1st EUTOPIA Day

 

Uniting for Sustainability and Climate Action

In a movement aimed at catalysing dialogue and action, the EUTOPIA alliance announces the launch of its inaugural EUTOPIA Day, slated to debut on May 13th, 2024. Set against the backdrop of global challenges, this annual event aims to be a platform for collaborative engagement and thematic exploration. The day serves as a reminder of the Alliance’s vision of social responsibility and global engagement linked to the academic goals of excellence. 

Three objectives

• Amplifying the Alliance’s visibility is at the heart of EUTOPIA Day: EUTOPIA aims to enhance its presence and relevance within the university community by focusing on climate change and engaging relevant faculty.
• Facilitating Cross-Campus Dialogue on Climate Change: EUTOPIA recognises the power of collaboration in driving meaningful change. Through EUTOPIA Day, the Alliance aims to foster cross-campus dialogue on climate change through scientific and popularisation lectures. EUTOPIA intends to promote awareness and knowledge sharing.
• Empowering Student-Led Initiatives: Central to EUTOPIA’s mission is empowering students as catalysts for change. EUTOPIA Day sponsors student-led activities to enhance engagement with climate change issues. EUTOPIA seeks to encourage and support students in formulating and executing impactful initiatives. From short videos to cross-campus events, EUTOPIA intends to expand the community of passionate individuals committed to climate action.

A Thematic Approach

As its already traditional events such as the EUTOPIA Weeks that gather in one city twice a year a significant number of persons responsible for developing the Alliance, the EUTOPIA Day also adopts a thematic approach, with each edition dedicated to tackling a specific global issue. The spotlight for its first edition will be Sustainability and Climate Change, reflecting the Alliance’s commitment to addressing one of the most urgent challenges of our time. 

Exploring Fresh Perspectives: EUTOPIA Day aims to foster thought-provoking dialogues and experiences that shed light on the complexities of sustainability and Climate Change. On May 13th, each university organises campus activities to engage its communities, while there is a central event in the afternoon with rectors, vice-rectors and experts. These events include panel discussions, workshops, talks, walks, and seminars highlighting EUTOPIA’s role in transforming the higher education landscape into a more sustainable and stable ecosystem in the face of climate change. The day will also showcase some research projects undertaken by EUTOPIA’s SIF fellows, providing an opportunity for students and faculty to learn about the latest developments in their respective fields.

A Platform for Collaboration

EUTOPIA Day isn’t just a platform for dialogue—it’s a catalyst for collaboration. The event seeks to cultivate ideas, experiences, and expertise that transcend borders and disciplines by convening stakeholders across the Alliance and beyond. Participants will have the chance to forge connections and co-create solutions that drive positive change.

Looking Ahead

As EUTOPIA Day makes its debut, the Alliance is setting its sights on the future. With a commitment to rotating themes annually, the event promises to remain involved and relevant, tackling a diverse range of pressing issues. EUTOPIA Day is a moment of awareness for all our internal communities, stressing that only together may we succeed in tackling the main problems in front of us. The stage is set to foster connections and chart a course towards a more tolerable and equitable future.

 

10-12 CET: University of Gothenburg

Empowering Students for Climate Action: Panel Discussion 

In the face of unprecedented environmental challenges, it is crucial to recognize and cultivate students' active involvement in climate action. Despite various leadership and educational initiatives addressing these challenges, there has been a lack of a comprehensive approach to effectively engage students. Acknowledging the pivotal role students play in shaping our collective future, both within our university and beyond, the Section for Sustainability at the University of Gothenburg is organizing a panel discussion aimed at empowering students towards climate action. This discussion offers a unique opportunity to foster synergy among students, educators, researchers, and environmental coordinators across the university, thereby creating a platform for learning, collaboration, skill-building, and empowerment to address climate change in educational and campus activities. 
 
If you are a student or staff member at GU and passionate about making a difference in climate change, we warmly invite you to participate in this panel discussion. 
 
Panelists: Andréas Litsegård, Fredrik Högberg, Maria Zapata, Marios Kyriakis (student representative). 
 
Host: Kassahun Weldemariam, Project Leader, Section for Sustainability, University of Gothenburg in collaboration with Tova Karlsson, Student Assistant at the University of Gothenburg. 
 
