Call for Proposals 22nd IAFeS NETTIES Conference (Network Entities), May 19-20, 2025
Call for Proposals
Innovation & Impact
human-centered solutions
for the age of digital transformation and artificial intelligence
in regional and global contexts
22nd IAFeS NETTIES Conference (Network Entities)
ΙAFeS – International Association for eScience
in collaboration with European University E³UDRES²
St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences,
Campus Platz 1, 3100 St. Pölten, Austria
May 19 – 20, 2025
Distinguished Colleagues,
IAFeS – International Association for Sciences has the pleasure of inviting you to submit your proposal for the NETTIES (Network Entities) Conference 2025 at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, the Austrian Campus of the E³UDRES² European University Alliance from 19 – 20 May 2025.
We are looking for scientific work, promising ideas, critical reflections, good practices,… to be presented and discussed in short pitches, scientific talks, round-tables and (interactive) workshops.
Selected Papers will be published as a special publication with an ISBN number together with contributions from previous NETTIES-conferences and invited experts. Authors will be sent a printed copy of the publication as soon as it is available.
The 22nd NETTIES Conference will be linked to the E³UDRES² Science Festival.
IAFeS supports the concept of interdisciplinarity and welcomes submissions from all scientific areas that deal with scientific results, promising concepts, critical reflections, visionary ideas and/or best practices related to the topic:
Innovation & Impact:
Human-centered solutions
for the age of digital transformation and artificial intelligence
in regional and global contexts
The conference theme triggers an interplay between society, ecology and economy, education, research and innovation and spans the boundaries between diverse scientific disciplines, including, for example, computer science, engineering, education, natural sciences, humanities, economics, art and design, philosophy and theology…
Innovation is the key to mastering diverse challenges in a rapidly changing world in the age of Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence. Creative ideas, scientific expertise and research outputs are relevant sources but to maximize impact it is necessary to turn them into societal and economic value in the form of new products, processes and services to maximize impact.
One the one hand, the world’s innovation capacity is concentrated in a few global centres that are closely connected to top-ranked universities and in many aspects controlled by powerful executives of the major (technology) companies whose products, services and platforms shape our daily lives.
One the other hand, it is evident that regional innovation ecosystems are particularly important for human-centred, challenge-based innovation that is promoted by regionally-anchored higher education institutions that play an important role in their communities as well as small and medium-sized enterprises that make significant contributions to resilient and sustainable economic output within and for their regions. Recent publications and policy-reports point out that especially in Europe innovation needs a strong push and closing existing innovation gaps is key.
IAFeS therefore invites experienced experts from science and practice as well as young talents and any interested people to an interdisciplinary dialogue about innovation and impact in the age of digital transformation and artificial intelligence in regional and global contexts during the 22nd NETTIES Conference, 19 – 20 May 2025 in St. Pölten/Austria.
How do we have to shape (higher) education, research and innovation to increase societal and economic impact? How can global innovations in the age of digital transformation and AI serve regional needs to create human-centered impact? How can regional innovation ecosystems can be strengthened? How can regional innovation create global impact?
These and numerous other questions about Innovation and Impact – human centered solutions in the age of digital transformation and AI can only be answered through close collaboration between a wide range of disciplines, industries and generations. IAFeS therefore invites experienced experts from science and practice as well as young talents and any interested people to an interdisciplinary dialogue during the 22nd NETTIES conference, 19 – 20 May 2025 in St. Pölten/Austria.
Sub-Topics
Contributions to the 22nd Netties Conference may relate to (but are not limited to) any of the following subtopics:
- Innovation & Knowledge Management
- Impact Driven Research & Advanced Research Assessment
- Digital Solutions & Deep Tech for Regions
- AI Impact on Education and Research – Technological and Ethical Considerations
- AI Divides / AI Includes – Biases & Gaps between North and South, East and West, urban and rural regions
- Creative Industries for Regions Identity
- Digital Health, Wellbeing and Social Inclusion for Regions
- Rotting Brians? – Effects and impact of social media on regional and global levels
- Any other sub-topic related to innovation and impact
Formats
IAFeS is looking for contributions to the 22nd Netties-Conference in one of the following formats:
- Keynotes
(20min presentation + 10min discussion; only on invitation) - Scientific Presentations
(15min presentation of scientific results, good practices,… + 5min discussion) - Short Pitches
(5min presentation of provocative thoughts, creative ideas, visionary approaches,…) - Co-Creation Workshops
(90-180 minutes; any interactive workshop format for co-ideation, co-creation and group discussion)
- Panel Discussions
(60 minutes; 3 experts, 1 host/moderator)
Application
Submit an abstract of your contribution (max. 1 page) that indicates the associated subtopic (if applicable) and the format and includes the title, up to five keywords, a short description and links to additional information (optional) together with your short bio (max. 200 words) as soon as possible but no later than 17 March 2025 to office@eudres.eu
