Future Biodiversity: How can we rewrite its story

Selection criteria

We would love to take everyone who wants to come, but unfortunately the format of the workshop only works with a limited number of people. So everyone needs to apply to attend, even international superstars! We select 27 participants through a competitive process. We balance discipline expertise, international representation and gender as far as is possible.  Other than that, it is hard to be specific.  We want the best meeting, not necessarily the people with the best CV or h-index, and we can only judge this very subjectively and on the basis of who applies.

At least one-third of the places are allocated to early-career researchers (ECRs, expected to already have a PhD and at the time of the meeting are within 5 years of having graduated.  If not, you can still apply to attend but you will not be eligible for the subsidised cost).

To apply, click here (link to Google form). When you submit your form, you will see a confirmation screen after you select “Submit” and be sent a copy of your submission. If not, your application might have failed to be submitted. So, to be on the safe side, you might also email the text of your application – or a screendump – to Roger Cousens at rcousens@unimelb.edu.au ]

In the form, we ask to know more about your background. We ask for one paragraph explaining how your presence will benefit the meeting and the issues that you think we should give the most attention to in the workshop. Please be as forthright as possible. You also will need to provide us with the url for your informative personal web site or a brief CV (2 pages maximum). In this, we encourage you to include a discussion of the impact of your professional activities.

Applications are due by ?? September 2026. We aim to inform you of the outcome by mid October 2026.
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Rules of Engagement

There are a few rules/expectations if you accept an offer of a place at the workshop:

1. You must attend the entire meeting, from start to finish.

2. You must be prepared to involve yourself throughout the meeting, no matter how unappealing or bizarre the sessions may be to you and no matter how important it is to answer your emails and phone messages or conduct other business.

3. You must be prepared to engage actively! No one will be allowed to sit quietly and take notes! This is one of the few chances you will ever have to be a full participant in a lively debate, so you must take the opportunity.

4. Everyone will be given a specific task to perform, either before, during or after the meeting.  There will be scope for negotiation about which tasks you are allocated, but you will be expected to take responsibility for some aspect of the meeting and you must do it in a timely manner.  That way it becomes your meeting, not the organisers’.  Examples before the meeting might include producing a short webcast, communicating with a specific group of people to organise a joint presentation at the meeting, helping to organise how a particular session will be run or spearheading the development of a manuscript.  At the meeting you might be asked to run/chair a session, give a presentation, run a quiz night, summarise sessions or collate photos taken on the afternoon hikes.

5. There will be no opportunity for you to give a formal presentation of your research or a poster!  It is not that sort of a meeting!  Other conferences cater for that.  However, your past, present or future research will no doubt be relevant to the debates.  If your funding agency wants confirmation that you are “giving a paper” we can provide an appropriately worded letter.

6. It is expected that every participant will be a co-author on at least one paper to be submitted to a journal (one of our meetings had 4 papers published!).  However, you must earn this right, either through preparation before the workshop, by working hard in writing teams at the meeting, or contributing in writing/editing after the meeting.  Our experience is that papers do not get finished if participation ceases on the last day of the workshop.

7. Unfortunately, spouses will not be allowed unless they are invited on their own merit as scientific participants.  However, we encourage you to meet up with them before or after the workshop, to visit some of the wonderful countryside in Ireland. Special arrangement may be possible for those with very young children.

If you feel that you cannot commit to these things, please do not apply!

Once you have applied, please let us know as soon as possible if your situation changes.  It may be several weeks or months before you are formally allocated a place, so it is important that we can offer your place to someone else.