||||
| Parallel sessions | Workshop | |||||
| 10:45-12:00 | (See session) | Citizen engagement and participatory approaches for just urban planning (LB) |
Urban energy systems (Akademie) |
Nature-based solutions, green-blue infrastructure & ecology (VE 102) |
Human-centered approaches to urban design and mobility (VE 202) |
From Insight to Impact: Transforming the Evidence-to-Policy Pipeline (ETH Zurich) (NEST-MF) |
| 12:00-13:00 | Akademie Foyer | Lunch | ||||
| 13:00-13:45 | Akademie | Keynote: "Neighbourhoods First: Spatial Design as a Lever for Urban Energy Transitions" - Dr. Vincent Kitio & Yassine Moustanjidi (UN-Habitat) | ||||
| Parallel sessions | Panel | |||||
| 13:45-15:00 | (See session) | Sufficiency: pathways to living well within planetary boundaries (LB) |
The future of mobility (VE 102) |
Building performance and retrofitting (VE 202) |
Economics, regulation and energy communities (NEST-MF) |
Scaling up superblocks: engaging citizens in urban futures (University of Patras, University of Geneva & others) (Akademie) |
| 15:00-15:30 | Akademie Foyer | NEST tour, poster session & coffee break | ||||
| Panel & Workshops | ||||||
| 15:30-17:00 | (See session) | Panel - Sufficiency: Radical rapid societal transformation to ecosystem and human wellbeing (EPFL, Empa, Sciences Po/IPCC, ZHAW) (Akademie) |
PowerHood: Playtesting a serious game for energy transition in neighborhoods (Empa) (NEST-MF) |
Gridly: Interactive engagement tool for Local Energy Community, market and user’s interconnectivity (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts) (NEST-M2C) |
Futuring cities: Participatory visioning for resilient futures (United Nations University) (LB) |
|
| 17:00-17:30 | Akademie | Closing address | ||||
| 17:30 + | Multifunktion Recreational | UESL 10th anniversary dinner & networking celebration! | ||||
| Time | Location | September 2, 2025 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30-9:00 | Akademie Foyer | Registration | ||||
| 9:00-9:30 | Akademie | Welcome address by the Head of the UESL (Dr. Georgios Mavromatidis) & "Swiss Strategy to Net Zero by 2050 and Implications for the Building Area" by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (Andreas Eckmanns) |
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| 9:30-10:15 | Akademie | Keynote: "Overshoot – the urban future no one is talking about." - Prof. Debra Roberts (IPCC/UNFCC) | ||||
| 10:15-10:45 | Akademie Foyer | NEST tour, poster session & coffee break | ||||
| Parallel sessions | Panel | |||||
| 10:45-12:00 | (See session) | Participative, multidisciplinary and cross-border learnings (LB) |
Hot & cold: from cooling to district heating (NEST-MF) |
Digital approaches for urban planning and design (VE 102) |
Circularity, materials and embodied emissions (VE 202) |
Enhancing Urban Resilience through Nature-based Solutions (NbS): Strategies for Reducing Disaster Risks (UNDP Geneva) (Akademie) |
| 12:00-13:00 | Akademie Foyer | Lunch | ||||
| 13:00-13:45 | Akademie | Keynote: "Cities and Energy - A Systems View" - Prof. Nilay Shah (Imperial College London) | ||||
| Parallel sessions | Panel | |||||
| 13:45-15:00 | (See session) | Reimagining cities: the role of communities, education, and co-benefits (NEST-MF) |
Grids, networks, flexibility and resilience (VE 102) |
Justice, equity and urban governance (LB) |
Modeling tools and technology for urban innovation (VE 202) |
How to establish heavy-duty supply chains for low-carbon housing in Africa’s emerging Mega- and Gigacities (Skat Consulting Ltd.) (Akademie) |
| 15:00-15:30 | Akademie Foyer | Coffee break & poster session | ||||
| Workshops | ||||||
| 15:30-17:00 | (See session) | "My Neighbourhood": Building energy transition, one neighbourhood at a time (UN-Habitat) (Akademie) |
Shaping the future of urban digital twins in Switzerland (EPFL) (NEST-MF) |
Playing with the Business Model Assembler for clean energy urban hubs (University of St. Gallen) (NEST-M2C) |
Bridging the gap: Fostering collaborations between social scientists and engineers for urban systems research (MIT) (LB) |
|
| 17:00-17:30 | Akademie | Special guest keynote: Dani Arnold - world record-breaking, Swiss extreme mountaineer | ||||