AGENDA OF BUILDING BRIDGES 2026

12:30-14:30

Academia Europaea Hubs’ meeting (closed meeting)

Special Event Organised by the Academia Europaea Budapest Knowledge HUB  aebudapest@office.mta.hu

AE Hubs Directors and staff members are invited to introduce their current activities, strategic goals and plans for the future.

In addition to the Hubs presentations a representative of the Translational European-Asian Network (TEA-NET) will also give an introduction.

The main aim of the meeting is to foster a discussion about potential cooperation and collaboration and share common challenges and good practices.

Venue: Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)

14:30-15:00

Coffee Break

15:00-17:00

Presentation of “From Knowledge to Action” projects

Academia Europaea (AE) Budapest Hub, with the support of Academia Europaea, coordinates the "From Knowledge to Activity" initiative. The program aims to translate academic knowledge into real-world impact across Europe by supporting young researchers and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. The program is designed to amplify the societal and policy impact of science across Europe through high-impact publications as a result of the projects. The list of the 27 projects selected for this initiative, including detailed descriptions in PDF files corresponding to each project is available at this link:

From Knowledge to Action projects

Each project will have the opportunity to be presented in a short, 10-15-minute presentation. Highlights of key initiatives and impact-driven projects will be showcased.

Preliminary list of presentations:

1.      István Hatvani and Virgil Dragusin: Isotope hydrological data in supporting the sustainable management of the thermal aquifer at Băile Herculane, Romania;

2.      Katalin Solymosi: Empowering young scientists as stakeholders in university decision-making;

3.      Enikő Németh T and Éva Szabó.: Developing a Linguistic-Based Fake News Screener in the Field of Healthcare;

4.      Eszter Novák-Gselmann: Empowering women in science in the Danube Region;

5.      Zsófia Németh: Investigating the Effect of Social Support on Health-Promoting Behaviors among European Citizens

6.      Katalin Solymosi: Strengthening Participation of Widening Countries in EU R&I Programmes

7.      Bertalan Tordai: Changes in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among immigrants in the EU: The role of sociocultural and demographic factors

8.      Tünde Szalay-Frank: Investigating the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in EU healthcare workers

9.      Sierd Cloetingh and István Bozsó: Probing the connections between deep earth processes and surface movements: what we can learn from remote sensing for mitigating natural and anthropogenic hazards?

Venue: Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)

15:00-17:00

AE Budapest Hub Symposium: Science-Driven Transformation of Educational Quality: From Systemic Inequality to Evidence-Based Practice 

The central aim of this symposium is to advance the quality of education at both macro and micro levels, grounded in the well-established understanding that both educational inequalities and the “one-size-fits-all” approach hinder student achievement and system effectiveness.

Presenters:

Prof. Mari-Pauliina Vainikainen (Tampere University, Finland)

Prof. Gyöngyvér Molnár (University of Szeged)

Venue: Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)

17:30-19:30

Meeting Of The Board Of Trustees of Academia Europaea (closed meeting)

Venue: HUN-REN Head Office

8:00-9:00

Registration

Venue: Bálna (Whale Event Center)

INTERNAL MEETINGS 

9:00-13:00

Class A1 – Humanities and Arts (Pálffy Room)

Class A2 – Social Sciences (Hunyadi Room)

Class B – Exact Sciences (Aggházy Room)

Class C – Life Sciences (Hadik Room)

10:00-11:30

SAPEA Board Meeting (closed session) (Kinizsi Room)

11:30-15:30

13:00-14:00

Lunch Break

14:00-16:00

Class A1 – Humanities and Arts (Pálffy Room)

Class A2 – Social Sciences (Hunyadi Room)

Class B – Exact Sciences  (Aggházy Room)

Class C – Life Sciences (Hadik Room)

16:00-16:30

Coffee Break

16.30-17:15

Special Lecture from the Academia Europaea College of Excellence by Linda J. Colley, MAE:

Edward Gibbon, Ancient Rome, and Modern De-Colonization

Chair: Prof. Björn Wittrock, Director of the College of Excellence and Chair of Class A2

(Zrínyi Room)

17:15-17:40

Technical Break

17:40-19:40

Academia Europaea Annual General Meeting

(Zrínyi Room)

