8th International Farming System Design Conference

The 8^th Farming Systems Design conference will take place in August 25-29th, 2025, in Palaiseau, France, near Paris. The theme will be Farming System Design for Sustainable Agrifood Systems: theories and practices.

This conference welcomes scientists from all over the world working on and for the transformation of agricultural systems, with the aim to accelerate the development of healthy and sustainable agrifood systems. There is a need for radical shifts in the world’s agricultural systems so that they can face current and future challenges (climate change, pesticide use reduction, the need for intensification in low- and middle-income countries, biodiversity loss, farmers’ and consumers’ health, generation renewal of farmers, food security, etc.). In recent years, these issues have been the focus of a large body of scientific work, notably regarding (i) the processes, theories, methods and tools to design systemic approaches so as to support innovation processes, (ii) methods for analyzing obstacles and leverages to agroecological transition. Recent studies have also highlighted the need to consider innovation in agricultural and food sectors jointly, in order to create jointly, towards desirable and resilient agrifood systems.

Accordingly, the FSD8 conference seeks to broaden the interdisciplinarity of the FSD community, beyond the initial core of agronomists and livestock scientists. Contributions focusing on the design and transition of agri-food systems, particularly in the fields of economics, management sciences, sociology, ergonomics and food sciences, will be welcome.

In this context, the objectives of this conference are to:

• Bring together and consolidate a renewed scientific community, gathering scientists in agronomy, livestock science, sociology, ergonomics, economics, and food sciences, working on the design and management of innovation for the transition of agrifood systems;
• Enhance scientific exchanges on design in a variety of socio-economic and organizational contexts, and consider diverse approaches to sustainable and systemic transformation. Special attention will be paid to approaches and tools that support these design dynamics, as well as their impact potential to support local stakeholder dynamics. These scientific interactions will also aim at identifying new avenues of research on and for the agrifood system transition;
• Offer a training course for PhD students, post-docs, and permanent researchers in design approaches, theories and methods for the transition of agrifood systems towards greater sustainability;
• Discuss synergies between research, training and support for socio-economic stakeholders to encourage the spread of design dynamics aimed at transforming agri-food systems.

Please note that the submission of abstracts are open from the 6th of January until the 8th of March 2025.

For more information, please visit the conference website.