Programme ENLIGHT Kick-off week (1-5 March 2021): register now!

During this session Laüra Hoskins, University of Bordeaux, will showcase a small virtual exchange initiative set up by the Espace Langues, a centre for​ language learning and intercultural exchange at the University of Bordeaux. ENLIVE (ENLIGHT Network​ Language and Intercultural Virtual Exchange) will be running for the first time from February to March 2021.​ Over this period, students from across the ENLIGHT network will meet regularly to exchange on a range of current​ issues like gender and education or science denial and anti-science movements. Supported by Espace Langues​ facilitators, students will build relationships and together design and deliver a social media campaign. ​

The session will be an opportunity to discuss possibilities for virtual exchange across the network, as part of​ formal and informal curricula. Its potential role with regard to mobility and seeding collaboration will also be​ explored. Participants will be invited to exchange informally with the Espace Langues and virtual experts from the​ ENLIGHT network. ​

Digitalisation ​

13h00-13h40 CET

• introduction by Ramin Yahyapour (moderator), University of Göttingen and University Medical Centre Göttingen/GWDG, Göttingen
• 'Digital Eco-Systems & Health: How can IT enlight ways to a healthier life’, by Robert Krimmer, Prof. of e-governance & ERA Chair, University of Tartu ‘Impact of Digitalisation’ (+ Q&A)​

Health and Well-being​

13h45-14h30 CET: ‘The Impact of the Corona Crisis on Public Health Research in the coming 2 to 5 years’​

• introduction by Jochen Mierau, Scientific Director at the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health University of Groningen​
• pitches by Valentina Gallo, Associate Professor in Epidemiology & Sustainable Health, Campus Fryslan, University of Groningen; Sebastian Vollmer, University of Göttingen; Irja Lutsar, Head of the department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Tartu; Rodolphe Thiébaut, Director of the Department of Research in Public Health at the university of Bordeaux
• Discussion

Round-table​ discussion between the ENLIGHT Rectors and the ENLIGHT External Advisors​

Theme: ‘Shaping communities – How can universities contribute to local and regional challenges?’​

Introduction by Stéphanie Debette, Vice-President for External Relations, University of Bordeaux, Chair of the ENLIGHT Board of Directors

Table 1 - 17h30-18h: Learning and Teaching – moderator: Elmer Sterken, Advisor to the Board, University of Groningen​

Rik Van de Walle, Rector Ghent University – Eva Ferreira, Rector University of the Basque Country - Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, repr. for President University of Göttingen – Elisabeth Dahlin, Ombudsman for Children in Sweden – Betty Leask, Em. Prof. Boston College/La Trobe University​

Table 2 - 18h-18h30: Research – moderator: Becky Whay, Vice-President International, National University of Ireland, Galway

Marek Števček, Rector Comenius University Bratislava – Anders Hagfeldt, Vice-Chancellor Uppsala University – Cisca Wijmenga, University of Groningen – Irina Bokova, former Director General of UNESCO – David Donoghue, former Irish Ambassador to the UN ​

Table 3 - 18h30-19h: International Cooperation – moderator: Erika Dabhilkar, Director for Internationalisation, Uppsala University

Manuel Tunon de Lara, President University of Bordeaux – Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, President National University of Ireland, Galway – Toomas Asser, Rectors University of Tartu - Herman Van Rompuy, President-Emeritus European Council - Monika Froehler, CEO Ban-Ki-Moon Centre​ for Global Citizens

• Welcome and introduction​ by Sake Jager, Project Manager Virtual Exchange, University of Groningen​
• 'The New Normality: an interdisciplinary virtual exchange in times of Covid-19', by Cristina Pascual Aibar and Gerdientje Oggel, lecturers in Spanish Proficiency, European Languages and Cultures, University of Groningen​
• 'Dialogues on World Literature in the Virtual International and Intercultural Classroom', by​ Petra Broomans, European Languages and Cultures (University of Groningen) and Department of Literary Studies (Ghent University)​
• Q&A

• Introduction by Jamie Goggins, Professor and Director of Research and Innovation in the School of Engineering at NUI Galway (moderator)
• Keynote by Veronica Manfredi, Director Quality of Life, DG Environment, European Commission​
• ‘Circular economy as a key concept within the transition to a low-carbon and resource-efficient economy', by Guido Sonnemann, Full Professor in Sustainable Chemistry, Head of The Life Cycle Group CyVi, Institute of Molecular Sciences, University of Bordeaux​
• 'Climatic feedbacks. Is there any connection between tourism-led land use changes in the Mediterranean and extreme rainfall events in Central Europe?' by Estibaliz Saez de Cámara, Professor Environmental Technologies, University of the Basque Country
• Discussion and Q&A

Each year the ENLIGHT Student Network will work on a specific theme that is of major importance to students. This year the Student Network will focus on the theme of ‘Inclusivity’ and embark on the ENLIGHT adventure with a Pub Quiz, followed by an interactive debate concerning the year theme. The event is open to all students from the ENLIGHT universities.

The Pub Quiz will consist of all kinds of questions to assess your knowledge about our different universities, cities, regions, and cultures, and will also address specific initiatives that stimulate inclusivity and much more. Winning teams can get very nice prizes and giveaways!

After the Pub Quiz the Student Network invites you to discuss about what you think ENLIGHT could mean to you, what inclusivity means, and how we can work together on inclusivity in our universities. It is an opportunity to get to know the work of the ENLIGHT Student Network and to be part of it and share your thoughts and visions! See you there!

• Welcome and introduction, by Ariane Willems, University of Göttingen and Igor Campillo, University of the Basque Country​
• Keynote: 'Overview of principles, methods and examples of impact measurements', by Yves Ducq, University of Bordeaux​
• Practical example: 'Monitoring higher education in Ghent University', by Maya Caen and Jeroen Huisman, Ghent University​
• Wrap up and conclusions

During the ENLIGHT kick-off, we invite you to experience how the ‘Innovation Day’ concept of EIT Health combines challenge-driven education with soft skills recognition through collaboration with the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project SkillMill. Join us in an interdisciplinary learning experience, practicing applying design thinking to real-life challenges. ​

Innovation Days ​

Lina Sors Emilsson presents the Innovation Day concept. The concept, developed by EIT Health, that lets you join one-day design jams that combine training in design thinking with design challenges provided by real-world actors for change. Work interdisciplinary with fellow students across faculty boundaries to train your innovation-, problem solving- and pitching skills. The Design Challenges during spring 2021 are provided by the international Erasmus+ SkillMill project. 

SkillMill ​

Bring your hidden skills to light. While schooling provides us with knowledge, the ever-changing world around us is constantly challenging us to improvise, adapt and overcome. This is world-class soft skills training, but how do we track this training - and are we even aware of it? SkillMill's expert group of career counselors, psychologists, and game designers want to solve this challenge through design and innovation. Your daily life gives you the training – we build the SkillMill app that provides the reflection and tracking. But can such an app even be made? Maybe it can – with your help. See you at the Innovation Days 2021! Presented by Björn Nyström.

• Introduction by Piet Van Avermaet, Professor in the Dept. of Linguistics, Head of the Centre for Diversity and Learning, Ghent University​ (moderator)
• Keynote 'Engaging Global Citizens to Achieve the SDGs' by Monika Froehler, CEO Ban Ki-Moon Centre​ for Global Citizens
• ‘Evidence-based approach to equity, inclusion and diversity at nine European universities’, by Prof. Andrej Findor, Associate Professor and acting Director of Institute of European Studies and International Relations, Institute of European Studies, Comenius University Bratislava​
• 'Approaches to Equality: Mainstreaming or Intersectionality?' by Nata Duvvury, Dr., Senior Lecturer and Director, Centre for Global Women’s Studies and Co-Leader of Gender and Public Policy Cluster in the Whitaker Institute at National University of Ireland, Galway
• Discussion and Q&A

In connection with Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, the National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) will host a one-hour free online series of culture-based events. ​

Featuring a panel discussion and two short theatre performances, the programme will reflect on how we adapt to societal shocks, particularly relevant to the arts and cultural sector in 2020 and 2021, as we live through a global pandemic. ​

Sacrificial Wind and Imperceptible theatre excerpts will be streamed live along with a round table discussion entitled, ‘The university and the creative and cultural professions: intersections and ways forward’, which will feature a panel of speakers from Galway's most well respected local, national and internationally acclaimed arts and cultural organsiations. 

