The first day started with an opening session led by Javier Lafuente, rector of UAB, Màrius Martinez Muñoz, ECIU president, Assumpció Malgosa Morera, UAB vice rector for research, Katrin Dircksen, ECIU secretary general, and Xavier Gabarrell Durany, SMART-ER Research Director. Next, Stijn Delaure, a European Commission Policy Officer, gave a lecture on the 'Next steps for European universities in research'. There he reviewed the main actions on the European Union policy agenda and made recommendations to raise the profile of higher education institutions.
Plenary sessions were further points on the conference agenda. They provided a forum for the participants to share their knowledge and experience concerning their research projects. The first of these, 'Public Engagement: Challenges & Opportunities', was moderated by Troels Jacobsen (University of Stavanger), whereas the second, 'SMART-ER Seed Programme', by Artur Silva (University of Aveiro). A number of parallel themed sessions and a poster session were also held that day. These were organized around the 5 focus areas for ECIU: Circular Economy, Transport and Mobility, Energy and Sustainability, Citizen Science, and Resilient Communities.
The second day kicked off with a Citizen Science breakfast hosted by Fernando Vilariño (UAB). He also moderated the plenary session 'SMART-ER Citizen Science pilots lessons learnt', during which discussed were the conclusions from three different pilot projects.
Much interest was given to the presentations of two speakers: Stephane Berghmans (Director Research & Innovation European University Association) 'EUA open science agenda 2025' and Karel Luyben (President of the European Open Science Cloud Association) 'Establishing Open Science as the New Normal'. EUA has been supporting institutions on their journey towards Open Science. The concept is becoming the new normal, with all aspects fully developed both at the policy and implementation levels.
Also on that day, further parallel thematic sessions were held, during which the participants were required to engage in dynamic collaboration to accomplish the goals and overcome challenges set for them. The conference attendees were also given the opportunity to enjoy guided tours of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona campus: Open Labs, the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Food Technology Pilot Plant Service (Servei Planta de Tecnologia dels Aliments (SPTA)) and Service of Farms and Experimental Fields (El Servei de Granges i Camps Experimentals (SGCE)).
Among the group of more than 250 attendees of the ECIU University Research Conference Lodz University of Technology had a strong presence. Spearheaded by the Vice Rector for Science, prof. Łukasz Albrecht, dr hab. inż. Agnieszka Dybała-Defratyka, TUL professor (Research Support Center), and dr inż. Dorota Piotrowska, TUL professor (ECIU institutional coordinator), the representatives of the TUL academic and administrative staff had the opportunity to engage in a series of workshops, share best practice in innovative approaches to research, and explore potential for cooperation in research. The group included researchers from two TUL faculties: from the Faculty of Organization and Management, dr inż. Barbara Galińska - Transport and Mobility section, dr inż. Joanna Kopania and dr hab. inż. Edyta Pietrzak - Circular Economy section, and from the Faculty of Electrical, Electronic, Computer and Control Engineering, dr inż. Paweł Kelm and mgr inż. Filip Stuchała - Energy and Sustainability section. The conference was also attended by two members of the TUL administrative staff: Marta Rybicka, TUL ECIU Office, and Martyna Stawiana, Project Services.