During 2019 the Swedish-Italian (SWETALY) collaboration was launched which included 17 Swedish (e.g., Karolinska Institutet, Linnaeus University, Luleå University of Technology) and 16 Italian (e.g., University of Bologna, Sapienza University of Rome and University of Pisa) higher education institutions. The aim of this collaboration was to strengthen academic relations between Sweden and Italy, in research and higher education. Such international collaborations are very important when conducting high-quality research. As researchers, we often face the same challenges, which means we can help each other develop.
The University of Gothenburg (GU), together with Örebro University (ÖU), coordinated SWETALY. The purpose was to stimulate research and collaboration in three themes “academic freedom”, “AI” and “ageing”. GU and ÖU were responsible for arranging seminars, workshops, and, due to pandemic between this period, webinars.
Academic freedom is understood as the freedom to teach, to conduct research and to disseminate and publish results, and the freedom of association, collaboration and movement of researchers, as a fundamental human right. Many universities and research centers, both Swedish and Italian, such as the University of Padua, are already actively involved in the international network Scholars at Risk, which works to protect scholars at risk, promote the fundamental values of higher education and support institutions and individuals whose freedom to think, to conduct research, to discuss ideas and to implement scientific discoveries in academic contexts are at stake.
The GU coordinator for SWETALY (Sarah Blichfeldt) with Professor Salvatore di Somma, La Sapienza University of Rome.
The last SWETALY meeting and workshop took place on the 5th of November in Rome. During the morning session, at the SERAPHICUM CONGRESS CENTRE, located in the elegant EUR district of Rome, inside a natural park, the Swedish coordinators from GU (Sarah Blichfeldt and Theresa Westgård) led the round table and the presentations of some of the SWETALY members. The talks were focused on the collaborative project’s activities, both recent and also past ones, such as the identification of gaps and plans for the future. The SERAPHICUM property, owned by Franciscan Fathers, was recently renovated and it is managed by a team of lay staff. This was a university/college founded in Rome in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V.
The entrance to SERAPHICUM.
Among the most important initiatives in SWETALY was the Mentoring Programme, usually set up as a small group consisting of a mentor and one to two mentees which decide to share their scientific research interests, the main pillars of their respective ongoing projects, and their curiosities about what is being done in terms of progress in scientific knowledge e.g. on the elderly in the digitalized society in two profoundly different national contexts: Italy and Sweden. Dimitrios Kokkinakis talked about concrete achievements with the mentoring programme and the Italian students that have been visited GU during the last years. The first one was Chiara Barattieri Di San Pietro (currently at the IUSS - School for Advanced Studies – Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS di Pavia). Chiara also presented her current work at the SWETALY workshop “Aging, Society and Environment".
Since its start, Swetaly has organized a series of workshops and webinars to address specific aspects related to the protection and promotion of academic freedom, AI and/or ageing and invited universities from the national networks Swetaly to participate. Several workshops have been held during e.g., February 2021 (chaired by Claudia Padovani, University of Padua), October 2021, Spring 2022. The first SWETALY physical meeting took place in Gothenburg in June 2022. About 60 researchers from various subject areas met in Wallenberg's conference center for a three-day workshop on aging. The participants discussed everything from nutrition and biomedicine to ageism in the media. Aging is a research field where multidisciplinarity is needed. The aim of all these workshops was to gain a better understanding of the SWETALY topics of interest, to learn about initiatives and actions carried out in Italy and Sweden respectively, and to develop plans for future collaborations in promoting higher academic values through education, supporting scholars through protection and hospitality, and developing joint advocacy interventions. For this last workshop, during the afternoon of November 5, 2024, the SWETALY attendants took the local transportation to the “Roma Tre University”. The session consisted of presentations from young researchers in the collaboration. The meeting started by a talk by the deputy rector of Roma Tre University, Professor Paolo Visca.
The main entrance to the Roma Tre University.
The Roma Tre University deputy rector (left).
Theresa Westgård (second from the right), representative for AgeCap.
This pre-conference event “Aging, Society and Environment" was collocated with the Xth WACEM: “World Academic Congress of Emergency Medicine” for which the SWETALY participants could attend.
Lunch and Aperitivo served.
In this particular conference, professor Boo Johansson from GU, SWETALY and AGECAP presented the results of the study: “What matters for longevity? Findings and reflections” as a keynote speaker.
