Pope Francis at Universidade Católica:
“Replace fears with dreams”

 

“Replace fears with dreams. Do not be managers of fears, but entrepreneurs of dreams”. These were the words of Pope Francis at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, during the Meeting with University Students, which took place on August 3.

The Holy Father also asked young people to ensure that “academic titles are not just a selfish and personal privilege”. He also said that he dreams of a “Generation of masters. Masters of humanity, masters of compassion, masters of new opportunities for the planet and its inhabitants. Masters of Hope”.

At the ceremony, the President of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, welcomed the Holy Father and after a presentation about the University said: “We are a University with a strong social sense, awarding scholarships and prizes to more than twenty per cent of our students”. Isabel Capeloa Gil added that “the University is by definition a space of search, risk, discomfort, dialogue and welcome”.

The President also emphasised that “in the face of realities marked by exclusion and inequality, in a time of uncertainty, the University stands as the guardian of Hope, which means promoting the capacity to dream, helping to discern, listening to the voices around us, listening to the time, intervening in it, defending the dignity of women and men, believing in their capacity for transformation”.

The Address of the Holy Father 

“Dear brothers and sisters: Good morning!

Thank you, Madam President, for your words. Thank you. You said that we all feel like “pilgrims”. It is a beautiful word, whose meaning deserves reflection. It means, literally, to leave aside the daily routine and set out on a journey with a goal, to “cross the fields” or “go beyond the limits”, that is, to leave the comfort zone, towards a horizon of meaning. The term “pilgrim” reflects human behaviour, because everyone is called to confront great questions that have no answer, [do not have] a simplistic or immediate answer, but which invite one to undertake a journey, to overcome oneself, to go beyond. This is a process that a university student understands well, because this is how science is born. And this is also how the spiritual quest grows. To go on a pilgrimage is to walk towards a goal or in search of a goal. There is always the danger of walking in a labyrinth, where there is no goal. There is also no way out. Let us be wary of prefabricated formulas – they are labyrinthine – let us be wary of answers that seem to be within reach, of answers that are pulled out of our sleeves like playing cards; let us be wary of proposals that seem to give everything without asking for anything. Let us be suspicious.  Suspicion is a weapon for moving forward and not going round in circles. Suspicion is a weapon for moving forward and not always going round in circles. One of Jesus’ parables says that the one who finds the pearl of great value is the one who searches for it with intelligence and initiative, and who gives everything, risks everything he has to obtain it (cf. Mt 13:45-46). To seek and to risk: these are the two verbs of the pilgrim. To seek and to risk.

Pessoa said, in a troubled but correct way, that “to be dissatisfied is to be a man” (O Quinto Império, in Mensagem). We should not be afraid of feeling restless, of thinking that what we have done is not enough. Being dissatisfied – in this sense and in its right measure – is a good antidote against the presumption of self-sufficiency and against narcissism. Incompleteness defines our condition as seekers and pilgrims, as Jesus says, “we are in the world, but not of the world” (cf. Jn 17:16). We walk “towards”. We are called to something more, to a take-off without which there is no flight. Let us not be alarmed, then, if we find ourselves inwardly thirsty, restless, incomplete, longing for meaning and for the future, longing for the future! And here, along with longing for the future, let us not forget to keep this memory of the future alive. We are not sick, we are alive! Let us worry instead when we are ready to replace the road to travel with a stop at any oasis – even if that comfort is a mirage – when we replace faces with screens, the real with the virtual; when, instead of questions that tear, we prefer easy answers that anaesthetise; and we can find them in any manual of social relations, of how to behave well. Easy answers anaesthetise.

