The doctoral student of the Institute of Social Sciences and Applied Informatics at VU Kaunas Faculty Mahyar Kamali Saraji (social sciences, economics (S 004)) will defend his PhD thesis “Analyzing Challenges to the Low-Carbon Energy Transition in the EU”.

The defence will take place on 10 December 2024 at 10:00, in the Auditorium No 10, Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty. Address: Muitinės Str. 14, Kaunas, Lithuania.

Language of the dissertation defence: English.

Scientific advisor – Prof. Dr (HP) Dalia Štreimikienė

Dissertation Defence Board:

Prof. Dr Jelena Stankevičienė – Chair of the Board (Vilnius University, social sciences, economics – S 004);

Prof. Dr Diana Cibulskienė (Vilnius University, social sciences, economics – S 004);

Prof. Dr Rasa Kanapickienė (Vilnius University, social sciences, economics – S 004);

Prof. Dr Astrida Miceikienė (Vytautas Magnus University, social sciences, economics – S 004);

Prof. Dr Tudor Edu (Romanian – American University, social sciences, management – S 003).

Doctoral Dissertation

 “GAISO project is an important step not only in the field of cyber security, but also in the academic context of scientific research, when the systems that allow easier identification of cyber threats and more effective management of them are being developed. It is exciting that the researchers of the Institute of Social Sciences and Applied Informatics can contribute to solving important contemporary problems in scientific practice with their knowledge and research,” says Assist. Dr Indrė Ščiukauskė, the director of the Institute of Social Sciences and Applied Informatics, Vilnius University (VU) Kaunas Faculty. The research project “Research on Cyber Resilience Through Application of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Chief Information Security Officer Operations – GAISO” is financed by the Research Council of Lithuania.

The project financed under the designated programme "Information technologies for the development of science and knowledge society" will contribute to the activities of this programme in order to achieve the use of artificial intelligence research with high applied potential for new scientific and technological results and new research directions, as well as newly emerging and rapidly developing scientific areas important for the research development in cyber security.

On 25 October, 2024, on the second day of the international scientific conference "Beyond Words: Persuasive Narratives and Multimodal Discourse", the monograph "Approaches to Multimodality: Rhetoric and Stylistics in Public Discourse" was presented to Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty community and the conference participants.

This volume was prepared by the research group "Multimodality in Public Discourse", working at the Institute of Languages, Literature and Translation Studies of Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty. The members of this research group are Assoc. Prof. Dr Saulutė Juzelėnienė, Assoc. Prof. Dr Skirmantė Šarkauskienė, Assoc. Prof. Dr Rita Baranauskienė, Assoc. Prof. Dr Eglė Gabrėnaitė, Assoc. Prof. Dr Skirmantė Biržietienė, and Assoc. Prof. Dr Jurgita Kerevičienė. The monograph was edited by Assoc. Prof. Dr Saulutė Juzelėnienė, Assoc. Prof. Dr Skirmantė Šarkauskienė and Assoc. Prof. Dr Rita Baranauskienė and published by the internationally renowned publishing house Brill (https://brill.com/display/title/69417).

Dr Edgaras Abromavičius, Head of Esports and Games at the Lithuanian Football Federation, lecturer and researcher in interactive media marketing, teaches esports management and media communication at Vilnius University Business School. His research and practice in the esports and gaming industry is aimed at developing international sports projects. He has already contributed to the organisation of the FIBA Esports World Championship, developed the Lithuanian football and basketball esports teams, and joined the development of the esports area of Fenerbahçe Club.

He will present how esports innovation is helping sports organisations expand internationally and achieve incredible results at the 19th Prof. Vladas Gronskas International Scientific Conference on 29 November.

Esports potential in Lithuania is not yet realised

According to Abromavičius, the growth of the esports industry in Lithuania is obvious and the potential is great, both in organisational and sporting terms. He is convinced that the potential of esports will be realised when the talents and the organisations that support them unite. This will allow the establishment of a particularly high value-added industry in Lithuania.

