Organized by Templeton World Charity Foundation, this new conference will highlight the most significant scientific discoveries and innovations to enable humans to flourish amid modern challenges.
Global call for scientific abstracts at humanflourishing.org
September 12, 2022 – What can science teach us about how to help more people flourish amid the compounding crises of the 21st century? Which breakthrough innovations will support us to grow, be resilient, and adapt in the face of adversity? How does flourishing differ by culture, and what can we learn from each other to flourish together?
These questions will take center stage at the first annual Global Scientific Conference on Human Flourishing, a new interdisciplinary conference organized by Templeton World Charity Foundation in partnership with leading academic and policy research centers around the world, including University of Cambridge, University of Haifa, Universidad de Los Andes, Baylor University, Arizona State University, Rangjung Yeshe Institute Foundation, Legatum Institute Foundation and Future Africa Forum, Worldview Studios, and the Inner Development Goals.
The conference, which will be held virtually November 29-30, 2022, will showcase the latest and most meaningful scientific advances in understanding how humans flourish across cultures, alongside innovative new tools and strategies that can foster greater flourishing. Andrew Serazin, president of Templeton World Charity Foundation, said: “People everywhere face unprecedented threats to well-being – including pandemics, climate change, armed conflicts, economic inequality, polarization, and technological disruption. Yet emerging science is providing incredible insights into flourishing that every policymaker, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and advocate should know about. This conference will begin a vibrant discussion about how we can flourish amid tremendous challenges.”
The two-day conference will include a dynamic mix of plenary presentations on the latest science, in-depth technical workshops hosted around the world, and a virtual exhibit of scientific abstracts submitted via open call and judged by a global scientific jury. The conference is free for all and relevant for any professional whose work contributes to the creation and sharing of knowledge and innovations to foster flourishing. Media are also invited. Details regarding registration and the call for abstracts are available at humanflourishing.org.
Advancing the Global Field of Human Flourishing
The study of flourishing has traditionally been a scholarly niche, focused overwhelmingly on Western, highly educated, and relatively wealthy groups. This conference aims to advance a robust and global field of flourishing by elevating research from lower-income settings and non-Western cultures and connecting scholars making scientific discoveries with policymakers and practitioners who can put that knowledge to use.
“One of the myths we hope the conference will debunk is that flourishing is an idealized state that has no relevance in the real world. In fact, the science of flourishing can apply across the range of human experience and to every domain of public policy,” Serazin said. “The qualities that define a flourishing life such as meaning and purpose are foundational to how we all will thrive – not merely survive – in a challenging world.”
Conference sessions and speakers will reflect the diversity of disciplines involved in human flourishing science, spanning researchers from the physical, biological, social, and computational sciences as well as scholars in philosophy, history, art, and theology.
Translating Interdisciplinary Knowledge Into Practical Tools
The conference program will be organized in two interconnected tracks:
1) Understanding and measuring flourishing across cultures: The conference will present the latest scientific understanding and measurement of the dimensions of flourishing across cultures, including global surveys and indexes of flourishing and novel research studies in experimental psychology, neurobiology, and other fields. Also featured will be data on flourishing collected during the COVID-19 pandemic and in conflict settings.
2) Innovations for flourishing amid modern challenges: The conference will explore promising applications of flourishing science from around the world, including: innovations in character education; economic policies for flourishing; artificial intelligence and moral judgment; and climate change.
Global Partners and Advisory Committee
The conference’s global program advisory committee includes:
About Templeton World Charity Foundation
Templeton World Charity Foundation has committed $100 million to support bold research, practices and policies to discover new knowledge, develop efficient tools and launch innovations that make a lasting impact on human flourishing around the world. For more than 20 years, the Foundation, based in Nassau, Bahamas, has invested in diverse, rigorous, and openly accessible scientific research embodying the dynamic and forward-looking vision of its founder, Sir John Templeton.
