Anti-Autocracy Summit
Thursday, December 4th 2025 | 14:00–18:00 UK (15:00–19:00 CET, 9 am–1 pm EST, 6 am–10 am PST)
Image from Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Description
In an era of creeping authoritarianism, increasing threats to academic freedom, and the politicisation of science, many researchers, communicators, and institutions have launched initiatives to safeguard open inquiry and evidence-based discourse. The Anti-Autocracy Summit brings these efforts together.
This first meeting in a new SciBeh series will convene scientists, academics, researchers, and science communicators who are actively working—or wish to work—against autocratic backsliding and its corrosive effects on scholarship. It will serve as a strategic stock-taking: What has worked? What hasn’t? What are we missing?
Our goal is to connect existing initiatives, identify synergies, and build a sustainable community over the coming months through two follow-up online workshops (February and March/April 2026) leading to a half-day in-person event at the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Annual Convention in Barcelona on 27 May 2026.
Participants in this first summit will help shape the strategic agenda for the online workshops and the Barcelona event—deciding together which themes, tools, and collaborations can most effectively strengthen academic resilience and collective action. Join us to share experiences, learn from others, and co-create the next phase of our shared effort to defend scholarship and democratic values.
When?
Thursday, 4 December 2025 | 14:00–18:00 UK (15:00–19:00 CET, 9 am–1 pm EST, 6 am–10 am PST)
Registration
Please register using this link registration form (Your registration data will be held in a UK institutional account that is compliant with GDPR.)
Programme
Preventing backsliding - strategies and experiences
Including speakers from
- The Coalition for Independent Technology Research https://independenttechresearch.org/
- Information technology & innovation foundation https://itif.org/ (Related reading: https://justhinkin.substack.com/p/has-wales-found-the-solution-to-autocracy)
- Compass Strategy https://www.compass-strat.com/ for Preventing backsliding session and Science Homecoming https://sciencehomecoming.com for Activism
How should Europe respond?
Q&A with Prof Dr Gerd Gigerenzer https://www.gerd-gigerenzer.com/ (This paper may be of interest to you: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2401237121)
Tracking and communication - efforts to document threats to science and raise public awareness
Including speakers from
- Unbiased science https://www.unbiasedscience.com/
- Trump Action Tracker https://www.trumpactiontracker.info/about
Activism - experiences of fighting back and psychology of resistance
Including speakers from
- Union of Concerned Scientists https://www.ucs.org/
- Science and Freedom Alliance https://www.scienceandfreedomalliance.org/ (Related reading: https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-researchers-are-speaking-science-local-newspapers)
Contact
If you have any questions, please reach out to [email protected]
Organization committee
- Stephan Lewandowsky
- Dawn Holford
- Christoph Abels
- Ulrike Hahn
- Vera Kempe
- Ezequiel Lopez-Lopez
- SciBeh Team