Notification of Acceptance
31 March 2025
Conference Fee
80 Euro
25 Euro for students
Free of Charge for registered student participants
Free of Charge for IAFeS members
Free of Charge for employees of (associated) members of the European University E³UDRES²
Program
DAY I – 19 May 2025
| 09:00 CET: | Registration & Welcome Coffee |
| 09:45 CET: | Welcome at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences Gabriele Permoser (STPUAS & E³UDRES²) |
| 10:00 CET: | Pre-Conference Poster-Sessions – Applied Research with Impact (Prospective) E³UDRES² Research Centers of Excellence Local Impulse, Global Waves – Student Innovation |
| 12:00 CET: | Lunch Break |
| 13:15 CET: | Official Opening of the 22nd IAFeS NETTIES Conference Radu Vasiu (IAFeS President, UPT), Hannes Raffaseder (E³UDRES² & STPUAS) |
| 13:30 CET: | Workshop – Generative Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing Facilitation: Anna Hintikka, Ville Pahlsten (JAMK, Finland) |
| 15:00 CET: | Coffee Break |
| Online-Session I (Chair: Radu Vasiu) | |
| 15:30 CET: | Navigating Digital Transformation: The Role of Micro-Credentials in Lifelong Learning Vlad Mihaescu (UPT, Romania) |
| 15:50 CET: | Digital Tools and Techniques for Mastering Engineering Mechanics Concepts Daniela Delia Alic, Carmen Inge Alic, Cristina Carmen Miklos, Imre Zsolt Miklos (UPT, Romania) |
| 16:10 CET: | From research to real-world impact: Designing human-centric AI solutions for sustainable societal and economic value Konstantinos Kalemis (Nat. Center for Local Government and Public Administration, Greece) |
| 16:30 CET: | Short Pitches & Discussion Artificial Intelligence and Religions: Unbelievable? Peter Bender (HFD, Germany) Artificial Intelligence and Arts: Uncertainty? Hannes Raffaseder (STPUAS, Austria) GreenTouch: Co-Creating XR for Planetary Health in Occupational Therapy Sophie Westfahl (STPUAS, Austria) |
| 17:00 CET: | Coffee Break |
| 17:15 CET: | IAFeS – International Association for eScience – Past, Present and Future eScience & International academic collaboration – Experiences and recommendations from three decades of IAFeS Johann Günther (former IAFeS Secretary General) Panel-Discussion |
| 18:00 CET: | Get Together |
DAY II – 20 May 2025
| 09:15 CET: | Meet & Greet, Welcome & Introduction Radu Vasiu (IAFeS-President) |
| Session I (Chair: Radu Vasiu) | |
| 09:30 CET: | Manipulating AI Systems in the Data Cleansing Stage Peter Kieseberg, Simon Tjoa (STPUAS, Austria) |
| 09:50 CET: | Toward Sustainable AI via Computationally Efficient Deep Neural Models Cătălin Daniel Căleanu (UPT, Romania); Marina Adriana Mercioni (UMFT, Romania) |
| 10:10 CET: | Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges Marina Adriana Mercioni (UMFT, Romania), Cătălin Daniel Căleanu (UPT, Romania) |
| 10:30 CET: | Multidisciplinary Cyber Security Tabletop Exercises including Legal Aspects Peter Kieseberg, Melisa Gafic, Simon Tjoa (STPUAS, Austria) |
| 10:50 CET: | Coffee Break |
| Session II (Chair: Hannes Raffaseder) | |
| 11:10 CET: | AI Impact on Higher Education Diana Andone (UPT, Romania) |
| 11:30 CET: | Intelligence for Sustainability – A Use Case in Food Waste Reduction Peter Kieseberg (STPUAS, Austria) |
| 11:50 CET: | Uncovering AI-Powered Research and Education Infrastructure: A Linux-Based Approach for Ethical and Scalable Integration Robert-Nicolae Bejinaru (UPT Master Student, Romania) |
| 12:05 CET: | How to look at the New Age of Digital transformation and AI from the Higher Education, Research and Innovation point of view Tatiana Perna (UPT Master Student, Romania) |
| 12:20 CET: | Lunch Break |
| Online-Session II (Chair: Radu Vasiu) | |
| 13:30 CET: | Human-Centered Analysis of Ocean Climate Changes Driven by Innovations in AI, IoT, and Citizen Science Muguras Mocofan, Dan Mihailescu (UPT, Romania) |
| 13:50 CET: | Bridging the AI innovation gap: Strengthening regional ecosystems through human-centered digital transformation Konstantinos Kalemis (Nat. Center for Local Government and Public Administration, Greece) |
| 14:10 CET: | Challenges in popularizing Blockchain Technologies among non-technical audiences Andrei Ternauciuc, Victor Holotescu, Carmen Holotescu (UPT, Romania) |
| Session III (Chair: Diana Andone) | |
| 14:30 CET: | The Role of Cross-Industry Collaboration in Ethical AI Development Anathi Sokhetye, Mzuchumile Makalima (MATE, Hungary) |
| 14:50 CET: | Blockchain Technologies in Higher Education Radu Vasiu (UPT, Romania) |
| 15:10 CET: | Blockchain Innovation for Social Impact Bunea Sergiu (UPT Master Student, Romania) |
| 15:30 CET: | Coffee Break |
| Session IV (Chair: Hannes Raffaseder) | |
| 16:00 CET: | Where You Come from Matters: Racial Sentiment Bias in Large Language Models Beatrice Steiner (STPUAS, Austria) |
| 16:20 CET: | Graffiti, Locality, and the Crisis of Authenticity Yulia Belinskaya (STPUAS, Austria) |
| 17:20 CET: | 22nd IAFeS Netties Conference – Summary, Conclusions, Closing & Farewell Radu Vasiu, Hannes Raffaseder (IAFeS) |
Cooperation
As part of the E³UDRES² Science Festival the 22nd Netties Conference is co-hosted together with E³UDRES², the Engaged and Entrepreneurial European University as Driver for European Smart and Sustainable Regions (www.eudres.eu) and St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (https://www.fhstp.ac.at/en).
E³UDRES² Science Festival
As the NETTIES Conference is part of the E³UDRES² Science Festival; participants are welcome to other events and activities like:
19-20 May 2025: Pint of Science (additional entrance fee)
21 May 2025: Science Communication Workshop (free access)
21 May 2025: International Workshop on Academic Careers (free access)
21 May 2025: E³UDRES² Research Showcase (free access)
Event location
St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, the Austria Campus of the European University E³UDRES² Campus Platz 1, 3100 St. Pölten / Austria, www.fhstp.ac.at
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