Workshop Schedule: 
13:00-13:10: Introduction and Background - Kassahun Weldemariam 
13:10-13:20: Remarks by Andréas Litsegård 
13:20-13:30: Remarks by Fredrik Högberg 
13:30-13:40: Remarks by Maria Zapata 
13:40-13:50: Remarks by Marios Kyriakis 
13:50-14:00: Coffee Break 
14:00-15:00: Open Q&A Session

Open to Students and Staff: This event will be a live event at GU but online participation from the alliance are welcome. 
GU staff , students and teachers are welcome onsite!

13h-14h30 CET: EUTOPIA Science & Innovation Fellows Monthly Seminar.  VUB

Onsite in front of live audience VUB campus Etterbeek (building I room 1.05).
Online for EUTOPIA community across Europe
Register your on site or online attendance here
 
Within the framework of the EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellowship Programme, monthly fellows’ seminars take place, in which the 40 researchers enrolled in the two cohorts in turn present their research projects.  On EUTOPIA Day, 3 SIF Fellows from VUB invite their peers and other interested participants to find out more about their work.
 
The Speakers

Ashima Bajaj
Project Title: Boosting automated reaction mechanism discovery using quantum chemical reactivity descriptors.

In the ongoing drive to seek out greener and more sustainable chemical synthesis routes, multi-component and one-pot reactions are emerging as an important frontier. The investigation of detailed reaction mechanisms, including activation energies and reaction rates are crucial for predicting the reaction outcomes of such complex systems. Although, in the past decades, Quantum Mechanical (QM) calculations, have effectively shaped our understanding in mechanistic modelling of reactions and catalytic design; their practicality for reaction modelling on a large scale is limited due to significant computational expense and efforts involved. In this project, we will use Machine Learning (ML) as an alternative to QM calculations for automatically identifying the reaction mechanisms and designing more efficient organo-catalysts. In this seminar, I will talk about the challenges associated in training a ML model for predicting reaction properties. The focus will be on boosting the automated reaction discovery by adding more chemical knowledge to the ML model using the Conceptual DFT based quantum chemical reactivity descriptors. Ashima was selected for the 3rd cohort of EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellowships. See more  information about Ashima and her project here and here. At VUB she is supervised by Frank De Proft and is part of the General Chemistry Research Group.
 
Hanh Tran
Project title: Physicochemical Characteristics and Neuroprotective Effects of Melanins and Melanin Derivatives from Calvatia Craniiformis and Xylaria sp.

Fungal melanins have remarkable bioactivities, but their practical applications are limited, partly due to their hydrophobic nature. Melanin modification with amino acids was reported to improve their water solubility. This talk presents the initial data on neuroprotective effects of melanins and melanin derivatives from selected fungal species against toxins linked to Parkinson’s disease. Hanh was selected for the 2nd cohort of EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellowships. See more information about Tran and her project here and here. At VUB she is supervised by Ann Van Eeckhout Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Drug Analysis and Drug Information, Center for Neurosciences - Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Jean-Guillaume Feignon
Project title: The Chicxulub impact structure and its ejecta: aggregation processes

The Chicxulub impact structure (~200-km in diameter) formed ca. 66 million years ago following the impact of a ~10-12 km asteroid on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). This impact event is well-known to have been a major cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction, including the non-avian dinosaurs. Recent studies on rock samples recovered within the Chicxulub peak ring have allowed a better understanding of the scenario of the impact. Meanwhile, the dynamics of the impact ejecta cloud formed during the impact are still not fully understood. This EUTOPIA-SIF postdoctoral project deals with the formation and emplacement mechanisms of particle aggregates (called “accretionary clasts”) that formed within the proximal impact ejecta (less than 600 km away from the crater), with an approach based on petrography, geochemistry, and volcanology. Several types of accretionary clasts were found in deposits from the Chicxulub ejecta, but also in ejecta deposits from other large impact structures on Earth, suggesting this process is relatively common. Some accretionary clasts are very similar to those found in explosive volcanic eruption deposits, indicating they formed following similar processes. Investigating these aggregates will allow a better understanding of the interaction between the impact ejecta cloud and atmosphere, and a better assessment of their potential effects on Earth’s climate following the impact.
Jean-Guillaume was selected for the 2nd cohort of EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellowships. See more information about Jean-Guillaume and his project here and here. At VUB he is supervised by Philippe Claeys and is part of the Planetary Science & Meteorite Research Group within the Archeology, Environmental Changes and Geo-Chemistry Research Group.

Special Joint Session (15-16 CET)

Formal greetings from EUTOPIA’s  presidents and vice-presidents on the occasion of the first EUTOPIA Day will be followed by a round-table discussion on sustainability and climate change, with distinguished experts from different universities.

