In the Plenary, at its twelfth session (IPBES 12), held from 3 to 8 February in Manchester, United Kingdom, it was requested by the Bureau and the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel to develop, in light of the discussions at the twelfth session of the Plenary, a proposal for the nature, topics and timing of Platform deliverables on assessing knowledge, building capacity, strengthening the knowledge foundations and supporting policy, for consideration by the Plenary at IPBES 13.
In this context, the Plenary further requested the Bureau and the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel to prepare and organize an expert workshop in order to support the development of the proposal. In line with decision IPBES-12/1, I would like to invite Governments and organizations to nominate experts and practitioners to participate in this workshop.
The workshop will be held in-person over three days and is tentatively scheduled for November 2026. It will comprise about 30 experts, to be selected by the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel.
In terms of its scope, the workshop will focus especially on future work under objective 1, assessing knowledge. This will on the one hand include consideration of the four topics prioritized by the Bureau and Multidisciplinary Expert Panel, biodiversity and cities, biodiversity and climate change, biodiversity and pollution and biodiversity and poverty. On the other hand, this will also include the consideration of future deliverables based on completed IPBES assessments. In addition, the workshop will include elements to develop further ideas on how to strengthen uptake, use and policy-impact of completed assessments across the work programme.
IPBES is therefore seeking, in particular, experts with an interdisciplinary background and a background in one or more disciplines within natural science, social science or humanities, particularly those focused on the prioritized topics (biodiversity and cities, climate change, pollution and poverty). IPBES is also looking for experts on Indigenous and local knowledge, for policy experts and for practitioners in relevant fields. IPBES is further looking for experts and/or practitioners with extensive experience related to the uptake, use and policy impact of science for decision-making at various governance scales (local, national, regional or global).
Governments and organizations are invited to include in their nominations experts and practitioners with diverse backgrounds and expertise, and ensure gender balance in their nominations.
All Governments and relevant organizations or institutions are encouraged to submit nominations; nominating organizations or institutions are not required to have been admitted to the Plenary of IPBES as an observer. Please help us to disseminate this call for nominations of experts widely.
Please follow the below procedure for nomination:
- Sharing the call of nomination: All Governments and relevant organizations or institutions are invited to disseminate this call to any qualified experts who may be interested in participating in this workshop.
- Completing the application form (experts/practitioners): Interested experts and practitioners are invited to complete the application form and attach their curriculum vitae through the dedicated web portal at https://www.ipbes.net/application/expert-workshop-future-work (to access this page you will need to log in with your IPBES website log in credentials. Nominees not yet registered on the IPBES website will need to do so at https://ipbes.net/user/register). Please note that the nomination form is in English only and applications should be submitted in English, as the workshop will be conducted in English;
- Approval and formal nomination (Governments/organizations): The nominating Government or organization (nominator) indicated by the expert/practitioner (nominee) will receive an email with a link to the nomination form and will be invited to approve and submit the nominations in the web portal;
- After nomination: Nominators and nominees will receive confirmation via email once the nomination has been submitted by the nominator.
Experts or practitioners wishing to be nominated by a Government are encouraged to contact their IPBES National Focal Point (https://www.ipbes.net/national-focal-points) regarding any country specific processes or deadlines.
Experts willing to be nominated to participate in the workshop are requested to fill out their application form by 21 June 2026. Nominators (Governments or organizations) should submit the nominations of all nominees, which they would like to support, before 28 June 2026. Early nominations ahead of this deadline are encouraged.
Experts from developing countries will receive support to attend the workshop. Experts from developed countries are to secure their own funding to participate in the meeting.
Find out more here.