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A key feature in the path for systemic changes: science meets activism PhD Scholar Eicos Program at the Social Psychology Department Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil I was really euphoric when I received an email from Future Earth Norway offering me financial support to present my PhD research at the Ecological Challenges Conference 2017, organized by the University of Oslo. Being from Brazil, where unfortunately interdisciplinary scientific events are still practically non-existent (and so are events promoting the meeting of academia and activism), for me the happiness with that invitation was immeasurable. The conference was very well organized, punctual, with a friendly social atmosphere and a clear concern for minimizing its own ecological footprint. For example, information was available about the footprint of the meals (which were vegetarian and healthy), the coffee breaks used compostable paper cups, and there was good garbage separation for recycling. Of course there were also some things in this area that could have been improved, and the organizers did ask for feedback for the future. The focus of the conference was on how to achieve systemic changes towards sustainability, and all speeches and panels, from scientists and activists, brought interesting, different perspectives. We heard about and discussed different philosophical views on the relationship between human beings and nature, different examples of autonomous actions that are locally changing their reality, and about the broader political and economical spheres of action. The discussions following the presentations had many participants and were extremely rich, with questions and comments that were at the same time rational and passionate. What I found more exciting was the possibility to hear about the experiences of colleagues that have similar beliefs and work in the same general direction that I do, but in such different ways and contexts. There were there people from Norway, Sweden, UK, Denmark, Ireland, France, Canada, USA, Portugal, Australia, Spain, Turkey, Finland, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, Iceland, among others - and Future Earth Norway brought us, five people from India, Nigeria, and Brazil to represent the Global South - essential if we are going to think about sustainability globally. I can say that I really learned a lot and left Oslo with a new network and new inspirations about how to continue my research in Brazil. Specially, with a desire to turn my work towards being more engaged than it is. Also, I left with the feeling that scientists must return more to society - being each day a little more like activists - and that activists could search in science for a more solid basis of knowledge and sharpened tools for their causes. So, the Ecological Challenges Conference, supported by Future Earth Norway, definitely made an important contribution by promoting this integration between activism and science, which is likely to be a key feature in activating systemic changes towards a sustainable society.