Vangelis Pitidis, from the University of Warwick, will moderate the discussion. An expert himself, Pitidis is an Assistant Professor of Global Sustainable Development at IGSD, focusing on the intersection of urban resilience, governance and citizen science both in the Global North and in the Global South. His research is focused on urban resilience and its potential to transform the traditional pathways of urban governance delivery as well as in developing participatory methods for engaging local communities in disaster risk management, based on dialogical co-production methods.

15:00-15:15 CET: Live Streaming Opening

Leaders of EUTOPIA universities.

• Tiziana Lippiello, Rector of the Ca'Foscari University of Venice
• Daniel David, Rector of the Babes-Bolyai University
• Karin Vanderkerken, Vice-Rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• Luciana Radut-Gaghi, Vice-President of CY Cergy Paris University
• Ursula M. Staudinger, Rector of the Technische Universität Dresden
• Malin Broberg, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gothenburg
• Gregor Majdič, Rector of the University of Ljubljana
• João Sàágua, Rector of NOVA University Lisbon

15:15 – 16:00 Expert Debate in climate and sustainability

Wim Thiery (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Wim Thiery is a climate scientist with a keen interest in modeling extreme events amidst our changing climate. After completing his MSc degrees at KU Leuven in Philosophy (2008) and Terrestrial Ecosystems and Global Change (2011), he embarked on his journey as an FWO PhD fellow. From 2011 to 2015, he delved deep into the intricate relationship between climate and the African Great Lakes, utilizing regional climate models. His quest for knowledge took him to ETH Zürich from 2015 to 2018 as a postdoctoral researcher. Here, he examined both historical and futuristic impacts of irrigation on global climate extremes. At the age of 29, in 2017, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel recognized his potential and appointed him as a Research Professor. This new role paved the way for the establishment of the BCLIMATE Group under his leadership. Throughout his research journey, Thiery has traveled far and wide. He ventured on research exchanges to cities like Montreal, Berlin, and Zürich and led three field campaigns to Uganda, Rwanda, and DR Congo. One of his notable contributions during these trips was the installation of automated weather stations at Lake Kivu and Lake Victoria. Thiery's list of accomplishments includes authorship for the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (2019) and the Sixth Assessment Report (2021). His vast expertise encompasses areas like climate change, climate extremes, regional and global climate modeling, land-atmosphere interactions, land management, early storm warnings, energy meteorology, and modeling of global-scale climate effects. In 2017, Forbes magazine recognized his stellar contributions, inducting him into the "Forbes 30 under 30 Europe" list, which celebrates "Europe's brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators, and game changers".

Enrica, De Cian (Ca'Foscari University of Venice)

Enrica De Cian is full professor in Environmental Economics at Ca’ Foscari Unversity of Venice (Italy), former ERC Starting Grant grantee with the project ENERGYA – Energy use for Adaptation. In 2012 she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Outgoing Fellowship and she was a research scholar at the Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, US. She used to be a senior researcher at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and scientist at Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC Foundation). She has collaborated with several research organizations: between 2004 and 2005 she was research assistant at the climate change unit at CEPS in Brussels. Between 2005 and 2006 she was a visiting researcher at the Joint Programme on the Policy and the Science of Climate Change (JP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. In 2012 she visited the ZEW in Mannheim, where she worked on the joint FEEM-ZEW project, “Diffusion of Climate-Friendly Technologies – The Role of Intellectual Property Rights, Human Capital and Environmental Policy – Climtech”. She has been involved in several international projects. In particular, she has been the leader of the PECE project funded by United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) and the FEEM leader of the PATHWAYS project (EC, FP7). She has also contributed to the first Country Report “Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in Italy”, which analyzed different decarbonization scenarios in 2015 and she has been a member of the Steering Committee of the EMF28 study on scenarios for transforming the European Energy System.
Since 2007 she has been a lecturer in the PhD program Science and management of climate change at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Since 2014 she has been a lecturer in the Environmental Program Studies at Boston University Study Abroad Venice. She has published in the fields of climate change economics, integrated assessment modeling, energy economics, and environmental and resource economics.

