About the Summer School
Questions of uncertainty and the future have been relevant throughout history, remain pressing today, and will continue to be so for generations to come. We live in an era of rapid change and pervasive uncertainty. Through keynotes, research spotlights, workshops, tutorials, and collaborative projects, the summer school will provide conceptual, methodological, and creative tools to understand, model, communicate, and act in the face of uncertainty, transforming it into a source of creativity and innovation for building more resilient futures.
It will also feature policy dialogues with practitioners and a field trip in Wales, linking theory to lived experiences of uncertainty. A cohort of forty PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, early-career academics, and practitioners will be selected through a competitive application process to ensure disciplinary diversity and breadth of perspectives.
Participation is limited to 40 people, and applications will be assessed to ensure balance across disciplines, geographies, and career stages.
Topics will include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Quantifying uncertainty
- Communicating and visualising uncertainty
- Epistemologies of uncertainty
- Uncertainty, history, and the future
- Uncertainty in complex systems
- Uncertainty and forecasting
- Uncertainty and foresight
- Decision-making under uncertainty
- Uncertainty and participatory, co-creative approaches
- Uncertainty, emerging issues, and signal sharing
- Uncertainty, policy, and practice interfaces
- Uncertainty and interdisciplinary collaboration
- Uncertainty, responsibility, and ethics
- Uncertainty, resilience, and antifragility
Summer School Aims
- Equip participants with conceptual and methodological tools to understand, model, communicate, and act on uncertainty in relation to possible futures.
- Foster interdisciplinary dialogue, networks, and collaborations among PGRs, ECRs, and faculty.
- Trial creative and participatory approaches, such as storytelling, speculative design, and signal sharing, for engaging with uncertainty in research and practice.
- Generate tangible outputs, including collaborative research proposals and think pieces on emerging issues.
- Build long-term capacity for interdisciplinary, uncertainty and futures-oriented research across diverse fields.
What to Expect
The six-day international programme comprises five intensive workshop days and a field excursion in Wales. The structure combines training, dialogue, and experimentation.
- Thematic keynotes from leading scholars and practitioners.
- Research spotlights where PhD students and ECRs present their work.
- Workshops and tutorials on probabilistic modelling, scenario planning, foresight, and speculative futures.
- Interdisciplinary case studies on challenges such as climate adaptation and AI governance.
- Creativity sessions using improvisation, art, storytelling, and signal sharing.
- Ethics and policy dialogues connecting research to government and industry.
- Day 6 excursion in Wales for site visits and outdoor reflection.
Who Should Apply
The summer school is aimed at PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career academics and practitioners from across disciplines.