"We have talented players who can reach heights, and sports organisations and universities are actively contributing to the development of this field by providing the necessary support and building infrastructure. The biggest challenges we face are the building of the right infrastructure and consistent player development," he says.

Europe is facing a significant shortage of cybersecurity professionals (about 4 million workers, World Economic Forum, 2024), but at the same time a huge talent pool is not being tapped. Despite the growing demand for IT professionals, only one in five ICT professionals is a woman and only a third of STEAM graduates are women, according to the 2023 Women in the Digital Sector report. This imbalance not only highlights the gender gap, but also reflects a missed opportunity to fill IT positions with talented women who could help address the shortage of cybersecurity skills and professionals.

To address this situation, the workshop “Challenges of Women's Leadership in Cybersecurity” brought together IT experts and women leaders to explore the barriers that women face in entering and progressing in the cybersecurity field. Organised by CyberAgent, the event focused on strategies to promote greater inclusion and exploit women's vast potential in this vital sector and showcased examples of good practice.

The event was moderated by Saskia Brugman, Women4Cyber Strategic Partnership and Activities Coordinator.

Insights From the CyberAgent Project

Dr Renata Danielienė, CyberAgent project coordinator, shared insights from the latest cybersecurity skills gap survey conducted by the project. The study surveyed 190 education representatives from partner countries about the cybersecurity skills gap, curricula and the challenges of engaging women. In terms of women's challenges, respondents strongly felt that societal stereotypes and a lack of information about career opportunities are the main barriers for women entering the IT and cyber security field. In addition, respondents identified a lack of mentoring, role models and flexible working conditions as some of the main challenges.

“To contribute to solving these problems, we need to create a more inclusive environment and offer training on a variety of cybersecurity topics,” said Dr Renata Danielienė, “Mentoring programmes, female role models and support networks are essential to ensure that more women see cybersecurity as a viable career path.”

Dr Renata Danielienė invited to read the project report “Cybersecurity Change Agent Training Needs Assessment Report for SMEs,” which is available in English and the languages of the project partner countries, for a more comprehensive understanding of the research on the cybersecurity skills gap, identified challenges, and the underrepresentation of women.

The Global Perspective on Women's Role in Cybersecurity

Lessie Skiba, Director of Global Outreach and Partner Engagement at the Cyber Readiness Institute, focused on human behaviour and leadership in organizations during her presentation.

Lessie Skiba emphasized that women can contribute to shaping a cybersecurity culture within companies, as their skills often help create more flexible and inclusive environments. The speaker highlighted that women make up only 26% of the global cybersecurity workforce, but those who establish themselves in this field often retain their positions longer than men. She also emphasized that women have strong communication skills that can help change organizational behaviour and promote the adoption of cybersecurity practices, regardless of their technical background.

Lessie Skiba also introduced the Cyber Readiness Program, a free resource designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises implement key cybersecurity strategies, such as password management and fraud prevention. The Cyber Readiness Program is available in 4 languages, including English.

Spotlight on Spain: The Situation for Women in Cybersecurity

Jeimy Poveda, a privacy and digital rights specialist, Director of Dataseg.es, and board member of the Women in STEAM Empowerment Canarias organization from Spain, highlighted that women in this sector make up only 25% of all specialists and that change is happening very slowly – the proportion of women has increased by only 1% per year. Although STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields are becoming increasingly popular among women in Spain, many still do not choose cybersecurity as a career path.

Jeimy Poveda presented statistics related to women's participation in cybersecurity:
- only 18% of cybersecurity university graduates in Spain are women, indicating that the future workforce is still very disproportionate in terms of gender;
- only 6.9% of Spanish companies indicate that their cybersecurity workforce is equally distributed between men and women, while 46% of companies acknowledge that significantly more men than women work in this field.

