My research background is not in marine sciences, nor am I used to living by the sea, yet something about the Kristineberg Center for Marine Research brings about a comfortable feeling of being in the right place, where I can relax and lean into the tasks I’ve come there to do.
For two days and two nights a group of 25 ClimBEco PhD students gathered for our annual summer meeting at Kristineberg, located in Fiskebäckskil outside of Gothenburg. We had great weather, witnessed some beautiful displays of mareld in the sea, learned about the long history of the research center, and enjoyed relaxed evenings at the facilities, including the sauna. As the theme of the meeting, we discussed what fast, fair and transformative change looks like for the climate and biodiversity crises, including actionable steps societies, individuals and scientists can take as well as some tough obstacles to implementing effective policy.

Lina Nikoleris, Xiangrui Kong and I are grateful for the insightful and generous contributions by the three BECC-affiliated guest speakers – Kimberly Nicholas, Jenny Klingberg and Thomas Sterner. Thank you to Kristineberg staff for hosting us and showing your labs and some cool aquatic creatures. And the biggest thank you goes to the participating ClimBEco students!  We appreciate that you invest your time and effort to this research school forum, solely meant to enrichen the PhD experience and to make us collectively better at addressing the complex environmental and societal challenges that lay before us.