The EU-funded project SMART (Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade, 2016-2020) sought to identify the factors that would facilitate the contribution of businesses and other market actors to sustainability. Drawing on SMART’s framework, this call understands sustainability as securing social foundations for humanity everywhere, now and in the future, while mitigating pressures on planetary boundaries. In short, it is about ensuring a safe and just space for humans and other living creatures. Despite business-as-usual driving humanity toward an unsustainable future, we, the Steering Committee of the SMART Network, continue to believe in SMART’s mission statement that sustainability is possible.
At its conclusion in February 2020, the SMART project published reform proposals which covered three main strands: Business, Finance and Products. These proposals encompassed trade and investment law, business law, company law and accounting law, financial market law and banking, public procurement, and circular economy law. In the intervening years, these proposals have informed legal reforms and provided a foundation for a new range of research projects and publications. It is now time to take stock, look back at the work, reform proposals and legacy of the SMART project and look forward to what needs to be done and how it can be achieved.
The theme of the call for papers
The Steering Committee for the SMART Network is seeking papers for its symposium in Turin on 18 and 19 September 2025. The symposium aims to revitalise the SMART Network by reestablishing connections between existing members and welcoming new friends and colleagues interested in sustainability-focused research. We welcome abstracts submitted by researchers across a range of fields and disciplines concerning EU developments, as well as comparative and transdisciplinary contributions.
- Governance of business, including global value chains, for sustainability
- Sustainable finance and banking
- Corporate sustainability due diligence
- The evolution of accounting and sustainability reporting
- Circular economy and product regulation
- Public procurement for sustainability
- International trade and investment
- Litigation for sustainability
Abstracts of 500 words should be submitted via this online form before 1 April 2025. Responses will be provided by 30 April. While the symposium will run in a hybrid format, preference will be given to papers for in-person delivery.
In advance of the symposium, selected participants will be asked to develop their abstract into a blog for possible publication in Blogging for Sustainability. All accepted participants will be required to submit short draft papers for circulation to other participants no later than 1 September 2025. We also aim to publish, subject to agreement with editors and peer review, a set of final papers in a special issue of a leading international journal. Hence, we request that abstracts contain original work, not published elsewhere.
The symposium will be followed by a SMART Network meeting to discuss how the network should move forward, potential research collaborations, and future publication plans for the final papers.
The organisers are unable to offer funds for travel or accommodation. However, no registration fee is required and the University of Turin will kindly provide food and refreshments.
We look forward to reading your abstracts and meeting you at the 2025 SMART Network symposium.
The SMART Network Steering Committee:
Prof. Beate Sjåfjell (University of Oslo)
Prof. Roberto Caranta (University of Turin)
Prof. Blanaid Clarke (Trinity College Dublin)
Dr. Shouvik Guha (West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences)
Dr. Aude-Solveig Epstein (Paris Nanterre University/NYU Abu Dhabi)
Dr. John Quinn (Dublin City University)
Local organising committee at the University of Turin:
Roberto Caranta
David Monciardini
Mia Callegari
Eva Desana
Lorenza Mola
Vera Palea