International conference “Achieving Impact: SSH in Horizon 2020” in Greece was the place where Dr. Vilma Tamulienė (Department of Business Economics and Management) looked for international relations and collaboration possibilities that would involve research carried out by the scientists of Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities.
The conference – a platform to launch scientific research collaboration
The historic capital of Europe – Athens – held the international conference “Achieving Impact: SSH in Horizon 2020” which also included a solid event for the search of scientific research partners. It had over 350 members: scientists-researchers from universities and non-governmental institutions, and business representatives from over 30 countries, i.e. Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Italy, Great Britain and others. The participants of the meeting – representatives of socio-economic sciences and humanities – had a goal of developing relations and collaboration between researchers in Europe and outside the European boundaries according to the strategy “EUROPA 2020” or the General programme for research and innovation 2014-2020. Intensive international collaboration between scientists is included in this strategy’s financial instrument “Horizon 2020” challenge for the society “Europe in a Changing World: Inclusive, Innovative and Reflective Societies”.
Interest in scientific research funding opportunities
A large group of scientists from Lithuanian universities visited the international event in Athens, i.e. Assoc. Prof. Dr. R. Žiliukaitė (Vilnius University), Assoc. Prof. Dr. D.Rutkauskienė (Kaunas University of Technology), Assoc. Prof. Dr. E. Butkevičienė (Kaunas University of Technology), Prof. Dr. M. Petraitė (Kaunas University of Technology), Prof. Dr. A.Valackienė (Kaunas University of Technology), Prof. Dr. D. Dumčiuvienė, Assoc. Prof. Dr. R. Vaičekauskaitė (Klaipėda University), Dr. R. Vismantienė (Klaipėda University), Assoc. Prof. Dr. I. Valantinė (Lithuanian Sports University) an other science researchers. The representative of our Faculty was Dr. Vilma Tamulienė, a scientist and lecturer at the Department of Business Economics and Management with her research interests encompassing marketing, market research, consumer behaviour, social-ethical marketing business orientation topics.
The researcher at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities was interested in the Horizon 2020 opportunities to get research funding for the representatives of social sciences and humanities. The first day of the international conference was devoted to presentations by Prof. John Yfantopoulos (Greece), Prof. Irene Hardill (United Kingdom), Angela, Scindler-Daniels (Germany), Dr. Evi Sachini (Greece), Prof. Nikos Demertzis (Greece), Dr. Eva Hoogland (Belgium), Prof. Ellen Hazelkorn (Ireland) and others.
Valuable bilateral scientific meetings
According to Vilma Tamulienė, the second day of the conference was devoted to bilateral meetings with scientists from Greece, United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, Poland and other countries. V. Tamulienė introduced them with the scientific research in the fields of socio-economics and humanities carried out by scientists at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities and the Department of Business Economics and Management (Prof. D. Štreimikienė, Prof. R. Čiegis, Assoc. Prof. A. Mikalauskienė, Dr. I. Kiaušienė, Dr. R. Grunda, Assoc. Prof. D. Satkauskaitė, Assoc. Prof. I. Šarkiūnaitė, Prof. V. Jurėnienė), i.e. research related to cultural business, leadership, sustainable economics development, gender equality, country’s image and identity and labour market.
Vilma Tamulienė connected with not only scientists from across Europe (Prof. A. Ribot (Spain), Prof. A. Pettersson (Sweden), Dr. Ch. Mamas (Great Britain), Dr. M. Olszak (Poland), S. Ballarin (Italy)), but also ith active researchers from Lithuania. Plans for further collaboration were discussed with Assoc. Prof. Rūta Žiliukaitė (Vilnius University), Assoc. Prof. Danguolė Rutkausienė (Kaunas University of Technology), Assoc. Prof. Eglė Butkevičienė (Kaunas University of Technology) and Rita Vaičekauskaitė.
V. Tamulienė is grateful to MITA project’s “Development international researcher competence (TYKU)” supervisor Laima Bagdonavičienė for organising a well-run trip to Athens.
Photos taken from Dr. Vilma Tamulienė’s personal archive:
1st photo – opening of the international conference.
2nd photo – Dr. V. Tamulienė and Prof. J. Yfantopoulos (Faculty of Administration Sciences, University of Athens).