Aniket Mitra (CY Cergy Paris University)

Dr. Aniket Mitra, a geology graduate from Presidency University, India has obtained his doctorate degree in 2023 by working on the “Effects of Eocene global events on marine bivalves from Kutch and Cambay basins of Gujarat, India”. His experience includes working as a research associate at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali. He is currently working as a Marie-Skolodowska Curie (EUTOPIA-SIF COFUND) post-doctoral fellow at GEC lab of CY Cergy Paris University under joint supervision of Prof. Béatrice Ledésert from CY-GEC and Prof. Philippe Claeys from VUB-AMGC. Invertebrate palaeontology with emphasis on molluscs, palaeobiogeography and stable isotope geochemistry are his forte. He tries to reconstruct palaeo-environment and climate from geo-chemical signatures of bulk sediment, calcium carbonate shells and morphological adaptations in Bivalvia. He is presently focusing on the Eocene epoch, roughly 40 million years ago, to understand how warming affected the morphology and diversification of bivalves during a global cooling phase. This research seeks to use ancient bivalves as a model to predict how modern warming might impact biodiversity under overall cooling scenarios.

Edeltraud Günther, UNU – Flores (Technische Universität Dresden)

Prof. Edeltraud Guenther is a globally recognised expert in environmental management and sustainability assessment.  She assumed the position of Director of United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES) in Dresden, Germany on 1 September 2018. Prof. Guenther’s research focusses on sustainability management, environmental accounting, and management control systems, with an emphasis on corporate responsibility, life cycle assessment, resilience, and sustainability assessment. As UNU-FLORES Director, Prof. Guenther is a vocal advocate for “Advancing the Resource Nexus”, which is also reflected in the Institute’s mission to create meaningful impact across the scientific landscape, and to champion the Resource Nexus as a vital scientific perspective. Prof. Guenther received her doctorate in Environmental Accounting from the University of Augsburg and has held the position of Chair of Business Management, Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting, at the Faculty of Business and Economics at Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) since 1996. She founded the Centre for Performance and Policy Research in Sustainability Measurement and Assessment (PRISMA) in 2016 and has acted as the Centre’s Chair since then. As an international authority on environmental resource management, Prof. Guenther has held Visiting Professorships at Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Kobe University, and University of Virginia. In addition to her involvement on the editorial boards for a variety of scientific journals, Prof. Guenther is Editor-in-Chief for the Sustainability Management Forum (2015), as well as subject editor of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2016). In her own work, Prof. Guenther most notably poses the question “How does it pay to be sustainable?” and is a proponent for promoting the financial benefits of sustainability; this is demonstrated through her significant publication record of over 200 journal articles, and her contributions to several book chapters. As part of strengthening the connections between UNU-FLORES and the wider United Nations network, Prof. Guenther was also one of the establishing Directors and the first Chair for UNU Water Network, which was initiated in 2019. In 2020, she was appointed UNU Senior Official for the Environmental Management Group (EMG).

Thomas Sterner (Gothenburg University)

Thomas Sterner is professor of environmental economics focused on the design of environmental policy instruments. On this subject, he has written a standard textbook that has appeared in several language editions (link to textbook). He teaches environmental economics at Chalmers. Recent research focuses on issues of acceptability of policy instruments, their distributional effects and ways of making efficient instruments such as taxes more acceptable by refunding or using revenues constructively. Although he still works on the economic theory of policy design and such overarching issues as fiscal reform, corporate environmental responsibility, circular economy, green growth, more and more attention is turned to actual interdisciplinary, empirical work. Currently he works on a range of issues from fishing and marine management to green bonds and green finance, radiation protection, biodiversity and ecosystem services, chemicals management, ambient air, transport and industrial applications. Still the largest focus is policy instruments to deal with climate change and other large scale environmental problems. During the last two decades he has built up the Environmental Economics Unit (EEU) at the University of Gothenburg, with a staff of about twenty researchers. For about two decades they gave a unique PhD program (with a large participation of graduate students from developing countries financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida). After graduating most of the PhDs join in the Environment for Development initiative (EfD) which does policy relevant research in developing countries. With Gunnar Köhlin, Thomas founded the Environment for Development Initiative. In 2021 Thomas was Knighted as Chevalier of the French Légion d’Honneur.

Luka Mladenovič (University of Ljubljana)

Luka Mladenovič is a research associate at Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and an assistant professor at Faculty of Architecture of the University in Ljubljana. He is active in the fields of sustainable urban mobility planning and integration of land use and transport planning, with a special focus on urban cycling and walking.He worked on several national and EU funded research projects related to urban mobility plans, mobility management plans, cycling and walking policies. Besides research, he was also involved in development and implementation of several regional and local urban mobility plans, mobility management plans for different public and private institutions and led several bike to work campaigns. He is a certified BYPAD auditor. He was a member of project team that developed European Cycle friendly employer scheme, which is now managed by European Cycling Federation. In 2023 he led the development process of Slovenian national cycling strategy. He is a co-author of Slovenian national guidelines for sustainable urban mobility plans and several other guidelines for experts, related to transport and urban planning. Since 2021 he is teaching Integration of Land Use and Transport planning at Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ljubljana.