Jeimy Poveda introduced the Canary Islands Women in STEAM Talent Map, a WISE Canarias project, which is dedicated to women working in STEM fields. The project aims to give women more visibility and help them be recognized as potential leaders. This initiative seeks to inspire women and girls to choose STEM careers by highlighting regional role models and leaders whose achievements could serve as an example.

Jeimy Poveda emphasized that this initiative is not just for the most famous or recognizable women – the project aims to showcase as many diverse women as possible who work in STEM and cybersecurity, including those who are just starting their careers.

Insights from the CyberAgent Project, Renata Danielienė

Women in Cyber: Navigating the Challenges of Cyber Readiness, Lessie Skiba

Spanish Women in Cybersecurity, Jeimy Poveda

Videos of seminar speakers: www.youtube.com/@CyberAgentEU>

Project coordinator: Kaunas Faculty of Vilnius University.
Project Leader Dr Renata Danielienė, Institute of Social Sciences and Applied Informatics.

Stay updated on future events and explore the full report on the CyberAgent project website: www.cyberagents.eu

Project consorcium: VU Kauno Fakultetas/VU Kaunas Faculty, Women4Cyber Foundation, Olemisen Balanssia ry, Prios, HackerU Polska, EVM, TIMTAL, GCM

#EUProject #CyberAgent #CyberAgentEU #Innovation #Cybersecurity #ErasmusPlus #Cybersecurity #SMEs

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

The conference “Beyond Words: persuasive narratives and multimodal discourse”, organised by the research group “Multimodality in Public Discourse”, Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty, Institute of Languages, Literature and Translation Studies, aimed to reveal the symbiosis of language, visuals, and narratives in constructing persuasive communication. Experienced, renowned, and young scholars from Canada, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Finland, Ethiopia, USA, Italy, Albania, India, Bulgaria, South Korea, Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, UAE, France, UK, Czech Republic, Kuwait and, of course, Lithuania presented the results of their research on various topics related to multimodal discourse. The discussions on whether humans will preserve language as a distinctive feature in the face of increasingly daring other forms of communication, the burgeoning influence of artificial intelligence driven by linguistic models, etc. took place.

“We are glad that the Kaunas Faculty has managed to bring together multimodality researchers. Such a wide geography of conference participants allows us to understand the interconnectedness of text, image, sound, gestures and narratives in forming persuasive communication in a much wider cultural context. The discussions have generated ideas for further research that could shed light on the growing importance of multimodal discourse in contemporary communication," said the Associate Professor and the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee Saulutė Juzelėnienė (Vilnius University, Lithuania).

On 24th October, the delegation from Astana IT University of Kazakhstan – First Vice-Rector, Doctor of Economics, Professor Omirbayev Serik, Vice-Rector for Science and Innovation Andrii Biloshchytskyi and Director of the Quality Assurance Department Khanat Kassenov – visited VU Kaunas Faculty.

During the visit, the participants discussed the possibilities of cooperation in student and lecturer exchange, joint research activities and joint projects in order to strengthen the internationalisation of VU KnF Bachelor's degree programme Information Systems and Cyber Security.

"It is gratifying to see the international community that has been fostered for a number of years and whose importance is only growing in the current context. Opportunities for the rapid exchange of knowledge and practices for both lecturers and students, and for the development of joint projects that leverage the strengths of both sides, are becoming vital," says Assoc Prof Giedrius Romeika.

Slovenian economist and philosopher Prof. Vlado Dimovski teaches at the Ljubljana School of Economics and Business (Slovenia) and at universities worldwide. During his scientific career, he has led many research projects and published numerous articles. His main areas of expertise are organisational learning, knowledge management and leadership.

At the 19th International Prof. Vladas Gronskas Scientific Conference on November 29th, Prof. Vlado Dimovski will be speaking about the role of academia in shaping contemporary management practice, continuous learning in organisations and the challenges of the future for organisations.