'Cultural Intersections' has been programmed by Professor Patrick Lonergan and Dr. Charlotte McIvor from Drama and Theatre Studies, NUI Galway.

Panel discussion - 'The University and the creative and cultural professions: intersections and ways forward' (17h30-18h30 CET)

• John Crumlish, Managing Director, CEO, Galway International Arts Festival - www.giaf.ie.
• Mairead Ni Chroinin, Druid Theatre Artist in Residence at NUI Galway and Co-Director of Moonfish Theatre Company - www.druid.ie and www.moonfishtheatre.com.
• Ulla Hokanen, Executive Creative Director, Galway Community Circus - www.galwaycommunitycircus.com.
• Jeremie Cyr-Cook, performer and choreographer who is completing a practice-based PhD at NUI Galway.
• Alison Greene, Graduate NUI Galway active in the arts and heritage industries.

Viewing of 'Sacrificial Wind Revival' (in memory of Mary McPartlan) ​(18h30-19h30 CET)

Written by Lorna Shaughnessy ​
Directed by Max Hafler ​
Lorna Shaughnessy's poetic examination of the characters around the story of the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father Agamemnon asks big questions about war, patriarchy, and society. Mary McPartlan, the late founder and Artistic Director of NUI Galway's Arts in Action programme, commissioned Shaughnessy and Hafler to produce it as a world premiere in 2017 for Arts in Action. ​

Viewing of 'Imperceptible' (19h30-20h30 CET)

Imperceptible is performed and devised by Jérémie Cyr-Cooke and is adapted from the short horror story Le Horla by Guy de Maupassant. Imperceptible is a devised work of virtuosic and exciting physical theatre following a man's slow decent into madness after being visited by what he believes to be a supernatural creature.

• Introduction by Lokesh Joshi, National University of Ireland, Galway (moderation)​
• Welcome address by Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, President NUI Galway and Anders Hagfeldt, Rektor, Uppsala University
• Keynotes by Tomás Ó Síocháin, CEO Ireland's Western Development Commission; Christian Dahlmann, Head of external relations at the City of Uppsala; Alo Lilles, Head of Business Development at the City of Tartu; and Céline Papin, Deputy Mayor in charge of territorial, European and international cooperation, Bordeaux City
• Panel Discussion and Q&A

• introduction by Hilde Van Puyenbroeck, Head of Quality Assurance Office and Annelies Huysentruyt, Educational Developer Quality Assurance Office, Ghent University (moderators)
• 'Using serious gaming as the backbone for the innovation & entrepreneurship journey', by Frank Gielen, Professor of software technology entrepreneurship Ghent University, Executive Board Member & Education Director EIT InnoEnergy 
• Q&A

• Introduction by Peter-Tobias Stoll, Jean Monnet Chair for European Union and Global Sustainable Development through Law, Professor for Public and Public International Law, University of Göttingen (moderator)
• Keynote by Irina Bokova, Former Director General of UNESCO
• ‘Challenge-based teaching: What, why and how?’ by Leif Östman (Uppsala University) and Katrien Van Poeck (Ghent University) ​
• Discussion and Q&A

• Review of the Kick-off Week by Stéphanie Debette, Vice President External Relations, University of Bordeaux, Chair of the ENLIGHT Board of Directors
• 'What can ENLIGHT do for you?', preview by Guido Van Huylenbroeck, Director for Internationlisation, ENLIGHT Project Coordinator
• Concluding speech, Eva Ferreira, Rector of the University of the Basque Country
• Closing event

{slider 15h30 - 16h30 CET work session: ENLIGHT External Advisory Board (closed)}

During the kick-off week there is a virtual coffee house open between 10.00 and 16.00 (CET). It is hosted by students at Uppsala University in the software Gather Town. We hope to create that special coffee room atmosphere where participants are welcome to get to know each other in an informal way as well as meet and discuss specifics of Enlight. All you need to do is to enter the coffee room (no need to create an account). Once you enter you will see our joint coffee space. There is also a poster introducing you to how to navigate in the space and make contact with your colleagues. Of course you may also ask the host on duty.

Link to the ENLIGHT Coffee House: https://gather.town/app/JpwpYXSNEbNtXpMo/ENLIGHT%20Coffee%20House

For all participants General message board is available through Padlet to post questions, comments, suggestions and to network. The board will be managed by Uppsala University staff, who will dispatch your questions to the right ENLIGHT colleague. 

Cristina Pascual Aibar is a lecturer of Spanish Proficiency at the Department of European Languages and Cultures (ELC) at the University of Groningen. As of recently, she is also one of the daily coordinators of the Spanish Language Learning Team. Next to this, she is a member of the ELC Program Committee.
In the academic year 2019-2020, she was involved in a Virtual Exchange project as a teacher, and in the fall semester of 2021 she has carried out a Virtual Exchange with the University of Valencia in cooperation with other lectures at the University of Groningen.

Cristina Pascual Aibar will present a best practice in Virtual Exchange (ENVOIE project) during the Showcase session on Wed 3rd of March, 12h00-13h00 CET

Toomas Asser is Rector of the University of Tartu, Professor of Neurosurgery and Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.

Before the current position as a Rector (2018–) Toomas Asser was the Head of Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery (1996–2018) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (2000–2009).

Toomas Asser will participate in the Round-table session (Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET).

{slider Irina Bokova, Former Director General of UNESCO}

Irina Bokova, born in Sofia (Bulgaria), has been two terms the Director-General of UNESCO from 2009 to 2017. She is the first woman to lead the Organisation.

Having graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Irina Bokova was a Fellow at the University of Maryland, Washington, and followed an executive program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Before being elected as Director General of UNESCO, from 2005 to 2009 Irina Bokova was Ambassador of Bulgaria to France, Monaco and UNESCO and Personal Representative of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

As Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova was actively engaged in the UN efforts to adopt Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, particularly Goal 4 on “Inclusive and equitable quality education and life-long learning for all », gender equality, the protection of the world’s cultural heritage.

Irina Bokova has received state distinctions from 30 countries across the world and is Doctor Honoris Causa of more than 40 Universities across the world. Irina Bokova was on the Forbes List of the world's most influential women for 2016. In 2020 she was elected International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

As a member of the ENLIGHT External Advisory Board Irina Bokova will participate in the Round-table session (Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET) and will give a keynote lecture during the Flagship lecture session 'Empowering Learners' of Fri 5th of March, 13h00-14h30.

Petra Broomans is associate professor with ius promovendi of European Languages and Cultures (University of Groningen) and visiting professor at Ghent University. Appointed honorary doctor at Uppsala University in 2020, she is the coordinator of the U4Society network in Cultural Transfer Research. Member (Treasurer) of Committee of The International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM).

Together with colleagues at the University of Uppsala (Sweden) and the Sichuan University (Chengdu. China) she started in 2017 a collaboration project on world literature, cultural transfer and translation. The project presents challenges and opportunities for learned societies in the Humanities, especially within the disciplines of literary studies and digital humanities. By supervising and reading the students’ work, the staff members got new insights into students’ ways of working and learning in other cultures. In the evaluations of the students this was also an important outcome: learning from other students about the other culture, but also about getting aware of one’s own culture.

Petra Broomas will present a best practice in Virtual Exchange (ENVOIE project) during the Showcase session on Wed 3rd of March, 12h00-13h00 CET

Maya Caen graduated in 2002 at Ghent University (Master in Sociology) and received a PhD in Sociology in 2009 (also at Ghent University). Her PhD research was about cultural lifestyles with a strong methodological perspective about the use of indicators to measure lifestyles. While working on her PhD she was involved at the department of Sociology as teaching assistant, with a focus on statistics, methodology and evaluation research.
After finishing her PhD she embarked on an large interdisciplinary research on sexual behavior in Flanders (‘Sexpert’). She was responsible for the data management and survey methodology (2009-2013).
In D2013 Maya Caen started working at the Department of Educational Policy at Ghent University as a policy advisor with a focus on/responsible for data management and monitoring.

Together with Jeroen Huisman, Maya Caen will present a practical example: 'Monitoring higher education in Ghent University during the session 'ENLIGHT Impact' on Thu 4th of March (10h00-11h00 CET). 