19:40-21:00

Opening of the Conference and Welcome Reception

PLENARY CONFERENCE

8:30-9:00

Registration

Venue: Bálna (Whale Event Center)

9:00-10:00

Opening of the Plenary Conference

Donald Dingwell, MAE, President of Academia Europaea

Balázs Gulyás, MAE, President of HUN-REN

Special Keynote Lecture: Prof. Konstantin Novoselov, MAE, Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

(Zrínyi Room)

10:00-11:00

SAPEA Event “Science Advice for Policy during Turbulent Times” (Zrínyi Room)

11:00-11:30

Coffee Break

EXACT SCIENCES PLENARY SESSION                                                              

11:30-13:30

Earth’s Pulse: Science for a Sustainable Future

Chair: Paolo Papale, MAE

Stefan Hell, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014, MAE

“Molecule-scale resolution and dynamics in fluorescence microscopy”

 Sierd Cloetingh, MAE, former President of AE

 “Diving Deep: Earth System Dynamics and Its Impact on Environment and Sustainable Geo-Energy”

 John Pickett, MAE

 “Chemistry for Sustainable Human Health and Food Production"

(Zrínyi Room)

13:30-14:30

Lunch Break

LIFE SCIENCES PLENARY SESSION                                                              

14:30-17:00

Chair: Éva Kondorosi, MAE

Academia Europaea Sydney Brenner Medal 2026 Lecture:

Meritxell Huch, MAE: „Organoid Models and their Applications in Biomedical Research”,

Chair: Balázs Gulyás, MAE

Laudator: Philip Ingham, MAE

Paul Schulze-Lefert: „The Plant Microbiome – from Structure to Function”

Irene Tracey, MAE: “Seeing Pain, Curing Pain”

(Zrínyi Room)

17:00-17:30

Coffee Break

17:30-18:30

Welcome to New Members of Academia Europaea

(Zrínyi Room)

19:00-21:00

President's Dinner (requiring prior registration)

PLENARY CONFERENCE

8:30-9:00

Registration

Venue: Bálna (Whale Event Center)

9:00-9:30

Special Lecture of AE Task Force Environment, Climate, Sustainability:

“A Lost Decade? Assessing the State of the Global Ecological Emergency”

Helena Bilandzic, MAE

Stephen Evans, MAE

Katalin Solymosi, AE Budapest HUB, YAE

(Zrínyi Room)

9:30-10:30

Academia Europaea Erasmus Medal 2026 Lecture

Chair: Prof. Björn Wittrock

Laudator: Prof. Björn Wittrock

Quentin Skinner, MAE: “How Should We Think About Liberty?”

(Zrínyi Room)

10:30-11:00

Coffee Break

SOCIAL SCIENCES PLENARY SESSION                                                              

11:00-13:00

Chair:  Prof. Björn Wittrock

Prof. Stein Kuhnle: Survival of the Welfare State?

Mirjam Kuenkler, MAE– Title - TBC

Anna Kuppuswamy, YAE – Title -TBC

(Zrínyi Room)

13:00-14:00

Lunch Break

HUMANITIES AND ARTS PLENARY SESSION                                                              

14:00-16:00

Pandemics and epidemics - an interdisciplinary debate

Chair: Genoveva Marti, MAE

Aditi Lahiri, MAE, Class A1

Amélia Polónia, MAE, Class A1

Eörs Szathmáry, MAE, Class C

(Zrínyi Room)

16:00-16:30

Coffee Break

16:30-17:10

André Mischke Prize Lecture, Young Academy of Europe

Ieva Plikusiene, Vilnius University, Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences: "From Physical Chemistry to Science Policy: A Path to Influence Through Interdisciplinarity"

(Zrínyi Room)

17:10-18:10

Panel Discussion on AI organised by the Young Academy of Europe (Zrínyi Room)

18:10-18:30

Closing of the Conference

Guided Tour and Visit of the Building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences History and Art Collection (Budapest)

Visit the Historical Building of the House of Parliament in Hungary (Budapest)

Rókusfalvy Estate TBC – Buffet Lunch, followed by a Wine Tasting combined with an Estate Tour (Departure for Etyek 25 km from Budapest).