Understanding and sustaining life on earth

17th to 18th of March 2025, Wellcome Genome Campus, UK

The next 25 years offer the opportunity to approach sequencing of all life on Earth, and of development of sequence-based toolkits for monitoring ecosystems and assessing biodiversity function. What will the future look like in a world where “all” genomes have been sequenced and where live genomic surveillance across ecosystems is a reality? 

This future will be propelled by revolutionary technologies, advances in informatics, including artificial intelligence, global democratisation of genomics, and a rapidly changing world climate that threatens human society and the natural world. Ultimately, the goal is to use our accumulated knowledge to build systems that predict, maintain, and restore ecological integrity, and ensure the diversity of life for future generations.

As we embark on this journey together, we would like to explore several questions with you:

Some of the key questions that this workshop will look at are:

• Sequencing Capacity and Coverage: Although the ambition is to sequence all life forms within the next 25 years, there’s a gap in sequencing capabilities, especially in remote and diverse ecosystems. 
• Environmental Genomics: We need to understand not just the organisms themselves but how they interact within ecosystems, using genomic data to rebuild, balance, and improve these natural systems.
• Global Inequities: The challenge is to ensure that technological advancements in genomics do not exacerbate global inequities, especially in terms of access to and benefit from the data.
• Ethical Frameworks: There is a current lack of ethical frameworks to guide conversations and decisions regarding actions like resurrecting extinct species and altering ecosystems.
• Practical Application: The practical application of genomic technologies for conservation, moving from discovery to deployment in sustaining ecosystems effectively, presents a challenge.

How the workshop will run

This two-day workshop will surface 25-year visions for understanding and sustaining life on Earth – exploring grand challenges within three themes and foregrounding the pathways, barriers and opportunities for addressing them. 

The workshop will enable you to gather with world-leading experts from a wide range of relevant disciplines to imagine how we can best deliver greater understanding of biodiversity and of the functioning of ecosystems, and greater impact in terms of assurance of sustainability. In coming together, we hope to generate discussion and debate that informs the trajectory of these challenges and surfaces opportunities to collaborate across disciplines and sectors.

We hope that this workshop will be the beginning of a conversation that will be taken forward by everyone present to realise novel ways of delivering a sustainable, biodiverse future for our planet, balancing human societal needs with those of ecosystems and non-human species. To drive change and delivery, we’ll produce a report and summary illustrations of the 25-year vision and the group’s perspectives on grand challenges for the next 25 years and pathways to addressing a selection of these challenges.

Programme

The programme will be available to download closer to the time. Please check back shortly.

Programme planning group

Travel and Accommodation

Travel Visas

Citizens of many countries can travel to the UK to attend a workshop without needing a visa. Please check the UK government website for visitor information: https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor.

Confirmed attendees requiring a letter to support a visa application should indicate this when registering.

Accommodation

As part of the workshop invite, one night of accommodation is booked automatically when you select the accommodation option at registration. If you require any additional nights accommodation please indicate when registering.

Travel Terms

As our guest, we will provide you with a complimentary registration, accommodation and meals/refreshments during the event. We will also reimburse travel expenses to the the maximum stated on your invitation letter, subject to the following terms:

• Maximum amount is determined by your location and included the cost of ground transportation whether arranged by you or us
• Payment will be reimbursed in GBP, USD or Euro
• Travel is by the most economical method. If not then any excess will be at your expense
• If you require additional support due to a medical condition this will need to be pre approved, please contact genomicworkshops@sanger.ac.uk
• We cannot reimburse any accommodation costs that you may incur whilst travelling
• Original receipts should be retained
• Provide your own travel and medical insurance policy cover
• If you require a UK standard visitor’s visa, apply early (three months before you travel as processing time of visas is approx. 10 weeks). We cannot reimburse travel that has been paid for if a visa was not issued due to failure to apply in time
• To contribute to the overall success of the event, we request full commitment for the duration of the workshop.

Travel Allowances

Getting here

Travelling by air

The following are estimated travel times to the Campus:

• Cambridge City Airport 25 minutes
• London Stansted 30 minutes
• London Luton 1 hour
• London City 1 hour
• London Gatwick 1 hour 30 minutes*
• London Heathrow** 1 hour 30 minutes*

*We recommend you allow 2 hour journey time to Heathrow and Gatwick in case of traffic delays.

**You can catch the underground from Heathrow. However, the journey will take about one hour to get to Kings Cross. A quicker option would be to catch the Heathrow Express train, which would take you to Paddington station in London. You can then pick up the London Underground from Paddington to London Kings Cross which is only 5 stops away on the Circle Line.

From London Kings Cross you can catch a direct train to Cambridge which departs at 15 minutes and 45 minutes past every hour (depending on the time of day)

Alternatively you can take the London underground to London Liverpool Street and catch the train to Whittlesford Parkway station.

We recommend not taking a black cab from the airport unless pre-booked. London cabs will charge around £250 for the journey.

Travelling by train

The nearest railway station to the Campus is Whittlesford Parkway. A small, free shuttle bus runs between the station and the Campus. Please note all shuttle buses operate on a first-come-first-served basis and have limited operating times. Please check the timetables for all shuttle buses here.

Travellers from Cambridge railway station can use the shuttle bus stop at Centennial Hotel on Hills Rd, just left of the junction with Station Road.

No taxi ranks are present at Whittlesford Parkway, Great Chesterford, nor Audley End railway stations. If you require a taxi to collect you from these stations, we recommend pre-booking (see local taxi companies below). There is a taxi rank at Cambridge station.

Local taxi companies

For Cambridge and the airports
Panther Taxis
+44 (0)1223 715715

Sawston Carriages (for all journeys)
mick@mickgomm.com
+44 (0)7449 822626

For Whittlesford Station & the Holiday Inn Express, Audley End & Great Chesterford Stations
City taxis + 44 (0)1223 832832
Crocus +44 (0)1799 525511

The cost of a taxi from Cambridge to the campus is ~£25, from Stansted Airport to the campus is ~£68 and from Heathrow Airport is ~£130. Please contact the taxi firm directly for a quote.

Travelling by car

There is ample onsite parking. The Conference Centre postcode is CB10 1RQ.

Please contact Amanda Fletcher, Events Lead: af18@sanger.ac.uk for a parking permit.

There is no charge for parking at the Conference Centre.