Igor Campillo has a PhD in Physics from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and a Master in Journalism and science communication from the Spanish Open University. He worked as assistant professor in the Faculty of Sciences of the UPV / EHU, as international projects manager in Gamesa Energy, as researcher and project manager at LABEIN-Tecnalia, as projects and outreach manager in the Nanoscience Cooperative Research Center - nanoGUNE, as manager of the nanoBasque Strategy in the Basque Business Development Agency - SPRI, and as director of the Technological Institute of the University of Deusto - DeustoTech.

Igor Campillo is currently director of Euskampus Fundazioa, created by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Tecnalia Corporation and the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC). Euskampus Fundazioa is a catalyser for interdisciplinary and multi-agent collaboration in higher education, research and innovation in the Basque and Nouvelle Aquitaine territories, and internationally.

Igor Campillo will lead the session 'ENLIGHT Impact' on Thu 4th of March (10h00-11h00 CET). 

Hiltraud Casper-Hehne is Vice President for International Affairs of the University of Göttingen as well as Professor in the Department of Intercultural German Studies. She currently serves as a member of the Board of the German Academic Exchange Service, as member of the “Language Advisory Board” of the Goethe Institute and as chair of the Advisory Board of the Academic Confucius Institute Göttingen. Her work experience encompasses internationalization of institutions, research as well as teaching and learning and intercultural communication. She developed many local, regional, national and international activities on internationalization, such as a general strategy for internationalization at home or for international cooperation in education (internationalization of teachers’ education, internationalization and digitalization of curricula, welcome services, integration strategy for migrants/refugees etc.) and has published many papers on internationalization at home and on intercultural studies. She is the recipient of an Honorary Professorship of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, and is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Nanjing University, China.

She have held a variety of positions focusing on international higher education cooperation in research and teaching as well as strategy development: Member of the Ad-hoc Expert Group “European Universities” of the EU-Commission, member of the HERA-Board (Humanities in the European Research Area), member of the Executive Board of the European University Network COIMBRA, chair of the Association of German as a Foreign Language and chair of the Advisory Board of the German Ministry of Science and Education on developing a China-Strategy.

Hiltraud Casper-Hehne will particpate the opening session on Mo 1st of March 17h30 - 19h00 CET and take part in the Round-table session on Tue 2nd of March 17h30 - 19h00 CET. 

Erika Dabhilkar is Director of the Division for Internationalisation at Uppsala University, Sweden’s oldest university and one of the top 100 in the world. Her international higher education career path started back in 1998, after completing her undergraduate degree in communication studies, taking a position as international coordinator at the Office of International Relations at her Alma Mater. Following this introduction to the field, she spent 10 years working at Scandinavia’s leading recruitment agent for higher education in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA, where she managed the Swedish operations. She has held her current position at Uppsala since 2012, where her expertise is in operationalising the university’s international strategy through the infrastructure of a modern “international office”. Her responsibilities include management and implementation of mobility schemes, international student recruitment support as well as externally funded global engagement projects.

Erika Dabhilkar will moderate during the round-table session on Tue 2nd of March 17h30-19h00 CET.

image credit: Magnus Strandberg

Elisabeth Dahlin is the Ombudsman for Children in Sweden and vice chair since 5 years of Uppsala University. She is an alumnae of Uppsala and has a MA from the University of Hanoi.
She has served as Secretary General of the National Council of Youth, in Sida as responsible for Humanitarian Support to and in South Africa during apartheid, and as carreer diplomat in the Swedish Embassies in Zambia, Brazil and Vietnam. In Sweden she has served as deputy Director General at the National Board of Trade and was appointed Ambassador for Sustainability and headed the government body Global Responsibility in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. And in that capacity she represented Sweden in the UN Global Compact. She has also served as Secretary General (CEO) of Save the Children Sweden and as chair of the Board of the UN Global Partnership End Violence. In 2018 she was appointed Ombudsman for Children heading the government agency on child rights.
Ms Dahlin has been a guest lecturer in academic circles, including MIT Vietnam, the Harvard programme in Vietnam, and the Tsinghua univerity in Beijing. She is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portoguese and Vietnamese.Married with three children.

As a member of the ENLIGHT External Advisory Board Elisabth Dahlin will participate in the Round-table session (Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET).

Christian Dahlmann is head of external relations at the City of Uppsala, Sweden. He is an Political Scientist with an Masters Degree in European Affairs from the University of Lund, Sweden and Science Po Bordeaux, France. Previous work-experiences includes positions at Stockholm Region EU office in Brussels and at the international department in the City of Stockholm.

Christian Dahlmann will give a keynote presentation during the session 'Communities and Universities: Sharing the journey to shape the future' on Fri 5th of March, 10h00-12h00 CET.

Stéphanie Debette, MD PhD, is Vice-President for External Relations at the University of Bordeaux (UB), Professor of Epidemiology at UB-INSERM Bordeaux Population Health research center and a practicing Neurologist at Bordeaux University Hospital. She has been leading large collaborative genomic and epidemiological studies on stroke, dementia and imaging markers of brain aging (> 200 peer-reviewed articles), aiming to decipher the biological mechanisms underlying brain aging and to improve prevention and treatment of stroke and dementia. Prof. Debette leads a European Research Council grant and is principal investigator of national investment for the future and European grants. She has been awarded the Claude Pompidou Foundation prize for dementia research and the scientific excellence award of the European Stroke Organization. A former Fulbright fellow and adjunct associate professor at Boston University, she was a visiting professor at Kyoto University. As Vice-President, she has been involved in reinforcing strategic partnerships of UB, strengthening the participation of UB in international initiatives addressing global societal challenges, and building new collaborative networks in Europe. She currently serves as chair of the Board of Directors of the ENLIGHT European University Alliance.

Stéphanie Debette will give a review of the ENLIGHT kick-off week during the Closing session on Fri 5th of March, 14h30-15h00 CET. 

Former senior Irish diplomat. Ambassador Donoghue served at different times as the Irish Ambassador to Russia, Austria and Germany. From 2001-4 he was the Director General of Ireland’s development co-operation programme, today known as Irish Aid, and oversaw in this capacity a programme growing significantly in budget allocation and thematic and geographic range. He also served as Political Director from 2009-13, a post which gave him responsibility for Ireland’s overall foreign policy.

From 2013-17 Ambassador Donoghue was the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in New York. At the request of the President of the General Assembly, he served as co-facilitator (with Kenya) for the UN negotiations which led to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. He also served as co-facilitator (with Jordan) for the negotiations which produced the New York Declaration on large movements of refugees and migrants, adopted at a special summit in September 2016.

Ambassador Donoghue retired from the Irish foreign service in September 2017.  He is actively involved in the processes arising from the New York Declaration which will give rise, respectively, to a Global Compact on Refugees and a Global Compact on Migrants, each of which will be completed in the autumn of 2018.   He is contributing to the work of a number of think-tanks and academic institutions on these issues and also on the challenges associated with implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

As a member of the ENLIGHT External Advisory Board David Donoghue will participate in the Round-table session (Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET).

Dr. Nata Duvvury is Senior Lecturer and Director, Centre for Global Women’s Studies and Co-Leader of Gender and Public Policy Cluster in the Whitaker Institute at National University of Ireland, Galway. Dr Nata Duvvury is an international development expert with more than 25 years of experience in gender, development and empowerment. Her work includes research and advocacy on gender-based violence, women’s property rights, and HIV and AIDS in a variety of settings including conflict and post-conflict contexts. She is a recognised global expert and leading advocate on gender equality and has worked closely with both multilateral organisations such as UN Women, UNFPA, WHO and World Bank as well as directly with multiple governments in the Global South.

Nata Duvvury will give a lecture, entitled 'Approaches to Equality: Mainstreaming or Intersectionality?' during the Flagship lecture session of Thu 4th of March, 13h00-14h30. 

Lina Sors Emilsson is a geneticist trained in neurobiology that between 2000 and 2016 was active as a researcher and lecturer at Uppsala University (UU) in the fields of molecular and cellular cognition. From 2015 Lina worked part time at UU and part time in the private sector with technology transfer, focusing on rehabilitation robotics, biosensors and AI systems for health and wellbeing. An engagement that stem from her conviction that technology most meet biology, and not the other way around, to be a valuable tool for humans and our society. 2017 this engagement enabled her to apply to and accept a senior lectureship in innovation, entrepreneurship and technology at UU, while continuing her activities in the private sector. Since 2019 Lina holds a full-time senior project lead position at Upptech, a technology transfer investment at UUs Faculty of Science and Technology. At Upptech her assignment is to build two-way bridges between the private/public sector and all technology related education and research activities at the university.

