What does it take to future-proof a city? At the AMS Scientific Conference from 14-16 April, AMS Institute convenes the scientists, policymakers, industry partners and researchers who work on challenges Dutch cities face right now: net congestion, housing renovation costs, the district heating transition, and more.
"Sometimes the scientific part of solving those issues is less visible," said Prof. Eveline van Leeuwen, AMS Institute Scientific Director. “This conference demonstrates the innovations and solutions, and how those translate into action by a working collaboration of academics, the private sector, and government. From climate adaptation and resource scarcity to social cohesion and governance, cities demand new ways of thinking, collaborating and innovating.”
With the conference being only three weeks away and having limited spots available, now is the moment to secure your place.
Reinventing the City: Connecting the Dots, Closing the Loops
The conference brings together scientists, policy makers, and practitioners around the energy transition, climate adaptation, urban food systems, mobility, circularity, digitalisation, and the living labs method that tests bold ideas in real-world settings. Three full days of research paper presentations from researchers of diverse background, interactive sessions, and even some live experiments. The interdisciplinary program mirrors how AMS Institute works with municipalities, startups, and contractors every day.
“This conference spotlights the innovations happening at every level of change to make cities resilient, regenerative, and just.”
Eveline van Leeuwen
Each day of the Scientific Conference breaks down how connecting the dots and closing the loops unfold in practice. A diverse group of urban innovation experts join the keynote speakers for morning daily panel talks, each offering unique perspectives on governance, data, inclusion, and systemic change in urban innovation. After this, there are afternoon parallel sessions featuring Special Sessions, Full Paper Presentations and Pitch & Polish Sessions – all to be found on the dedicated conference program page.
Day 1
Unexpected Connections is the day’s theme that opens the conference with the questions cities haven't fully answered yet — how do we plan for the long-term future of urban space? How do informal networks and knowledge from the Global South reshape what we think we know?
Panel theme: Exploring Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Keynote speakers Anacláudia Rossbach (Executive Director of UN-Habitat) and Peter Pelzer (Professor of Spatial Planning and Strategy at the Department of Urbanism of Delft University of Technology) are joined by André Sobczak (Eurocities), Jan Duffhues (Gemeente Amsterdam), Tonny (Antonia) Wormer (Blade–Made) to discuss ways to connect researchers, companies, and governments to accelerate progress in circularity and the energy transition.
Day 2
Closing the loops brings the conference's most technically rigorous programming, with afternoon sessions that go further into the mechanics: waste separation systems, plastic recycling quality, lifecycle analysis, and the behavioral dimensions of how people and institutions make circular choices, with a high-profile plenary that places four leading voices on one stage. ETH Zurich Professor Catharina Bening, whose work spans circular value chains and technological innovation, joins Diederik Samsom, who shaped climate and energy policy at the European level; Mats Siffels, an expert in circular implementation in the built environment; and Wageningen University Professor Katrien Termeer, who studies how governance structures can manage complex problems like resource scarcity.
Panel theme: Implementation and Scale-Up. Keynote speakers Catharina R. Bening (ETH Zürich), and Diederik Samsom are joined by Katrien Termeer (Wageningen University & Research), Mats Siffels (Amsterdam Donut Coalitie), Erik van Doorn (Dura Vermeer) to discuss which new or unexpected connections could be made to help create resilient, regenerative, and just cities.
Day 3
Breaking Boundaries shifts toward collaboration, governance, and living together. Policymakers, community organizers, and researchers examine how knowledge is produced, shared, and used across social divides. A dedicated strand on justice in the city — new to this edition — raises a question most urban conferences avoid: who shapes the city, and who actually benefits from its reinvention? Sessions on just knowledge production, just futures, and the relationship between circularity and equity run throughout the day, alongside a crash course in the living labs method led by Mark Kauw and Stach Aarts, experts in using Amsterdam's own neighborhoods as labs.
Panel theme: Societal Impact Through Collaboration. The final panel talk invites keynote speakers Babette Porcelijn (Think Big Act Now Director), and James Evans (Professor of Human Geography at The University of Manchester) along with Tamara Metze (Delft University of Technology), Rosamunde Dors (City of Amsterdam), Ewout Runhaar (City of Amsterdam) to examine how to ensure that knowledge and innovation reach society and how we can connect the dots between stakeholders and citizens with diverse perspectives and practices.
