This year, our "Organisation and Innovation" working group was once again represented at the International Sustainability Transitions (IST) conference. Ricarda Schmidt-Scheele, Tamara Schnell and our external doctoral candidate Sven Alsheimer took part in the 16th IST conference in Lisbon, Portugal, from 24 to 26 June 2025. The conference was organised by the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN) and hosted by the ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon and the IGOT - Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning. With over 500 participants from more than 30 countries, the IST conference is one of the most important international events in the research field of sustainability transitions.

This year's conference theme was "Tensions and Trade-Offs in Structural Changes for Sustainability Transitions". The conference focussed on the tensions and trade-offs associated with far-reaching social, technological and institutional change processes. The diverse sessions and panels provided space for theoretical, empirical and methodological analyses of the opportunities and challenges of sustainability transitions.

As part of a session on "Rethinking digitalisation in transitions", Ricarda Schmidt-Scheele presented a recent paper by her and Tamara entitled: "The social embeddedness of trust in AI: How existing trust relations to decision-makers and institutions influence trust in AI decision aids for public administration."

Tamara Schnell presented a paper co-authored with Prof. Jannika Mattes entitled: "(Il)Legitimation of renewable energy projects - Legitimacy gaps in socio-technical transitions and actor responses."

The scientific programme was complemented by a diverse supporting programme that offered numerous opportunities for informal exchange. We also had the opportunity to exchange ideas with our former colleagues Camilla Chlebna and Meike Löhr, who are now conducting research in Austria and Switzerland. A special highlight was the conference dinner at the historic Casa do Alentejo in the centre of Lisbon.

By participating in conferences such as IST 2025, we are strengthening the university's international commitment to sustainability research and actively shaping key scientific debates on social science topics such as digitalisation, trust and legitimacy in the context of socio-technical transformations.