Lina Sors Emilsson will present the Innovation Days concept during the Showcase session of Thu 4th of March, 12h00-13h00 CET.

Eva Ferreira holds a Bachelor in Mathematics of the University of the Basque Country, fulfilled a Master’s degree in Probability and Statistics at the Courant Institute (New York University), and returned to the University of the Basque Country to complete her doctorate in Economics.

During her career, Eva Ferreira gained solid experience in the research field, directed a number of doctoral theses, and supervised multiple research projects. She has extensively published in the most prestigious academic journals. Her teaching activity includes a long experience in graduate studies. She promoted and directed both a Master´s and a Doctorate programme in Quantitative Finance, which is ranked among the best in Europe.

Eva Ferreira held several positions at the Governing Board of the University of the Basque Country, such as Vice-rector for economic affairs and academic programs from 2004 to 2008, and as General Secretary between 2009 and 2012. In 2015 she became managing director of Unibasq, the certified Quality Agency for the Basque University System, remaining in place until 2019.

Eva Ferreira will take part in the Round-table session on Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET, and speak during the Closing session on Fri 5th of March, 14h30-15h00 CET.

Prof. Andrej Findor is an Associate Professor and acting Director of Institute of European Studies and International Relations, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava. He studied politics at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia and at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

His research interests include moral judgment and its relation to political attitudes, interventions aimed at reducing stereotypes, prejudice and discriminatory behaviour against stigmatised out-groups groups (the Roma, refugees, LGBTI people), stereotypes about ethnic minorities in Slovakia, immigration preferences, and impact of immigrant labels (e.g. refugees, migrants, foreigners) on attitudes and behaviours, and persuasive communication for positive social change.

He leads research projects funded by European Commission's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme, Slovak Research and Development Agency, and Open Society Foundations and collaborates on applied and advocacy research projects with non-governmental organizations in Slovakia (Milan Šimečka Foundation, Mareena, Inakosť) and in the United States (Over Zero).

Andrej Findor will give a lecture, entitled 'Evidence-based approach to equity, inclusion and diversity at nine European universities’ during the Flagship lecture session of Thu 4th of March, 13h00-14h30. 

Monika Froehler is CEO of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens and is a passionate change maker, advocate, founder and speaker. She was entrusted to create the BKMC after working at the UN in Geneva, NY and Vienna, the EU, the Austrian Foreign Ministry and in field missions around the globe. She is passionate about the implementation of the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement.

Throughout her career she managed to support hundreds of women, young people and communities all over the globe e.g. working in Africa and Latin America to ban landmines; working to improve hospital care in rural Central Asia and Africa; assisting in eco-friendly city planning in Asia and bettering the living conditions of women in the Middle East and West-Africa.

As a member of the ENLIGHT External Advisory Board Monika Froehler will participate in the Round-table session (Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET) and will give a keynote lecture, etitled 'Engaging Global Citizens to Achieve the SDGs' during the Flagship lecture session of Thu 4th of March, 13h00-14h30.

Mariya Gabriel is the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, Youth and Sport. Under her leadership, the new Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, and the cultural strand of Creative Europe programmes (2021-2027) will be implemented.

Between 2017 and 2019, Mariya Gabriel was Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. She was elected Member of the EP in 2009, 2014 and 2019. She is First Vice-President of the EPP, and since 2012 Vice-President of EPP Women.

Mariya Gabriel will speak during the opening session (Mo 1st of March, 17h30-18h30 CET).

Valentina Gallo is a Rosalind Franklin Fellow and Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Sustainable Health at Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen where she leads the Sustainable Health flagship. She trained in Medicine and Surgery first and Clinical Neurology after, at University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy). Valentina gained an MSc in Demography and Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in 2004, and a PhD in Clinical and Experimental Neurology at the University of Rome La Sapienza in 2010. Valentina moved in 2006 to London (United Kingdom). She has firstly worked as Research Assistant of Prof Paolo Vineis at the department of Epidemiology and Public Health of Imperial College London (ICL). Then she was then appointed Clinical Lecturer in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine working on the C8 Health project with Dr Tony Fletcher. Finally she was appointed Lecturer first and Senior Lecturer then at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

During her academic career Valentina gained considerable experience in both teaching and research. Valentina was awarded several research grants, including the HEalth and Ageing Data IN the Game of football (HEADING) Study and the BRain health and health AgeINg in retired rugby players (BRAIN) study by the Drake Foundation as a co-Principal Investigator. In total, she obtained the equivalent of £1.3M research funds. Valentina’s research is focused on the epidemiology of neurological disease, molecular and environmental epidemiology. She has worked with large cohort consortia such as the European Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, and she has set up new studies such the BRAIN and HEADING studies.

Valentina Gallo will give a pitch on 'Health and Well-being' during the Flagship lecture session of Tue 2nd of March, 13h00-14h30

Prof. Dr.ir. Frank Gielen has extensive experience with R&D in the telecommunication and software technology sector as well as in raising venture capital, university-industry collaborative research and spin-off creation. He held a number of technical and management positions in the software industry. He started as a software architect with AT&T Bell Labs in the USA and was director of software technology at Alcatel. In 1998 he joined Tellium, a US based start up company in optical network technology, as the VP of Software Engineering. Tellium had a successful IPO on NASDAQ in 2001. He returned to Europe in 2001 as the CEO for Tellium EMEA.

Today Frank Gielen is professor of software technology entrepreneurship at Ghent University. In 2010 his was appointed Director of the Incubation & Entrepreneurship at iMindsIMEC, the leading digital incubator and business accelerator in Flanders. The iStart incubation program of iMinds/IMEC is still ranked in the top of UBI’s global ranking of university accelerators. Frank was head of the EIT Digital Professional School leading the innovation of professional development and executive education for companies, organisations and individuals going through a digital transformation. Since January 2017, he is the director of education at EIT InnoEnergy creating the human capital for the EU Green Deal and the sustainable energy transition.

Frank Gielen will present 'Using serious gaming as the backbone for the innovation & entrepreneurship journey' during the Showcase session on Fri 5th of March, 12h00-13h00 CET.

Prof. Jamie Goggins is an Established Professor and Director of Research and Innovation in the School of Engineering at NUI Galway. He is a Chartered Engineer with more than 20 years’ of experience in consultancy, construction, expert advisory work and research. His core expertise is in developing sustainable and resilient structures for buildings and energy infrastructure. He is author/co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. He serves on the Board of Directors (and former Chair and President) of the Civil Engineering Research Association of Ireland and served on Council of Engineers Ireland (2016-20).

Currently, Jamie Goggins is the Chair of the Community University Sustainability Partnership (CUSP) board in NUI Galway, who developed the first two Sustainability Strategies for NUI Galway in 2017 and 2020, following a comprehensive and inclusive engagement process with the campus community.

Jamie Goggings will moderate the Flagship lecture session of Wed 3rd of March, 13h00-14h30 on Circular Economy and Climate Change. 

Anders Hagfeldt is Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University. A physical chemist, he obtained his PhD from Uppsala University in 1993 and is a specialist in the field of solar energy conversion. His research has established him as an international leader in the fields of dye-sensitised solar cells, perovskite solar cells and solar fuels.
Hagfeldt became Professor of Chemical Physics at Uppsala University in 2004 and Professor of Physical Chemistry in 2007. He has served as head of department and dean of chemistry at Uppsala University. From 2014 to 2020, Hagfeldt was Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and Director of the Laboratory for Photomolecular Science. He has held visiting professorships at numerous universities, including Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Sungkyankwan University, Korea; Université Paris Diderot; Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), Barcelona, Spain; Alagappa University, India; King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia; and Dalian University of Technology, China. He is a fellow of four academies: the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala, and European Academy of Sciences. He holds an honorary doctorate from Université Paris Diderot, France.
Hagfeldt chaired the Committee for Development Research at the Swedish Research Council, 2013–2019. He is co-founder and board member of the company Dyenamo AB, Stockholm, Sweden.
Times Higher Education ranked Hagfeldt as number 46 in the top 100 material scientists during 2000–2010, and he was among the top 1% cited chemists in the Times Higher Education ranking for 2014–2020. In scientific outreach, he gives regular popular science lectures on topics ranging from solar cells to alchemistry.

