The 12th Responsible Management Education Research Conference, co-organized by the PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group and Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade will be held on 21-23 October 2025 at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON) as the host institution. It will bring together management researchers and educators, business leaders, innovators, policy makers, youth, and other stakeholders to explore critical issues in responsible management education, with a special focus on addressing global challenges through innovative and sustainable practices.

Conference Theme

The Conference theme is Rethinking Growth and Exploring New Possibilities for a Regenerative World: Unexplored Management Research and Education Areas that Reconnect Purpose to Responsible Business and Leadership

In 1987, the Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as  “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future  generations to meet their own needs.” In 2015, the United Nations accelerated organizational and institutional commitment to sustainable development by establishing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and advocating for their
achievement by 2030.  Since then, the SDGs have become benchmarks used by governments, businesses, nonprofit, civic and multilateral organizations, as well as educational institutions, including universities and colleges, and society-at-large, to measure progress towards a
more just, prosperous, and flourishing world. Yet with only five years left for their achievement, practitioners and academic scholars are proposing concepts that, while still embodying a common sustainable development agenda, move beyond the SDGs.  One of these emerging, sustainable development concepts is regeneration.

Regeneration takes as its starting point that human beings are a constitutive and active part of the ecosystem rather than a controlling recipient of its ‘resources.’ As its name implies, regenerative systems renew themselves not once, but over and over again – often getting stronger and more robust in the process. Regeneration goes beyond sustainability and other emerging sustainability concepts, such as thriving, by offering the most holistic perspective to date to address complex and interdependent socio-ecological systems. Pioneer, regenerative businesses, such as Unilever, Danone, Nestle, Mars, and Interface, place planetary health and societal well-being at their core.
These firms are moving beyond the idea of “doing less harm” to an ethos of co-evolution within their own social-ecological system.  This, in turn, drives not only substantive business model and business system reinvention but also a re-examination of business purpose and leadership skills needed to effect this transformation.  Regeneration also raises interesting research questions for management scholars and creates opportunities to refine/redefine understandings of responsible management education and learning. These are the themes of the 12th Responsible  Management Education Research Conference.

Conference Format and Program

The conference format and program, which results from the co-design process, include: parallel sessions with approved contributions (papers, abstracts, extended abstracts, work in progress by the conference tracks); plenary sessions with keynote speakers and panelists; special workshops, roundtables and meetings, possible side events, and social program. 

About the Faculty of Organizational Science (FON)

Founded in 1969, FON became a member institution of the University of Belgrade, a leading educational, scientific, and research institution in Serbia. It specializes and creates synergies between management, organization, and information systems with a strong engineering and quantitative approach, inspired by MIT’s Sloan School of Management. FON serves over 7,000 students and offers modern facilities, including amphitheaters, study rooms, computer labs, student entrepreneurship Research and Development Hub, and a library, in a peaceful area of Belgrade. As a leading national and regional institution in the fields of management, organizational sciences, and information systems. FON is widely recognized for its commitment to academic excellence and innovation, FON has been dedicated to fostering sustainable development and socially responsible practices in education and research, including through its membership in the UN Global Compact Local Network Serbia. FON promotes global visibility and student mobility and is actively involved in a number of international cooperation and exchange programs, while also supporting its 14 student organizations and enabling students getting involved in different digital transformation and green initiatives and winning respective awards at prestigious international competitions. With a vast experience in organizing various international events and conferences, FON is also the founder and host of the International Symposium on Organizational Research (SYMORG), which will celebrate its 20th edition in 2026. 

Situated in the vibrant city of Belgrade, the FON offers a dynamic environment for collaboration and knowledge exchange, making it an ideal host for this global gathering of responsible management educators, researchers, and leaders.