Conference Science and Technology Bridge Continents

Background

The world is confronted with tremendous global challenges and Science and Technology (S&T) can (i) contribute to tackling them and (ii) be instrumental in influencing and improving international relations and stability, opening channels of communication and building trust across borders and continents. Cooperation with like-minded universities of S&T from different continents enhances the quality of research, education and innovation.

Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) will host this conference in Tomsk (Russian Federation) in September 2021 providing (i) a global stage to its (international) networks such as the Association of Sino-Russian Technical Universities (ASRTU) and CESAER and (ii) an opportunity to reach out to and engage with universities of S&T from China, Europe and Russia. The Association for Engineering Education of Russia, ASRTU and CESAER thus will co-organise this conference.

Date and time

The conference has been postponed until May 2022.

The postponement was decided as, despite the fact that the epidemiological situation in Russia is gradually improving, it is still unclear what the conditions for international traveling between China, EU and Russia will be by September.

We will update the new dates as soon as they are agreed with our partners in China and Russia.

Location

This concerns an in-person event hosted by TPU in Tomsk (Russia) allowing for broad online participation. Importantly, the timing of the contributions allows for real-time and online participation from China, Europe and Russia.

Goals

The goals are to:

• Celebrate hundred-twenty-fifth anniversary of TPU, tenth anniversary of ASRTU, thirtieth anniversary of CESAER;
• Discuss and promote the contribution of universities of S&T to ecological, economic and social sustainability;
• Exchange views and advance insights into:

• University-industry relationship and cooperation;
• Link Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM);
• Management and operation of (on-campus) infrastructures;
• Open Science and European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) in global context;
• Outreach and engagement of universities of S&T;
• Contribution of universities of S&T to sustainability;
• Responsible research and Innovation (RRI) in S&T education and training;
• Open up national funding programmes;
• Recruit and retain scientific talent;
• Upskilling and lifelong learning of professional engineers.

• Explore the evolution of the idea and roles of a university of S&T;
• Establish sustainable links between rectors and equivalent and their institutions.

Participants

We foresee in-person attendance of members from ASRTU and CESAER and selected guests and online participation from anyone interested worldwide.

Languages

The main working language of the conference is English.