Anders Hagfeldt will participate in the Round-table session (Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET).

Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh was appointed President of NUI Galway in January 2018.
Born in Dublin, he was brought up in an Irish-speaking home in Galway city and attended Scoil Iognáid and Coláiste Iognáid. Professor Ó hÓgartaigh is a first-class honours, first-in-class BComm graduate of NUI Galway. He trained as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen (Dublin) and holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Leeds, UK.
Prior to his appointment at NUI Galway, Ciarán served as Principal and Dean of UCD College of Business, leading its schools in Dublin (UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and UCD Smurfit Executive Development) and its overseas programmes in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Ciarán has also worked in academic leadership roles in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and in Dublin City University.
Ciarán has published widely on financial reporting and on accounting history in international peer-reviewed publications and is a former Fulbright scholar at Northeastern University (Boston, USA). He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and the American Accounting Association Doctoral Consortium. He has served as Audit Committee Chair at the Department of Marine, Communications and Natural Resources and as a member of the Audit Committee at the Department of Finance.
He has also served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Avolon, one of the world’s largest aircraft leasing companies where he also chaired its Audit Committee. He is currently a member of the non-statutory board of the Saolta Hospital Group and Chair of its Strategy Committee.
In his first years in office, Ciarán drove the development of a new strategy for NUI Galway for the period 2020-2025 in collaboration with staff, students, external stakeholders and university management. In January 2020, he formally launched Shared Vision, Shaped by Values, which outlines the University’s future direction and priorities guided by the four core values of respect, excellence, openness and sustainability. The strategy highlights the importance of collaboration, collective input and regional, national and international partnership in achieving NUI Galway’s ambitions to be a force for good in and for the world. The strategy was launched following a process of greater devolvement of autonomy to the University’s four Colleges.

Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh will participate in the Round-table session (Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET).

Laüra Hoskins is a teacher in English for Specific Purposes  at the University of Bordeaux and head of Espace Langues, a centre for language learning and intercultural exchange. Her current interests are in blended language learning and virtual exchange. She also coordinates and facilitates the University’s professional development programme for internationalising learning and teaching through English, Défi international.

 Laüra Hoskins will lead theShowcase session: Intercultural Virtual Exchange 'ENLIVE' Tue 2nd of March (12h00 - 13h00 CET).

Jeroen Huisman is professor of Higher Education at Ghent University. He obtained his PhD at the University of Twente, the Netherlands (1995) and was appointed as professor of Higher Education Management at the University of Bath (2005-2013). His research interests relate to higher education governance and policy.

Together with Maya Caen, Jeroen Huisman will present a practical example: 'Monitoring higher education in Ghent University during the session 'ENLIGHT Impact' on Thu 4th of March (10h00-11h00 CET). 

Sake Jager is project manager in ICT in Education and assistant professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen. He is the project coordinator and principal investigator of the Erasmus+ KA3 Forward Looking Cooperation Project EVOLVE (www.evolve-erasmus.eu), which aims to mainstream Virtual Exchange (VE) as innovative practice in Higher Education in Europe.

Sake is also the project manager of ENVOIE, a VE project in the University of Groningen (www.rug.nl/envoie). He is also secretary of UNICollaboration, the cross-disciplinary organisation for telecollaboration and virtual exchange in Higher Education and vice-president of Eurocall, the European association for computer-assisted language learning.

Sake Jager will lead the session on Virtual Exchange (ENVOIE project) during the Showcase session on Wed 3rd of March, 12h00-13h00 CET

Lokesh Joshi is the Science Foundation Ireland-Stokes Professor of Glycosciences and Director of the Advanced Glycoscience Research Cluster at NUI Galway. Professor Lokesh Joshi served the University as its Vice President for Research and Innovation from 2013-202 and led an ambitious plan on delivering excellence in Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship across the University at all levels. He is also actively engaged nationally and in the EU on research, innovation and higher education development.

Lokesh Joshi was with Arizona State University (ASU) from 2000-2007 where he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Director of the Center for Glycoscience and Technologies in the Biodesign Institute leading a team of researchers studying glycosylation pathway discovery and protein engineering. He completed Post-Doctoral and Research Associate training from 1994-2000 at Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and received a PhD from Bath University.

Lokesh Joshi is the founder of Aquila Bioscience-developing groundbreaking pathogen capture and decontamination technology. Aquila Bioscience is at the forefront of applying its technology against COVID-19 and other infectious agents and biotoxins.

Lokesh Joshi will moderate the session 'Communities and Universities: Sharing the journey to shape the future' on Fri 4th of March, 10h00-12h00 CET.

Cameron Keighron's pronouns are They/Them. As a PhD student in Parkinson’s Disease Cameron is delighted to be the first Student Board President during the year where the central theme of  the ENLIGHT Student Network is Inclusivity. Cameron is passionate about community engagement and has dedicated their time in Higher Education to promote inclusion in teaching, learning and extracurricular activities.

Cameron Keighron has extensive experience in LGBT+ leadership as a Board member of the non-profit AMACH! LGBT; patient advocacy in research as a Member of D1Now; and training in student representation within Students’ Unions. Cameron is excited to work with Paul Marsan (University of Bordeaux, Vice President ENLIGHT Student Board) and Sarah Helsen(Ghent University, Secretary ENLIGHT Student Board) to shape the ENLIGHT programme in the coming year.

Cameron Keighron will speak during the opening session on Mo 1st of March, 17h30-18h30 CET.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Robert Krimmer is Professor of e-governance and ERA Chair of e-governance and digital public services at the University of Tartu. He focuses on electronic participation and democracy, as well as e-voting, the transformation of the public sector, and all issues further developing a digital society.

Since 2017, Robert has coordinated TOOP, the EU H2020 large-scale pilot on exploring and demonstrating the feasibility of the once-only principle involving 50+ partners from more than 20 countries in and outside the European Union. He has been one of the lead experts for the Council of Europe’s Ad-Hoc Committee on e-democracy and drafted Annex 1 of the CoE Recommendation on e-democracy (CM/Rec(2009)1).

Prof Krimmer is the Programme Manager for the international MA programme Democracy and Governance at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies. He also teaches e-governance, e-democracy, incl. e-participation and e-voting, as well as end-user management information systems at several European universities.

Prof Krimmer is the author of more than 200 international scientific articles and has been cited some 1500 times, with Hirsch index of 20 according to Google Scholar.

In 2019, he was mentioned as one of the top 16 academics within the list of the 100 most influential people in digital government by Apolitical and in 2021 as one of the top 21 influencers to follow in digital4development nominated by the European Digital Development Alliance (EDDA).

Robert Krimmer will give a lecture, entitled 'Digital Solutions’ during the Flagship lecture session of Tue 2nd of March, 13h00-14h30 CET. 

Prof. Betty Leask is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Education at La Trobe University Australia and Editor-in Chief of the Journal of Studies in International Education, the leading journal in the field. She is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Higher Education (CIHE) at Boston College US and an Honorary Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Italy.

Betty Leask is well known internationally as a researcher and thought leader on internationalisation of the curriculum, teaching and learning in higher education. She has a broad range of experience in universities over more than 20 years, most recently as PVC Teaching & Learning and Acting DVC Academic at La Trobe University. She has been a Senior Australian Teaching Fellow since 2010. Her research interests include internationalisation of the curriculum, teaching and learning, the internationalisation of higher education for society and institutional leadership of internationalization.

As a member of the ENLIGHT External Advisory Board Betty Leask will participate in the Round-table session on Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET.

Alo Lilles has over 10 years of experience in international project management, proposal writing, consulting and job experiences from public (government, university) and private sector (ICT, media and manufacturing). He is currently the Head of Business development at the city of Tartu and finishing his PhD on university-industry cooperation and regional capabilities at the University of Tartu.

Alo Lilles will give a keynote presentation during the session 'Communities and Universities: Sharing the journey to shape the future' on Fri 5th of March, 10h00-12h00 CET.

Patrick Lonergan is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at National University of Ireland, Galway and a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

He has edited or written eleven books on Irish drama and theatre, including Theatre and Globalization (winner of the 2008 Theatre Book Prize), The Theatre and Films of Martin McDonagh (Methuen Drama, 2012), Theatre and Social Media (2015) and Irish Drama and Theatre Since 1950 (Bloomsbury, 2019). At present, he is writing a book about Shakespeare and the Modern Irish Theatre.

