An academic journey might span continents and shape a narrative that exemplifies the global nature of intellectual pursuits. PhD Candidate and Researcher of Vilnius University (VU) in the field of Energy Economics Mahyar Kamali Saraji shares his experience of an individual career path led by passions for critical thinking, writing, and reviewing. The scholar feels fortunate to find himself in an environment full of curious, inventive and visionary people and sees it as an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy through his written contributions.

MRU Adviser to Deputy Rector on Sustainable Development, Dr. Nomeda Gudelienė has been elected by the Directorate-General for Climate Action of the European Commission as a Climate Pact Ambassador for a one-year term. The position provides opportunities to share information and good practices, together with Mykolas Romeris University community and partners to find innovative and creative solutions to develop sustainable environment and economy.

A sustainable, cohesive, environmentally friendly and considerate attitude is a necessity in everyday life. Higher education institutions play a key role in the context of developing a responsible society, so it is not surprising that higher education ratings are also starting to pay more attention to this topic.

On December 14-15, Vilnius University (VU) Faculty of Economics and Business Administration hosted the International Scientific Conference “World Finance and Banking Symposium”. More than 100 international scholars, national bank researchers, and academics from prestigious universities from 35 countries gathered in the festively decorated city of Vilnius during these days.

Researchers are often approached by medical professionals or people in business to solve challenges that they cannot solve on their own. Such requests are also received by the Bioanalysis Department of the Biochemistry Institute of the Life Sciences Center of Vilnius University (VU), headed by Dr. Marius Dagys. According to the Head of the Department, biosensors developed by the team will soon appear in intensive care units, which will help patients in the hospital maintain vital functions. And this is just one example.

The first electronic journal was created using AI tools such as ‘ChatGPT’ and ‘Midjourney’ and covered AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) related topics. The special publication was developed by the "Construction and Architecture" team, which included Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH) alumni Mintare Paleviciute, Simonas Barsteiga, and Zygimantas Pagalys, an engineer at the Center for Digital and Information Modeling Technologies.

This year’s December 15th saw the occurrence of the conference on the competencies and qualifications improvement project for Vilnius University (VU) doctors (Project No. 09.4.2-ESFA-V-715-06-0001) – “Changes in Residency Training Systems: Challenges and Opportunities of Competency Integration”. The conference mainly addressed the integration of stepwise competency concepts (Entrustable Professional Activities, EPA) into residency training programmes.

Although the first article about gene editing scissors CRISPR-Cas9 was published by Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys and his team just 11 years ago, the benefits of this technology for society can already be felt. “It was recently announced that the UK has registered the first CRISPR-Cas9 based therapy for the treatment of inherited diseases,” the researcher says. We are talking with a researcher about the CRISPR-Cas9 technology and its discovery path.

Leipzig University will open this series of sessions devoted to presenting best practices from Arqus partners working in the entrepreneurship and business field.

On November 25-30, astrophysicists Juan Carlos Suárez Yanes (group leader), Antonio García Hernández, Sebastià Barceló Forteza and Giovanni Mirouh from the Group of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis at the University of Granada visited Lithuania. The University of Granada (Universidad de Granada) is one of the ten ARQUS European University Alliance members, along with Vilnius University.