Europe is facing important challenges in meeting future biodiversity targets while biodiversity across Europe is still threatened, and climate change is an increasing problem. Natura 2000, comprising over 27,000 sites and over 18% of European territory, is an important tool to ensure effective conservation and management of species and habitats of importance for the EU, but requires a collective effort for efficient management. Cross-sectoral and cross-border collaboration is currently more important than ever before.

In 2018 the SSS would like to promote the natural history collections held in Switzerland. We are thus organizing an open-door day Saturday 17 Nov 2018 all over Switzerland, in museums, herbariums, universities or any other research institutes that hold natural history collections.

The event will include visits of the collections, conferences on the role of collections, presentations of scientific specimens, presentations of the latest new species etc. Any public-oriented activity on collections can be proposed!

A meeting on the “Preservation of natural history wet collections: feedbacks and future prospects” will take place in Paris from December 5 through 7, 2018.

The theme “Re-searching science education: Same issues from different lenses” aims to provide a platform for intellectual dialogue on issues in science education using alternative lenses. Many problems in science education are not new, but can be addressed with new lenses to identify different or unique strategies and solutions. The word “re-search” is intentionally hyphenated to underscore the importance of constantly re-looking and re-examining previous issues so as to gain new insights into familiar problems that confront diverse stakeholders in science education.

Theme: Variety of Species Innovates Variety of Research

The World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB) has become the major focal assembly to share research outcomes, management and policy issues, and discussions on the role of biodiversity in sustaining ocean ecosystems. Arranged on a 3 - 4 year cycle, prior WCMB meetings (Valencia, Spain; Aberdeen, Scotland; Qingdao, China) have each attracted leading specialists from around the world, and catalyzed numerous sidebar sessions on marine biodiversity issues. 

The Società Entomologica Italiana and the Accademia Nazionale Italiana di Entomologia are hosting the XI European Congress of Entomology in Naples on 2-6 July 2018. A wide variety fo topics will be dicussed during sessions on the following themes: 

Under the auspices of the International Palaeontological Association (IPA) and with the participation of the whole French Palaeontological community, the IPC5 Conference, dubbed as “the Fossil week” will be organized in 2018 in Paris, July 9th-13th.

This event is a unique opportunity for the palaeontological community to present its new results and discuss all aspects of our discipline.