The 5th Ecosystem Services Partnership conference is taking place between 18 and 22 November in Wageningen, The Netherlands. The event will gather experts from around the world to discuss and advance the science and practice of ecosystem services. The conference serves as a platform for sharing innovative research, policies, and practices aimed at promoting sustainability and resilience in response to global challenges.

SpongeBoost partners from UJEP, Jan Macháč and Jan Brabec, will host a session dedicated to serious games and their role in flood risk and forest management. The session will explore how serious games can act as innovative tools for stakeholder engagement, supporting the design of more effective policy instruments.

Two key contributions will be presented during the conference. The first, within the session mentioned above, will focus on the "Flood Game," a serious game that simulates negotiations between upstream and downstream stakeholders in flood-prone areas. The second presentation will highlight the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) in climate adaptation strategies and their economic assessment, aiming to promote NBS planning and address the unequal distribution of costs and benefits.

Research conducted under the SpongeBoost project, funded by Horizon Europe, seeks to overcome barriers to NBS adoption through economic assessments. Demonstrating the wide range of benefits provided by NBS in urban and rural areas, the project hopes to encourage wider implementation and support policies promoting environmental resilience, biodiversity, and social equity.

Along with partners presenting project results, the project's Science Communication leaders Pensoft will host a pre-conference session on "Innovative Tools for Science Communication – How to Increase Your Research Impact." This session will share insights and best practices from SpongeBoost and other research projects, with a focus on enhancing the impact of research through effective science communication.

If you are attending the ESP conference and are curious to learn more about the benefits of science communication and how it can enhance your research impact, join Pensoft's session by registering here.

More about the event and training programme you can find here.