First Arqus Bridging Workshop on green and digital transitions: a fruitful event for researchers

On 28^th and 29^th March 2023, over 30 researchers from the different Arqus partner universities met in Lyon 1 to discuss and make the link between two major societal challenges: The digital and green transitions.

As the question of climate change is being raised at all levels, the digital transition is influencing and impacting the daily lives of all of us. While, ideally, the green and digital transitions reinforce each other, they sometimes come into conflict.

Within this framework and with this double perspective, the Arqus Alliance organised the first Bridging Workshop on these topics at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 for researchers of all partner universities on 28^th and 29^th March 2023.

During the two days, participants from Granada, Graz, Padua, Vilnius, Kiev, and Minho took part in thematic sessions on different aspects such: Urban transition, Environmental health, Sustainable computing, Civic engagement, Management and storage of resources and Modeling for Sustainability.

The aim of this event was not only to encourage collaboration between researchers from Arqus universities, but also to build bridges between different research fields such as natural sciences and engineering, or humanities and social sciences and computer science. Indeed, the workshop aimed as much at bringing together the views of different disciplines as at linking research on the green and digital transitions in a mutually beneficial way.

Participants particularly appreciated this transdisciplinary approach. One participant commented: “It was amazing the number of ideas and the variety of approaches! I think it was due to the presence of not only climate change and digital researchers but also more social science researchers”. The participatory format was also praised, as researchers felt it was more conducive to the development of collaborations. In this respect, all were unanimous: thanks to Arqus and events such as this Bridging Workshop, collaborative projects are facilitated and supported.

In order to continue these first encouraging exchanges and the collaborations already initiated, the researchers will be able to attend the second Bridging Workshop, organised on 22^nd and 23^rd May 2023 by the University of Vilnius (Lithuania).