FAQ

SRI is proud to partner with the Sheraton Grand Chicago to host SRI2025 and offer accommodations to all participants at a special rate. You may find more information here https://sricongress.org/the-venue/. 

We’re committed to making SRI2025 inclusive and accessible for all participants.
If you require any accessibility accommodations, please contact us at sri@futureearth.org. We encourage you to reach out as early as possible so we can best support your needs.

We understand that plans can change, and you may need to cancel your Congress registration. Please review our updated refund policy below—we’ve made adjustments to better accommodate unexpected circumstances.

• Full refunds will be issued on a case-by-case basis minus a $50 processing fee. 
• If you are unable to attend, you may transfer your registration to another person by notifying us in writing at least 7 days before the event. No additional fee will be charged for substitutions.
• If the Congress is canceled by the organizers, registrants will receive a full refund of the registration fee. However, the organizers are not responsible for covering travel, accommodation, or any other costs incurred by attendees.

All refund requests must be submitted in writing to sri@futureearth.org and will be processed within 30 days of receiving the request. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation with these policies to ensure the efficient management of the event.

Translation will be available for sessions featuring non-English speaking participants. If you are organizing a session and want to ensure translation is provided, please contact sri@futureearth.org.

We will be using Wordly, an AI-powered translation and captioning app. To access the translation, you’ll need a smartphone with a web browser. If you prefer to listen to the translation instead of reading it, please bring headphones.

Registration is now open. For more information on fees and how to register, please visit: https://sricongress.org/sri2025-registration/

There will be discounts provided for early bird registration (new deadline May 15, 2025), as well as for our partners, students, and those from resource-constrained countries (as defined by the OECD as LMIC).

There is no strict limit on the number of speakers that can be associated with a proposal, however, it is required to have at least two onsite speakers. If you have any questions, please reach out to sri@futureearth.org. 

Visa letters will be available to registered participants, those with accepted proposals, and those who have been granted scholarships. In each of these cases, a link will be provided by email to a form that allows the presenter, scholarship attendee, and/or participant to request a visa letter. Proposal acceptances will be announced in January 2025. 

Please visit https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas.html for more information on the visa process and countries’ eligibility. 

The Africa Satellite Event will take place in Nairobi, Kenya on 4-6 June 2025. Please visit the Africa Satellite Event page for more information: https://sricongress.org/sri2025-africa-satellite-event/

The SRI2025 Call for Session Proposals is now closed. Submitted proposals cannot be modified during the reviewing period. Sessions submitted after the final deadline of 16 December 2024 will not be accepted.

Please contact us at sri@futureearth.org if you have any questions.

This year’s Congress focuses on Pathways to Sustainable Solutions but also has four related themes. Sessions should align with the vision of the Congress and/or one or more of the following themes:

One Health: Connecting Human, Animal & Planetary Health 

The concepts of One Health and Planetary Health take an integrated and interdependent approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals, plants, and the environment across our planet, on land, in air, and in freshwater and the ocean. This includes but is not limited to responding to effects of environment, climate, regional stress on humans and other life; disease control; biomes and health; optimizing health security; developing early warning systems for health risks.

Collaborative Decision-Making: Fostering Connections with Communities

This theme includes topics that bridge the gaps between sectors; such as: institutional and shared leadership; national, regional, and corporate leadership; science diplomacy, social, climate, and environmental justice, equity, intergenerational fairness; impacts from climate immigration; community engagement at all levels, including interfaith leadership; engagement with local communities and/or indigenous peoples.

Holistic Solutions: Integrating Food, Energy, Water, and Infrastructure

All communities, both urban and rural, need infrastructure to deliver food, energy, and water. How can we make these systems more sustainable? This theme includes the future of agriculture and aquaculture, freshwater availability, buildings, addressing energy and transportation systems transition; impacts on the nexus of food, energy and water; living in climate-impacted economies and urban and coastal environments.

Innovative Tools: Developing & Deploying New Technologies for Sustainability Solutions 

Addressing sustainability, climate, and equity challenges requires innovative applications and new tools. Includes digital world issues; future role of AI, machine learning and quantum computing and communications in sustainability solutions; advances in data evaluation, the role of virtual reality; demonstrations; open science.

Below are example session topics that touch on one or more of the themes above:  

• Deploying equitable solutions to mitigate the effects of heat waves in urban and rural communities (OneHealth, Innovative Tools)
• Early warning systems, one size does not fit all. How to scale lifesaving information? (Innovative Tools, Holistic Solutions)
•  A sustainable energy future (Holistic Solutions)
• Future of transportation for a sustainable world (Holistic Solutions)
• Achieving sustainable aviation: SAF and other solutions (Holistic Solutions, Innovative Tools)
• Hidden opportunities for innovation: Corporate Environmental & Social Governance reporting (Collaborative Decision-Making, Innovative Tools)
• Understanding the role of biomes in improving health (OneHealth)
• Closing the gap on climate mitigation and adaptation investments (Collaborative Decision-Making)
• Understanding and implementing solutions for resiliency (Collaborative Decision-Making)
• Ecologists & Land Managers work together to Manage a Changing Landscape (Collaborative Decision-Making, OneHealth)
• Scalable Solutions: Using Wastewater to Sequester Carbon (Innovative Tools)
• Marine Protected Areas: What can we learn from successes and failures from around the world? (Decision-Making, OneHealth, Holistic Solutions)
• Climate, Environment & Health Kick Off Meeting (Belmont Forum, OneHealth)
• Tools for Changemakers: Creative Problem Solving (Collaborative Decision-Making)
• Reducing the Urban Heat Island: Architectural and Urban Planning Solutions (Holistic Solutions, Collaborative, Decision Making)
• Faith & Climate: How the religious community is addressing climate change (Collaborative Decision-Making)
• Social Networking to Reduce Waste: How to grow circular urban economies (Holistic Solutions, Innovative Tools)

Scholarship applications are now closed. Thank you to all the applicants!