He is on the board of directors of the Galway International Arts Festival, a member of Future Earth Ireland, and is an Editorial Associate of Contemporary Theatre Review. For Methuen Drama, he is co-editor of the ‘Critical Companions’ series which has published new books on such dramatists as Friel, Murphy, Pinter, Beckett, Churchill, Hwang, and Ruhl, and on topics including disability theatre, verse drama, and the British and American stage musical.

He has lectured widely on Irish drama internationally, including recently in Princeton, Florence, Florianapolis (Brazil), Wroclaw, and Tokyo. He was the 2019 Burns Visiting Fellow for Irish Studies at Boston College.

Together with Charlotte McIvor, Patrick Lonergan hosts the session 'Cultural Intersections' on Thu 4th of March 17h30-19h00 CET. 

Irja Lutsar MD, PhD is an internationally well known pediatric infectious disease specialist and the head of the department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Tartu.

She has extensive experience in designing, conducting and leading registration and academic clinical trials of all phases including trials in vulnerable populations such critically ill, immunocompromised and neonates.

She is heading the Estonian Network of pediatric Clinical trials (ELAV). She is the members or the pediatric Committee at European Medicines Agency and member of international consortia like PedCRin, PENTA etc. In 1999 to 2005 while working as a director at Pfizer Inc. she was leading clinical development of the voriconazole pediatric programme. She is and has been involved in several international programs like NeoVanc, Mon4STRAT, PedMermaids, Closed as work package leader.

She was a principle investigator in a recently completed pan-European randomised controlled trials NeoMero that recruited 272 infants with neonatal sepsi and 58 with neonatal meningitis. She is the member of evaluation committee of the Estonian Science Foundation, senat member of the University of Tartu and has been evaluator for the European Commission, National Institute of Health (USA), Medical Research Council (UK) and several other national agencies. She is the section head of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, one of the top ranking journals in paediatrics. She is currently the member of the Scientific Advisor Group of Covid-19 for Estonian government.

Irja Lutsar will give a pitch on 'Health and Well-being' during the Flagship lecture session of Tue 2nd of March, 13h00-14h30

Veronica Manfredi is the Director for Quality of Life in DG Environment since February 2018.

Her Directorate plays a pivotal role in leading Europe towards a Zero-Pollution ambition and contributes to tackle the Climate and Biodiversity crisis. It is indeed responsible for key EU policies for Clean and Well-Managed Water (including the protection all EU Freshwater and Marine environments, water reuse, prevention from Floods, compliance with high health standards for Drinking Water), Clean Air, control on Industrial Emissions and prevention of Industrial Accidents.

Internationally, her team leads the EU negotiations within the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury and the UN Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. It also provides steady support to the work of the four Regional Sea Conventions (notably the HELCOM – Baltic Sea, OSPAR – North Atlantic Sea, Barcelona – Mediterranean Sea, and the Bucharest Conventions – Black Sea) and the International Commissions for the Protection of the Rhine and Danube rivers.

A lawyer by background, Veronica deepened her knowledge of International and EU law in Rome, Turin, Kiel, Bruges and Brussels.

Veronica Manfredi will give a keynote speech during the Flagship lecture session of Wed 3rd of March, 13h00-14h30 on Circular Economy and Climate Change.

Charlotte McIvor is a Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies and Deputy Head of the School of English and Creative Arts at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She is the author of Migration and Performance in Contemporary Ireland: Towards A New Interculturalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and the co-editor of The Methuen Companion to Interculturalism and Performance (with Daphne P. Lei, 2020), Interculturalism and Performance Now: New Directions? (with Jason King, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Devised Performance in Irish Theatre: Histories and Contemporary Practice (with Siobhán O’Gorman, Carysfort Press, 2015) and Staging Intercultural Ireland: Plays and Practitioner Perspectives (with Matthew Spangler, Cork University Press, 2014).

She has published in journals including Theatre Research International, Theatre Topics, Modern Drama, Irish University Review, Irish Studies Review and multiple edited volumes on contemporary theatre and performance. Charlotte is also a director and dramaturge, and recent projects in Ireland include directing Frank McGuinness’ adaptation of Sophocles’ Electra (2014) and multiple iterations of the original devised theatre piece 100 Shades of Grey co-created with NUI Galway students addressing issues of sexual consent, rape and assault. She also directed and co-devised Transitions: A Spring Awakening Play with third year students in 2019.

In 2016, she co-directed the film adaptation of 100 Shades of Grey as Lucy’s House Party (with Mick Ruane) for the Manuela Riedo Foundation’s secondary school education project on sexual consent in Ireland. She has recently collaborated again with Ruane and NUI Galway students on the production of a new series of interactive short film series on consent released online over 2018/2019.

In 2019, she directed and produced the inaugural national third-level theatre tour of The Kinds of Sex You Might Have in College, an updated and expanded version of 100 Shades of Grey, featuring a company of professional NUI Galway alumni actors. She currently leads the Creative Arts and Communications Unit and is a programme lead on Active* Consent.

Together with Patrick Lonergan, Charlotte McIvor hosts the session 'Cultural Intersections' on Thu 4th of March 17h30-19h00 CET. 

Jochen Mierau is Scientific Director at the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health and professor of public health economics at the University of Groningen. His research is at the intersection between public health and health economics and aims to provide data-driven insights into health disparities within and between socioeconomic groups. He works closely with societal stakeholders to bridge the gap between science, policy and practice.

Jochen Mierau will lead the session on 'Health and Well-being' during the Flagship lecture session of Tue 2nd of March, 13h00-14h30

Björn Nyström is a project manager at the Unit for Global Partnerships at Uppsala University. He is trained in Political Science, International Relations, and Japanese Language and Business Culture at University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Kochi University, Ritsumeikan University, and Kyoto University in Japan. This background, in combination with guiding students through exchange studies as a mobility officer at Uppsala University, has led to a strong interest soft skills training benefits, as well as recognition of studies abroad learning outcomes. Coordinating the Erasmus+ Capacity Building project EVENT between 2018-2020, in which international expertise and five Vietnamese universities joined forces with Vietnam’s Ministry of Education to establish Career Guidance centers, strengthened his interest in employability matters and empowerment of students’ personal skill awareness. His recent project SKillMill seeks to create an innovate reflection tool to help students identify, understand and express soft skills training during studies abroad, with the help of Career Counsellors, Psychologists and Game Designers from four Sweden, Finland, Norway and Estonia.

Björn Nyström will present the SkillMill concept during the Showcase session of Thu 4th of March, 12h00-13h00 CET.

Gerdientje Oggel is lecturer of Spanish Proficiency at the Department of European Languages and Cultures (ELC) at the University of Groningen. She is also one of the daily coordinators of the Spanish Language Learning Team and the exchange coordinator for ELC.

Since 2011, she has been involved in several Virtual Exchange projects in her institution, both as a teacher and as a trainer/researcher in the European Funded EVOLVE (2018-2020) and the UG funded ENVOIE I (2017-2018) and II (2019 - 2021) projects.

Gerdientje Oggel will present a best practice in Virtual Exchange (ENVOIE project) during the Showcase session on Wed 3rd of March, 12h00-13h00 CET

As a professor of didactics at Uppsala University (Sweden), Leif Östman is the director of didactic research and of the research group SMED (Studies of Meaning-making in Educational Discourses). Together with many colleagues, he has conducted and coordinated research projects, networks and research schools on science education and teaching and learning in the context of sustainability over the last 20 years. He has a background as a science teacher and has since 1987 been involved in teacher training, educational development projects and (digital) innovation through different forms of cooperation with teachers, schools, NGOs and governmental departments in Sweden and internationally. Leif is also a visiting professor at Ghent University (Belgium) and Maynooth University (Ireland). 

Together with Katrien Van Poeck (Ghent University), Leif Östman will give a lecture, entitled 'Challenge-based teaching: What, why and how?’ during the Flagship lecture session of Fri 5th of March, 13h00-14h30 on 'Empowering Learners'. 

Mme. Papin is the newly elected Deputy Mayor of Bordeaux in charge of territorial cohesion, international and European relations and Vice President of Bordeaux Métropole. Having obtained a Master in Political Sciences (Sciences Po Bordeaux) and a Master in environmental policies in the Carlos III University of Madrid (after an Erasmus year in Helsinki – Finland), she has been working as a political advisor and Cabinet staff member for the local elected representatives of the Ecologist Party during 12 years before joining the new municipal council of Bordeaux in July 2020.