Friends, let me tell you: seek and risk. At this historic moment, the challenges are enormous, the groans are painful – we are living through a third world war in pieces – but we embrace the risk of thinking that we are not in agony, but in labour; we are not at the end, but at the beginning of a great spectacle. And it takes courage to think so. Therefore, be protagonists of a “new choreography” that puts the human person at the centre, be choreographers of the dance of life. I found the President’s words inspiring, especially when she said that “the university does not exist to preserve itself as an institution, but to respond with courage to the challenges of the present and the future”. Self-preservation is a temptation, it is a conditioned reflex of fear, which makes us look at existence in a distorted way. If seeds were preserved, they would completely waste their generative power and condemn us to famine; if winters were preserved, there would be no wonder of spring. So have the courage to replace fears with dreams; replace fears with dreams; do not be managers of fears, but entrepreneurs of dreams!

It would be a waste to think of a university committed to training new generations only to perpetuate the current elitist and unequal system of the world, where higher education is a privilege of the few. If knowledge is not accepted as a responsibility, it becomes sterile. If those who have received higher education – which today, in Portugal and around the world, remains a privilege – do not endeavour to give back part of what they have benefited from, they have not truly understood what has been offered to them. I like to remember that in Genesis, the first questions God asks man are: “Where are you?” (3:9) and “Where is your brother?” (4:9). It would be good to ask ourselves: where am I? Am I locked in my bubble or do I risk leaving my securities to be a practising Christian, a craftsman of justice, a craftsman of beauty? And also: where is my brother? Experiences of fraternal service such as the “Missão País” (Country Mission), and so many others that are born in the academic environment, should be considered indispensable for those who go to university. The diploma, in fact, cannot be seen only as a licence to build personal well-being, no, but as a mandate to dedicate oneself to a more just, more inclusive, that is, more developed society.

I have been told that one of your great poets, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, in an interview that is a kind of testament, to the question: “What would you like to see realised in Portugal in this new century?”, answered without hesitation: “I would like to see social justice, the reduction of the differences between rich and poor” (Interview by Joaci Oliveira, in Cidade Nova, 3/2001). I refer this question to you. Dear students, pilgrims of knowledge, what would you like to see happen in Portugal and in the world? What changes, what transformations? And how can the university, especially Católica, contribute to this?

Beatriz, Mahoor, Mariana, Tomás, thank you for your testimonies; they all had a tone of hope, a charge of realistic enthusiasm, there were no complaints or illusory flights forward. You want to be protagonists, “protagonists of change”, as Mariana said. Listening to you, I remembered a phrase that may be familiar to you, by the writer José de Almada Negreiros: “I dreamed of a country where everyone became a master” (The Invention of the Clear Day). This old man who speaks to you – because I am already old – also dreams that your generation will be a generation of masters: masters of humanity, masters of compassion, masters of new opportunities for the planet and its inhabitants, masters of hope. And masters who will defend the life of the planet, threatened at the moment by serious ecological destruction.

As some of you have said, we must recognise the dramatic urgency of caring for our common home. However, this cannot be done without a conversion of heart and a change in the anthropological vision that underpins economics and politics. We cannot be content with simple palliative measures or timid and ambiguous commitments. In this case, “the middle ground is only a short postponement of the collapse” (Encyclical Letter Laudato si’, 194). Do not forget this. The middle ground is only a short delay from collapse. Rather, it is a matter of taking charge of that which, unfortunately, continues to be postponed, namely the need to redefine what we call progress and evolution. Because in the name of progress, the way has been opened for a great regression. Study well what I am telling you. In the name of progress, the way has been opened for a great regression. You are the generation that can meet this challenge, you have the most advanced scientific and technological tools, but please do not fall into the trap of partial visions.Do not forget that we need an integral ecology; we need to listen to the suffering of the planet alongside the suffering of the poor; we need to put the drama of desertification alongside the drama of refugees, the question of migration alongside the decline in the birth rate; we need to treat the material dimension of life within a spiritual dimension. Not to create polarisations, but to create global visions.