Patrícia Fortes (NOVA University Lisbon)

Patrícia Fortes is an assistant researcher at NOVA University and the coordinator of the Energy and Climate research line at the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research (CENSE). Her research explores the transition of energy systems towards deep decarbonization, assessing the cost-effectiveness of technological shifts, the role of circular economy in climate mitigation, and the vulnerabilities and strategies for adapting energy systems to climate change. With extensive participation in EU-funded projects in energy and climate areas, she led NOVA School of Science and Technology's team in four initiatives. Additionally, Patrícia plays a crucial role in energy-climate policy, being responsible for the energy modeling work that supports the Portuguese Carbon Neutrality Roadmap 2050 and the National Energy-Climate Action Plan 2030.

 

On Campus Activities (10-19 CET)

 

10.00-15.00 CET: Roundtable and all-day event at the House of EU / Univerza v Ljubljani

Roundtable with UL experts and students on climate solutions: The Role of the UL in Shaping Climate Solutions for the Future.

Presentations of EUTOPIA activities which have a strong focus on  climate changes and sustainability: Connected Communities, Ideas Club, Discovery Week Heckathon.  

Presentations of student projects on climate changes and sustainability (internal UL call)  

Open to all UL students and staff.

10h – 19h CET: EUTOPIA Day live audience at the VUB

Join the EUTOPIA Day live audience on VUB’s campus Etterbeek! 

VUB unites to celebrate EUTOPIA Day, and will broadcast all sessions organized by the EUTOPIA partner universities in building I room 105 (see detailed campus plan here>>> ) Register your onsite attendance for your choice of sessions  here>>> 

Open to all 

11h45 - 14h CET: EUTOPIA-themed lunch at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel

EUTOPIA-themed lunch menu at the VUB restaurant 
Open to all VUB restaurant visitors!

12h- 13-30h CET: Conference on Climate Change at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra

EUTOPIA DAY at UPF: Conference on Climate Change given by an expert in the field (Antonio Turiel), moderated by a UPF Professor (Núria Almiron) with the participation of some UPF students involved in the Ideas Club initiative (also on Climate Change) 

Open session aimed at staff and students interested in Climate Change issues and /or involved in EUTOPIA (hybrid format) 

13:30-15:00 CET: Presentation of TUD’s Initiatives on sustainable Campus

Challenges of sustainability and Climate change: what can the EUTOPIA University Alliance contribute to local initiatives  

Presentation of TUD’s Initiatives on sustainable Campus 

Discussion on synergies of action in a European network 

 TUUWi; TUD Green Office 

Information on EUTOPIA Initiatives on Climate change and sustainability – Ideas Club – Innovation Challenges – presentations by TUD students’ participating in EUTOPIA activities 

Open to all TUD students and staff

15:00 PM CET: Hybrid Lecture at Babes-Bolyai University

Hybrid Lecture: Dr. Mihai Pușcaș: High mountain ecosystems in a changing world: insights from the Carpathians 
Open to all students, academics, scientists, staff 

16:00-17:00 CET: Afterwork drink at Technische Universität Dresden

Afterwork drink for all staff/students actively involved in EUTOPIA 

By good weather on the terrace behind the FOE-Building 

On invitation

16h30 – 19h00  CET: Spring afterwork drink at Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Spring afterwork drink for all staff/students actively involved in EUTOPIA throughout this academic year 

Open to all staff/students actively involved in EUTOPIA throughout this academic year – Invitation only 

16- 18h30 CET: AW drinks at Gothenburg University 

We invite all people involved in EUTOPIA at GU for AW drinks and (climate friendly / vegetarian EUTOPIA snacks/ finger foods)!

Open to all staff and students involved in or interested in EUTOPIA at GU.

18:00 CET: Student Career Ambassador Workshop at Technische Universität Dresden

Student Career Ambassador Workshop.
Open to all students

18:00-19:30 (CET) Facilitated Serious Games and Climate Change Event at the University of Warwick

 Facilitated Serious Games and Climate Change Event (coordinated and led by Institute for Global Sustainable Development) 

EUTOPIAn Networking and Pizza – supporting community-building (also to learn about engagement in recent climate change focused events, including Ideas Club, Hackathon, and EUTOPIA-supported intitiatives including co-tutelles) 

In person for up to 25-30 attendees.