Céline Papin will give a keynote presentation during the session 'Communities and Universities: Sharing the journey to shape the future' on Fri 5th of March, 10h00-12h00 CET.

Estibaliz Saez de Cámara is an associate Professor in the area of Environmental Technologies and a scientist at the Atmospheric Research Group of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). She holds a PhD. in Environmental Engineering, with a focus on Atmospheric Pollution and Climate change. Since 2017, she is the Head of Sustainability of the UPV/ EHU. Furthermore, she is a member the Council for Cooperation of the Basque Government and the vicepresident of the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (SDSN- Spain). Last summer, she participated as an expert of the workstream “Protecting the Planet and Building Resilience” of the 2020 High Level Political Forum of United Nations. She is also involved in researching and publishing on transformative learning and science for sustainable development.

Estibaliz Saez de Cámara will give a lecture, entitled 'Climatic feedbacks. Is there any connection between tourism-led land use changes in the Mediterranean and extreme rainfall events in Central Europe?' during the Flagship lecture session of Wed 3rd of March, 13h00-14h30 on 'Circular Economy and Climate Change'. 

Tomás Ó Síocháin is CEO of Ireland’s Western Development Commission www.westerndevelopment.ie a regional development and investment agency that supports communities to grow, businesses to scale and is planning for the future of Ireland’s Atlantic coastal region. Tomás was previously External Engagement Programme Manager for NUI Galway where he led the integration of Shannon College of Hotel Management into NUI Galway. A journalist, he worked with national broadcasters RTÉ and TG4 between 1998 and 2013. He is a law graduate with a Higher Diploma in Applied Communications, an MBA and is a non-executive director of GrowRemote and Future Mobility Campus Ireland.

Tomás Ó Síocháin will give a keynote presentation during the session 'Communities and Universities: Sharing the journey to shape the future' on Fri 5th of March, 10h00-12h00 CET.

Prof. Guido Sonnemann is full Professor at the University of Bordeaux where he heads The Life Cycle Group CyVi at the Institute of Molecular Sciences. The focus of his research is on Life Cycle Assessment for Sustainable Chemistry and Materials. He is holder of the Regional Chair of Excellence on Life Cycle Assessment that supports the priority clusters of New Aquitaine in their research and he has been appointed as member of the regional advisory committee on Circular Economy.

Guido Sonnemann is also programme director for the participation of the university in the KIC EIT Raw Materials and coordinator of the International Master on Advanced Materials Innovative Recycling. He is co-founder and Executive Committee chair of the Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation. Until 2012 Guido Sonnemann was Science Focal Point for UNEP’s Resource Efficiency sub-programme, co-initiating the International Resource Panel. He holds a PhD in chemical engineering, University Rovira & Virgili, Spain, M.Sc. in environmental chemistry, University of Poitiers, France, and graduated as environmental engineer, Technical University of Berlin.

Guido Sonnemann will give a lecture, entitled 'Circular economy as a key concept within the transition to a low-carbon and resource-efficient economy' during the Flagship lecture session of Wed 3rd of March, 13h00-14h30 CET on 'Circular Economy and Climate Change'. 

Elmer Sterken is professor of Monetary Economics at the University of Groningen. Between 2011 and 2019, Sterken was Rector Magnificus of the UG. He also served as interim director of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, a Dutch centre for studies in the Humanities, between 2019 and 2020.

Elmer Sterken will moderate during the round-table session on Tue 2nd of March 17h30-19h00 CET.

Professor Marek Števček was born on 20 February 1976 in Bratislava. After completing studies at the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in 1999, he commenced work at the faculty’s Department of Civil Law, where he has been to the present day. In addition, he has worked at the Department of Civil Law at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica and at the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, where he was a researcher. He has also lectured on civil procedural law at the Faculty of Law at Palacký University in Olomouc. He undertook his internal research assistantship in the field of civil law in 2006 and in 2012 he habilitated as an Associate Professor of Civil Law and in 2017 he was appointed Professor in this field. From 2012 to 2015 he was the chairman of the Recodification Commission for Civil Procedural Law. After the completion of the recodification process, Števček was then appointed by the Minister of Justice to the position of chairman of the Commission for the Recodification of Private Law on 1 July 2015; the commission’s primary role was to prepare a proposal for a new Slovak Civil Code. Števček’s scientific and publishing activities focus on a wide range of issues present in civil law. He has published dozens of professional and research papers both domestically as well as abroad in periodical literature and in book form. Števček has also participated in many scientific conferences in Slovakia as well as abroad. He has been the co-author of several monographs and textbooks on civil substantive and procedural law, family law, and international procedural law, and has contributed to the Encyclopaedia Beliana. He is a member of the Educational College of the Slovak Bar Association and is on the editorial board of several professional journals. Since 1 April 2017, he has served as the Vice-Rector for Legislation at Comenius University. In the term from 1 February 2019 to 31 January 2023, he is the incumbent Comenius University Rector.

Marek Števček will participate in the round-table session on Tue 2nd of March 17h30-19h00 CET.

Tobias Stoll holds the Jean Monnet Chair for European Union and Global Sustainable Development through Law and is a Professor for Public and Public International Law and at the University of Göttingen. He co-directs the Institute for International Law and European Law and heads the Department for International Economic and Environmental Law. Further, he serves as one of the Directors of the Institute for Agricultural Law at Faculty and as the German Director of the Sino-German Institute for Legal Studies of the Universities of Nanjing and Göttingen at Nanjing University. His research focus is on international and European economic and environmental law.

Tobias Stoll will moderate the Flagship lecture session on Fri 5th of March, 13h00-14h30 CET on 'Empowering Learners'. 

Rodolphe Thiébaut is professor of Public Health at the University of Bordeaux. He is the director of the Department of Research in Public Health at the university and the department of medical information at the hospital. He is leading an Inserm/Inria research group (SISTM) devoted to the analysis of high dimensional data in immunology. He is leading the Graduate’s program Digital Public Health.

Rodolphe Thiébaut will give a pitch on 'Health and Well-being' during the Flagship lecture session of Tue 2nd of March, 13h00-14h30

Manuel Tunon de Lara studied medicine, immunology, physiology and life sciences. He then carried out research into the cellular mechanisms of asthma. He was a clinician in the respiratory diseases department of Bordeaux University Hospital, of which he then became director. Manuel Tunon de Lara became involved in the institutional aspects of Bordeaux Segalen University and from 1998 he ran the “Aquitaine Euskadi Navarre” cross-border network. In 2001 he set up the Department of European Affairs and International Relations before becoming Vice-President of the university responsible for international relations in 2003. He was elected president of Bordeaux Segalen University in 2008, then reelected in 2012. During his terms of office, he contributed actively to the Campus Operation project, led the project to set up the Bordeaux University Foundation and coordinated “Investment for the Future” projects, including the excellence initiative (IdEx) that was among the first three such projects to be accredited in France. Championing the values of a large, multidisciplinary, internationally-recognized university, Manuel Tunon de Lara led his establishment towards a merger with two other universities in the city thus creating the University of Bordeaux with his counterparts. In January 2014, he was elected the first president of the new establishment and, together with his team, set up what has become one of France’s top universities. Under his leadership, the University of Bordeaux was definitively “excellence initiative” accredited by an international jury in June 2016, and continues to energetically pursue the objective of becoming a great European university, while remaining anchored in the Aquitaine region. Manuel Tunon de Lara was reelected president of the University of Bordeaux on 18 January 2018. Recently, on December 17, 2020, Manuel Tunon de Lara, President of the University of Bordeaux, was elected President of the CPU (French Conference of University Presidents).
A man of commitment and conviction, he is an Officer of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, Chevalier of the National Order of Merit and Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Manuel Tunon de Lara will participate in in the Round-table session on Tue 2nd of March 17h30 - 19h00 CET.

Piet Van Avermaet is Professor in ‘Language and Diversity’ in the Linguistics Department of Ghent University, Belgium, where he teaches 'multicultural studies', 'multilingualism in education', ‘language, diversity and globalisation’ and 'language policy'. He is also Head of the Research Centre for Diversity & Learning (CDL) at the same University. He is series co-editor (with Kathleen Heugh and Christopher Stroud) of the book series ‘Multilingualisms and Diversities in Education’, Bloomsbury. His expertise and research interests cover topics related to multilingualism in education, social inequality and equity in education, language policy and practice in education, language policy and practice in contexts of (social) inclusion, language assessment, diversity and inclusion, integration and participation, discrimination in education.