Thank you, Thomas, for saying that “an authentic integral ecology is not possible without God”, that “there can be no future in a world without God”. I would like to tell you to make faith credible through decisions. Because if faith does not generate convincing lifestyles, it does not leaven the dough of the world. It is not enough for a Christian to be convinced, he must be convincing. Our actions are called to reflect the beauty – joyful and radical – of the Gospel. Moreover, Christianity cannot be seen as a fortress surrounded by walls, standing like a bastion against the world. That is why I found Beatriz’s testimony very incisive when she said that it is precisely “from the sphere of culture” that she feels called to live the Beatitudes. In every age, one of the most important tasks of Christians is to recover the meaning of incarnation. Without incarnation, Christianity becomes an ideology, and the temptation of Christian ideologies, in inverted commas, is very current; it is incarnation that allows us to marvel at the beauty that Christ reveals through every brother and sister, every man and woman.

In this regard, it is interesting that in the new Chair dedicated to the “Economy of Francis” they have included the figure of Clara. Indeed, the contribution of women is indispensable. How often, in the collective unconscious, it is thought that women are second-class, that they are substitutes, that they don’t play the first team. And that exists in the collective unconscious. Women’s contribution is indispensable. In fact, in the Bible, we see how the economy of the family is largely in the hands of the woman. She, with her wisdom, is the true “ruler” of the home, whose goal is not exclusively profit, but care, coexistence, the physical and spiritual well-being of all, and also the ability to share with the poor and the stranger. And it is fascinating to undertake economic studies from this perspective, with the intention of restoring to the economy the dignity it deserves, so that it does not remain in the hands of the wild market and speculation.

The Global Compact for Education initiative and the seven principles that establish its architecture include many of these themes, from caring for our common home to the full participation of women to the need to find new ways of understanding economics, politics, development and progress. I invite you to study the Global Compact for Education, to fall in love with it. One of the points it addresses is education for welcome and inclusion. And we cannot pretend that we have not heard the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 25: “I was passing by and they welcomed me” (v. 35). I followed Mahoor’s testimony with emotion, when she evoked what it means to live with “the constant feeling of missing home, family, friends […], of being homeless, without university, without money […], tired and exhausted and overwhelmed by pain and loss”. She told us that she regained hope because some people believed in the transformative impact of the culture of encounter. Every time someone practises a gesture of hospitality, it causes a transformation.

Friends, I am very happy to see you as a living educational community, open to reality and aware that the Gospel is not a mere ornament, but animates the parts and the whole. I know that your journey includes various areas: study, friendship, social service, civil and political responsibility, care for the common home and artistic expression. Being a Catholic university means above all this: that each element is in relationship with the whole and that the whole is found in the parts. In this way, at the same time that we acquire scientific competences, we mature as persons, in knowing ourselves and in discerning our own path. Path yes, labyrinth no. So let’s go ahead! A medieval tradition tells us that when pilgrims on the Way of St James crossed paths, one would greet the other with the exclamation: “Ultreia”, and the other would reply: “et Suseia”. These are expressions of encouragement to continue the search and the risk of walking, saying to each other: “Come on, keep going, keep going!” And that is what I also wish for all of you, with all my heart. Thank you very much.”

Greeting from Isabel Capeloa Gil 

Holy Father,
Welcome! Gathered on this campus of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa are students, professors, collaborators, alumni and friends of our university and other Portuguese and international universities who, as pilgrims, with open hearts, welcome you.

The Universidade Católica Portuguesa, born 56 years ago from the Faculty of Philosophy founded by the Society of Jesus, today has 17 Faculties and 4 campi distributed throughout the national territory (Lisbon, Porto, Braga and Viseu), having also founded the current University of Saint Joseph, in Macau. We have 20,000 students, 25% of whom are international, coming from 108 different countries, and more than 2,000 teachers and collaborators. We are an outgoing university, with a strong social sense and awarding scholarships and prizes to more than 20% of our students. We are particularly proud of our work with young people in social and economic fragility, migrants and refugees, supported under the Pope Francis Fund.

