Dr. Jana Dlouhá from the Charles University Environment Center delivered a presentation on an analysis of stakeholder interaction in sustainability in regional issues and conflicts with a focus on the role of scientists during the Living Knowledge Conference in Copenhagen on 9-11 April 2014. The conference theme was An Innovative Civil Society: Impact through Co-creation and Participation.

The conference sought to explore experiences with research and innovation for, with and by civil society, and develop policy recommendations and articulate research needs within community-based research and research focusing on societal challenges. It built on the experience of the previous Living Knowledge Conferences in Leuven, Seville, Paris,Belfast, and Bonn and was an opportunity to bring together some of the key thinkers and practitioners in the area of community-based research, university-community partnerships and science shops, provide opportunities for collaboration, who tried to ensure that civil society’s role in research and innovation is prioritised on policy agendas, both nationally and internationally.

The conference was hosted by Aalborg University’s Center for Design, Innovation and Sustainable Transitionsin Copenhagen and was organised by researchers who were among the founders of the international science shop network, Living Knowledge. 

The conference themes were:

1. Social innovation – empowering civil society?
2. How to involve multiple users in design of assistive technologies?
3. Co-operation in multicultural contexts – North–South cooperation
4. Sustainable development: from vision to transition
5. Developing competences through problem-based learning with civil society
6. Developing the university – civil society interaction
7. How to organize and manage science shops and community-based research units?
8. Governance of science and technology with civil society

Download Dr. Dlouhá's presentation here.