SETU President Professor Veronica Campbell led a large delegation of SETU researchers, academic, and administrative staff at the EU-CONEXUS Research Conference titled ‘Aquatic and Coastal Ecosystems: Challenges and Opportunities towards Sustainable Development’ at the University of Rostock, Germany from the 16 to 17 of November.
SETU delegates took part in all of the conference's parallel sessions covering topics including coastal engineering; social, cultural and human sciences; life sciences and biotechnology; and environmental sciences and biodiversity. SETU delegates also presented their work over the course of the two-day conference.
Costal engineering parallel session
• Dr Emily Shakespeare - “Cúpla-Trá: Fostering Coastal Ecosystem Resilience Through the Fusion of Digital Twin Technology and Landscape Biography.
• Dr Niamh O’Brien - “Development of a Framework for Micro-Credentials in Smart Urban Costal Sustainability”.
Social, cultural and human sciences parallel session
• PhD student Amy Whelan - “Examining the drivers that shape sustainable consumer behavioural intentions of regional leisure and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) passengers in the Irish Aviation Industry”.
Life sciences and biotechnology parallel session
• Dr Shikha Ojha - “Aquaculture Waste Valorisation with Black Soldier Fly Larvae: A Circular Concept”.
Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity Institute Poster Session
• Dr Haider Al-Juboori - Strategies for Environmental Analysis and Monitoring Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).
Social, cultural and human sciences session
• Dr Susan Flynn - “Urban Planning for the Coastal City of the Future: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach”
• Joy Rooney - “Portalis Protecting Our Cultural Heritage Visitor Experience Design within a Citizen Science Framework”.
Life sciences and biotechnology session
• Dr Mike Kinsella - “Application of Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry, NMR and other characteristics of pharmaceutical intermediates”.
Environmental sciences and bio-diversity session
• PhD student Brakemi Egbedi “From Waste to Wonder: Utilising Waste Shells for Wastewater Purification”
Alongside the conference, the EU-CONEXUS European University Alliance held meetings of its governing board, academic council, and research council – seeing David Denieffe, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Registrar as the Chair of the EU-CONEXUS Academic Council.
Key to including regional stakeholders in alliance activity, Enda Hogan from the Southern Regional Assembly and David Sinnott from Port of Waterford participated in the event, bringing an Irish context to the future development of the European University.
Prof. Veronica Campbell said, “EU-CONEXUS is part of the SETU strategic plan and I look forward to welcoming and embracing all the possibilities of being part of a transnational European University”.
David Denieffe added, “There are many opportunities and possibilities available to SETU students through EU-CONEXUS and we look forward to developing these further and creating fruitful and fulfilling partnerships”.
About EU-CONEXUS European University
EU-CONEXUS is a fully-fledged transnational European University offering joint education, training and study programmes, joint research and professional development opportunities for its teaching and non-teaching staff, researchers, and students (undergraduate and postgraduate).
SETU is part of EU-CONEXUS which aims to address global and local challenges by tackling environmental, technical, economic and societal needs related to the topic of 'Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability'. 'Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability' relates to any discipline that can contribute to improving the standard of living for our coastal areas. EU-CONEXUS approaches this through four themes: social, cultural & human sciences; coastal engineering, environmental science and biodiversity; and life sciences & biotechnology.
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