VU hosts the Arqus R&I Bridging Workshop on Digital Urban Transitions and Sustainable Computing

Around 25 researchers from six Arqus universities are expected to participate. A guest speaker from the Arqus Ukrainian associate partner National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, researcher Prof. Bogdana Oliynik, will speak on the situation of Ukrainian researchers in the current war context.

Vilnius University is holding the second of two Arqus R&I bridging workshops on “Bridging the Green and Digital Transitions”. Academics and researchers from all career stages and all disciplines coming from the Arqus universities will participate. The 2-day conference will take place on 24th and 25th May in Vilnius. The first workshop was organised by Université de Lyon 1 in March

Objective and topics of the workshop.

The digital transition affects all dimensions of life from people’s homes to their environment, work and the city. Meanwhile, climate change is the most urgent global societal challenge of the 21st century, threatening all aspects of human life and life-supporting natural systems. Therefore, a green transition towards a decarbonized society and an environmentally friendly economy is urgently needed. While ideally, the green and digital transitions reinforce each other, they sometimes come into conflict.

Thus, this event aims to foster collaborations between researchers from the Arqus universities and an interdisciplinary approach integrating different research fields such as natural sciences and engineering or computer science. The purpose is to bridge insights from various disciplines and connect research on green and digital transitions in a mutually beneficial manner. Topics shall be open to input from different viewpoints and backgrounds, combining expertise and offering interdisciplinary exchange on selected focus topics.

Examples of addressed topics are presented below:

• Urban Transition: Mobility and transport, urban mitigation and renewable energy, sustainable building and green construction technology, power management and smart appliances, green office and living spaces.

• Sustainable Computing: Frugal artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure studies, obsolescence, e-waste, de-digitalisation.

Organisation of the workshop

The workshop will be organised in group sessions to allow participants to share interests and goals, exchange ideas and identify common interests that might lead to future joint research activities or enrich existing ones.

As the goals of this event are to expand cooperation between the Arqus European University Alliance members with a particular emphasis on transdisciplinary approaches, plan future consortia for EU funded calls for projects and develop student exchanges (lecture semesters, research internships, PhD co-directions, etc.), presentations will be kept to a minimum, focusing on communication and exchange instead.