The network UBIAS (University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study) has an open call to receive essays on the theme How will/should the world change? The corona crisis as an interdisciplinary challenge. Researchers from all areas and countries may participate.

The articles will be published on the websites of the network and of the IEA, as well as on the blog Interdisciplinarity, managed by University of Bielefeld's ZiF (Center for Interdisciplinary Research). Texts written in English must have a maximum of 10,000 characters, including spaces, and sent to the emails zif@uni-bielefeld.de or ubiasnetwork@gmail.com by the end of May. If the received material is considered to be of high quality, it is possible that it will later generate a publication by UBIAS.

The network

UBIAS is currently composed of 41 members, representing 44 institutes of advanced studies, all based in universities. Guilherme Ary Plonski, deputy director of the IEA, is the coordinator for the 2018-2020 biennium. The network aims to exchange experiences and carry out joint research. For this call, UBIAS works in partnership with ZiF.

Photo: Pxhere

Essays on the Post-COVID-19 World

The blog Interdisciplinarity has started to publish essays on the post-coronavirus world, received after a call opened in April. The inaugural article, Science and its Public after the Pandemic, by Lorraine Daston, from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, addresses the public's greatest interest in the scientific content produced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Daston has analyzed the future prospects for the dissemination of science and its relationship with people.

Created by the partnership between the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld Univertity, which manages the blog, and the network of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS), the initiative has launched the question How will/should the world change? The corona crisis as an interdisciplinary challenge. In addition to the blog, the selected essays will be published on the websites of UBIAS and the IEA-USP, which supports the call. The next selected works will continuously be published in the coming weeks.

The call is still open to interested parties from all areas and countries. The texts must address the impacts and challenges of the post-coronavirus world for society.

"There are growing indicators that the world will be different after this crisis and that globalization will be questioned in many areas. According to these observations, the corona crisis should mark a turning point. In times of great uncertainty, science is asked to look to the future and offer a rational discourse on how to react to the situation," evaluates the letter of the call.

Essays must be written in English and have a maximum of 10,000 characters, including spaces. The receiving addresses are zif@uni-bielefeld.de or ubiasnetwork@gmail.com.