Networking opportunities
The program features various opportunities for new connection. Whether through taking part in one of 20 interactive workshops or informal moments throughout the day: many programs are designed to bring participants together across disciplines and create space for unexpected conversations that extend beyond the conference.
Unique moments to look out for
During the day, visitors can engage with live prototypes and participatory installations: experiencing what it means for a neighborhood to lose electricity for hours; testing how people sort household waste in real time; or contributing to biodiversity sensing (satellite imagery, drones, AI-powered cameras, and acoustic sensors that detect, monitor, and map living organisms and ecosystems) in the urban environment. The documentary Outgrow the System, which challenges assumptions about growth and urban possibility, screens twice daily across all three days.
On the first evening, AMS Institute will mark a significant moment in Amsterdam's climate governance, handing over the first version of the Klimaatkennis Agenda to a senior representative of the City of Amsterdam. The conference closes with the Young Scientist Prize, a recognition of the next generation shaping urban science. Furthermore, visitors can expect
Selected program highlights
Disaster planning
Climate resilience researcher Gerben Mol and urban infrastructure living lab coordinator Maged Elsamny will host an afternoon session on a five-year AMS Institute project called Red&Blue. The results offer up the first climate risk management strategy for the Dutch delta, informing governments and developers how this affects people’s homes, how to manage and pay for damages when it comes to real estate and infrastructure, and testing solutions in two low-lying and therefore flood-prone areas: Amsterdam’s Watergrafsmeer and Dordrecht (see their Special Session: Disaster Planning for Dutch Cities on Day 3).
Saving energy
Another session puts an idle electric vehicle (EV) battery to good use within “Flexible Energy Communities” (FlexECs). EVs spend most of their lives parked and charged — FlexECs turn that battery capacity into a city-wide renewable energy network, letting EV drivers share clean electricity across neighborhoods. By treating mobility as infrastructure, the initiative breaks the geographic lock of traditional energy communities and opens the grid's future to anyone who moves through the city (Special Session: FlexECs: Co-creating the Future of Local Energy Flexibility).
AMS researcher Joe Llewellyn evaluates the effects of renovations, coaching and subsidies implemented from 2020-2025 in the Netherlands on energy, grocery and rental bills with chronically ill homes in social housing. His team explored how Lidar and thermal scanning tools to better identify energy poverty. Two other research projects expand the debate on affordable electricity and cost implications for switching from gas to district heating (Energy Transition: Towards a Just Transition).
Managing plastic and food waste
For the MUNITION project, urban analyst Weronika Sojka at Wageningen University & Research explores simulation methods (such as agent-based modelling and digital twins) to improve plastic waste management in cities. Two afternoon sessions on day two are devoted to the findings of this large NWO-funded consortium involving AMS, TNO, and waste facilities. “Sojka is building dialogue among researchers and developing cross-disciplinary methodologies. By bridging tools and perspectives from seemingly distant fields, she supports the creation of more adaptive, socially sustainable, and strategic urban interventions,” say MUNITION organizers on social media.
The EU-funded Bin2Bean project is testing new approaches to food waste collection in three high-density cities — Hamburg, Egaleo, and Amsterdam — with the goal of optimizing the entire chain from household collection to marketable soil improvers and biogas, where input quality is the decisive factor for success (The European Bin2Bean Project: Collection of food waste from densely populated areas).
The role of justice
FutureLab Amsterdam and City of Amsterdam will discuss the outcomes of the Wonen in Holendrecht project and explore the assumptions of creating a good neighborhood. Their workshop on building a humane and vibrant neighborhood. (Untapped wisdom in urban development: Building a humane and vibrant neighborhood through collective intelligence and dialogue).
TU Delft researcher Diletta Ricci’s research discusses how making home energy upgrades fair isn't just about saving energy — it requires involving residents, protecting vulnerable groups, and ensuring that decision-makers at every level work together to make sure no one gets left behind (Co-Creation Workshop on Just Housing Renovation Design).
Applying quantitative methods (complexity science and data science) to study how cities shape well-being, the Center for Urban Mental Health’s Dr. Adam Finnemann will chair a session on Improving Urban Mental Health: Tackling Psychological Complexity in Amsterdam and Beyond