2026 A4Cap Assembly – A Network for Life

From 8-14 June, 23 early career researchers from Alternet institutes and alumni of the Alternet Summer School gathered in Spa, Belgium for the 5th annual Alternet A4Cap Assembly for Capacity-Building, which was organised with support from Alternet and Biodiversa+. Those present represented 13 institutes, including Alternet member institutes WENR, UK-CEH, INBO, ILEE, ESSRG, GESBIO, DICAM, and PBL.

As always, the week-long assembly included talks and skill-sharing sessions from the participants, joint research projects, networking opportunities, a field trip, and fun community-building activities. This year’s programme of talks included:

  • Introduction to Alternet and A4Cap (Tyler Kulfan and Jomme Desair)
  • Three Horizons Workshop (Carla Washbourne)
  • Rooting Conservation in the Community: Integrating Local Stakeholders into Biodiversity Research (Tamara Murillo Jiménez and Cristina Olivares Collado)
  • Creative Writing in Science (George Linney)
  • Transdisciplinary Learning about the Value of Nature (Francesca Leucci)
  • Fieldwork on the Edge of the World: Antarctica (Bede West)
  • On why every ecologist should be an anti-capitalist and why not all are (Jomme Desair)
  • Personal reflections on the Hungarian election (Gergő Berta and Karmen Czett)
  • World Cafe: Sharing ‘lessons learned’ for improving engagement with stakeholders and policymakers (Ananya Tiwari)
  • Nature-based education in schools: Hungary & USA (Karmen Czett and Tyler Kulfan)
  • The environmental impacts of war in Ukraine (Sofia Sadogurska)

The participants also concurrently worked on two collaborative research projects: an ongoing project on the evolution of biodiversity research and transdisciplinary education; and a new project on degrowth. Evening activities built a sense of true community among the participants. These included an ecofeminist workshop, a panzerotti cooking workshop, a dance competition, poetry night, an improv workshop, Eastern European night (with food, music, and a presentation), and a pasta-making workshop.

The 2026 A4Cap Assembly was a great success, further advancing the mission to build a supportive, productive, and dynamic platform for a “Network for Life” built on true synergy and shared trust. A number of participants shared their reflections following the conclusion of the 2026 A4Cap Assembly. These can be found below:

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