Policy Decision-support and Evidence-based Reasoning
Future Challenges session organised by POLDER, as part of the IAS Festival
- Date
- 20 May 2026
- Time
- 14:00 -16:00
- Location
- Oude Turfmarkt 145-147
- Room
- Sweelinck Room
In complex societal challenges, decisions often fail because reality contains feedback loops, delays, and nonlinearities, but also an array of goals and competing values. Consequently, we underestimate the side effects of interventions, miss tipping points, and struggle to measure progress or communicate uncertainty. Complex Systems theory helps us reason through this, but we can do more.
Speakers
TBA
About the organiser: POLDER
POLDER (POLicy Decision-support and Evidence-based Reasoning) is an initiative led by the UvA Institute for Advanced Study. POLDER supports policymakers and stakeholders in navigating complex societal challenges by combining participatory processes with computational modelling and scenario exploration to improve decision quality under uncertainty.
From 18 to 21 May 2026, the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Advanced Study celebrates its 10th anniversary with the IAS Festival: a week-long programme dedicated to reflection, exchange and forward-looking dialogue. The festival marks a decade of boundary-crossing interdisciplinary research while exploring the complex questions that will shape the years to come.
The programme includes the launch of a special anniversary publication "The Edge of Knowing", alongside a series of Future Challenges sessions that bring together leading thinkers from science, society, policy and the arts. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with urgent themes, transcending disciplinary boundaries and exploring new perspectives in lectures, discussions and interactive sessions.