Piet Van Avermaet will moderate the Flagship lecture session of Thu 4th of March, 13h00-14h30 (CET) on Global Engagement and Equity.

Prof. Guido Van Huylenbroeck (° 1958) is full professor in Agricultural and Rural Environmental Economics at Ghent University. He holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics since 1988 and is Doctor honoris causa of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Aleksandras Stulginskis University in Lithuania and Slovak Agricultural University. His research area is institutional economics, agricultural policy and rural development. He is also founder of the Erasmus Mundus International joint Master degree in Rural Development (IMRD), a course jointly organized by 6 EU universities and 8 non-EU universities. He is author or co-author of more than 350 publications of which ± 175 peer reviewed journal articles and supervised about 30 PhD theses.

He served for 7 years as Dean of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering of Ghent University (2008-2015) and is since October,1st 2015 appointed as Director of Internationalization of Ghent University and in this function responsible for the international outreach policy of the university and for the Ghent University Global Campus, Incheon, South Korea. He also served as board member and treasurer (2005-2017) of the European Association of Agricultural Economists and as board member and president (2010-2016) of ICA (the European Association of Agricultural Universities and Faculties). Presently he is also project coordinator for ENLIGHT.

Guido Van Huylenbroeck will present 'What can ENLIGHT do for you?' during the Closing session on Fri 5th of March, 14h30-15h00 CET. 

Professor Katrien Van Poeck coordinates the Centre for Sustainable Development’s research line on sustainability education at Ghent University (Belgium). Her research focuses on the role of education in the pursuit of building a more sustainable world through scientific networks and projects on experiential learning in the context of sustainability transitions, on sustainability in higher education and on education on real-world sustainability problems. She has a special interest in the relation between research and practice and aims to foster the co-creation of better sustainability education in collaborative settings with researchers and practitioners. Katrien is also affiliated to Uppsala University (Sweden) as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow.

Together with Leif Östman (Uppsala University), Katrien Van Poeck will give a lecture, entitled 'Challenge-based teaching: What, why and how?’ during the Flagship lecture session of Fri 5th of March, 13h00-14h30. 

Rik Van de Walle is rector of Ghent University since 1 October 2017.

He was born in 1970 and obtained the degrees of Master of Science in Engineering Physics and Doctor of Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at Ghent University. After a visiting post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona (Tucson, USA) he returned to Ghent, became a full-time assistant professor (‘docent’) in 2001 and set up the Multimedia Lab, one of the founding research groups of iMinds (since 2016: imec).

In 2004 he became full professor, and in 2010 senior full professor. After a merger with two other research groups (across departmental and even university boundaries), the Multimedia Lab was renamed in 2016 as Internet and Data Lab (IDLab). IDLab is a very large group, encompassing about 300 members.

From 2012 until 2017 he was dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture.
On October 18, 2019, he is elected as President of CESAER for two years: 2020, 2021.

Rik Van de Walle will speak during the opening session on Mo 1st of March 17h30 - 19h00 CET and take part in the Round-table session on Tue 2nd of March 17h30 - 19h00 CET. 

Elected as the first full-time President of the European Council in November 2009, Herman Van Rompuy took office when the Lisbon Treaty came into force on 1 December 2009. In 2012, he was re-elected for a second (and last) term starting on 1 June 2012 and running until 30 November 2014.

At the time of his first election, Herman Van Rompuy was Prime Minister of Belgium. Prior to that he had served in Belgium as Speaker of the House of Representatives (2007-2008) and in several government positions, including as Secretary of State for Finance and Small Businesses (1988) and Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Budget (1993-1999). His is Minister of State (since 2004).

A former economist at the National Bank of Belgium, Herman Van Rompuy began his political career in 1973 as national vice-president of his party’s youth movement. He was president of the Flemish Christian Democrats (1988-1993). He served in the Belgian Parliament, in turn as Senator (1988-1995) and Member of the House of Representatives (1995-2009).

He is now professor at the university of Leuven. He is the President of the European Policy Centre and the College of Europe (Bruges). King Philip granted him the noble title of count in 2015.

As a member of the ENLIGHT External Advisory Board Herman Van Rompuy will speak during the opening session (Mo 1st of March, 17h30-18h30 CET), and participate in the Round-table session (Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET)

Sebastian Vollmer is Professor of Development Economics at the University of Göttingen and currently serves as Director of the Centre for Modern Indian Studies. His research examines the linkages between poverty and health in low- and middle-income countries. He was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, Assistant Professor of Development Economics at the University of Göttingen and Adjunct Professor of Global Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Professor Vollmer has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP, UNAIDS, UNESCO, FAO, the Asian Development Bank and several national government organizations. He has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals (including The Review of Economics and Statistics, The BMJ, The Lancet, The Lancet Global Health and Journal of Development Economics).

Sebastian Vollmer will give a pitch on 'Health and Well-being' during the Flagship lecture session of Tue 2nd of March, 13h00-14h30 CET.

As Vice President International for the National University of Ireland Galway, Professor Whay leads the development and delivery of the University’s internationalisation strategy. Since joining the University in August 2019 to take up this role, she has implement a university wide change project to position the University for a long-term strong global future. She has also lead the university to become a partner in a nine University European Network with a mission to build close collaborations and to work towards transforming Higher Education functions to address the immense global challenges the World is facing.

Professor Whay was awarded her PhD from the University of Bristol in 1998 following work to improve methods of pain relief for UK dairy cattle, a field in which she continues to work. Alongside her Vice President International role her research field is developing methods of assessing and improving animal welfare, prior to her move to Ireland she spend 20 years investigating animal behaviour and welfare at the University of Bristol Veterinary School.

Becky Whay will moderate during the round-table session on Tue 2nd of March 17h30-19h00 CET.

Cisca Wijmenga is Rector Magnificus of the University of Groningen. She succeeded Elmer Sterken in 2019. Wijmenga is also Lodewijk Sandkuijl Professor of Human Genetics at the UG and was awarded the prestigious Spinoza Prize in 2015. Wijmenga is the first ever female Rector Magnificus in the history of the university.

Cisca Wijmenga will participate in the Round-table session on Tue 2nd of March, 17h30-19h00 CET.

Ariane S. Willems is Professor for Empirical Educational Sciences with a focus on School- and Teaching Effectiveness at the Goettingen Institute for Educational Sciences (IfE). In her current research projects, she investigates the differential development of students’ competencies, interests and attitudes in different domains and age groups. In her project “Ganz NaWi – Förderung naturwissenschaftlicher Kom-petenzen und Einstelllungen durch Ganztagsangebote” she developed, implemented, and evaluated an educational program for all-day primary schools to improve their students’ competencies and attitudes in the Education for Sustainable Development.

Ariane S. Willems will participate in the session 'ENLIGHT Impact' on Thu 4th of March (10h00-11h00 CET).

Ramin Yahyapour is full professor at the University of Göttingen. He is Chief Information Office of the University and the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) shaping the IT and digital strategy. He is also managing director of the GWDG, a joint compute and IT competence center of the university Göttingen and the May Planck Society. GWDG is a national high-performance computing facility and serves a large user base from national and international research collaborations. Dr. Yahyapour is founding board member of the Göttingen Campus-Institute Data Science (CIDAS).

He holds a doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering and his research interest lies in the area of efficient resource management in its application to high-performance computing, service-oriented infrastructures, and research data management. He is member of the Council for Scientific Infrastructures (RfII) established by the German Science Conference (GWK). Moreover, he and his team is active – often in leading or coordinating function - in national and European projects, especially on efficient research infrastructures in different scientific domains, e.g. in humanities or life sciences. Ramin Yahyapour serves regularly as organizer, editor or program committee member of multiple conferences or journals as well as reviewer or expert for funding agencies and national policy boards. He is also active as senior consultant in IT strategy and digitalization projects in public organizations and private companies.

Ramin Yahyapour will discuss with Robert Krimmer ’How can IT enlight ways to a healthier life’ during the Flagship lecture session of Tue 2nd of March, 13h00-14h30.