The university is, by definition, a place of search, dialogue and welcome. In the face of realities marked by exclusion and inequality, in a time of uncertainty, the university stands as a guardian of hope, which means promoting the capacity to dream, helping to discern, listening to the voices around us, listening to the time and intervening in it, defending the dignity of women and men and believing in their capacity for transformation. In our work, we combine the search for knowledge in favour of improving the human condition, ethical discernment that guides the possibility of choosing and acting, the cultivation of beauty and aesthetic gesture that is also a search for meaning in the world. The university is therefore a curator of knowledge, a philosopher of action and a manager of beauty.

The Holy Father, in the Encyclical Laudato si’, invites us “to think of one world with a common project” (Laudato si’, 164) and to welcome the world as a “sacrament of communion” (Laudato si’, 9). Science and research require mutual recognition and the ability to transform and transcend, in a community and collaborative engagement. Our proposal is rich in values because it stems from a specific Christian humanist vision of existence. But to honour this tradition, we must constantly challenge ourselves. The university does not exist to preserve itself as an institution, but to respond with courage to the challenges of the present and the future. And so it will always be a project, never a finished work.

The launch of the new Campus Veritati of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, whose first stone His Holiness will bless, extends the welcoming space of our campus, open to the world, to listening and to hope. At this significant moment, we also dedicate to you a gesture of beauty with the gift of the sculpture ‘Lady with a book’, by the sculptor Manuel Rosa, and we offer you knowledge by announcing the creation of the new Chair “Economy of Francesco and Clare”, dedicated to hosting transversal initiatives in all areas of knowledge of the UCP, aimed at promoting the principles of the Economy of Francesco and developing a social model that dignifies people and the environment.

Pope Francis, thank you for the generosity with which you inspire us in our mission. We pray for you. And thank you for your fraternal affection for the protagonists of the future, the young people who are gathering these days in Lisbon and whose voices we will now hear.

No more separation between hard and social science in the age of Artificial Intelligence

Catholic Universities look with trust to the role of AI following the conference “The Future of Catholic Universities in the AI Age,” organized by the international network SACRU and hosted at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, on 13-14 July. Università Cattolica Vice-Rector, Prof. Pier Sandro Cocconcelli, confirmed as Secretary-General of SACRU

 

 

Humanists will have to learn mathematics because Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize their disciplines. There are so many implications that AI is already having on the world, and the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities has chosen to dedicate its first Scientific Colloquium, held in the Milan campus of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore on 13-14 July, to the role of academic institutions in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

More than eighty professors and researchers from Chile, Spain, Australia, the USA, and other countries around the world, together with the eight Rectors and President of the SACRU Universities, came together to discuss how the knowledge and research activities of the Universities in the network can be brought together to help society tackle one of the great challenges facing the world today. The international conference was opened by the keynote lecture of Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. The plenary sessions were chaired and coordinated by Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi, Full Professor at Università Cattolica and Undersecretary of the same Dicastery.

«In these days, we have hosted a Scientific Colloquium on Artificial Intelligence in Milan that addressed the topic not only from a technological point of view and potential social impact,» Prof. Pier Sandro Cocconcelli, Vice Rector at Università Cattolica and reconfirmed as Secretary-General of the SACRU network for the next three years, said. «It also focused on how universities will react to a context change characterizing the educational sector nationally and globally. The eight Universities share a common mission and vision: to educate the younger generations and to produce research that has a true impact on society. To pursue these goals, SACRU has developed a five-year- strategy that includes strong cooperation among the eight Universities.

Marco Carlo Passarotti, Full Professor of Computational Linguistics at Università Cattolica, emphasized the need to educate on Artificial Intelligence, even before involving tools such as ChatGPT in educational processes, in the speech that closed the Colloquium: «This AI education needs to be included in any educational curriculum as early as primary school, to bridge the gap between highly skilled professionals and society. Universities must support primary education on AI with skills and tools.»

This also implies an internal reflection within universities on how to align their teaching curricula with the needs of the job market, increasingly shaped by the spread of Artificial Intelligence: «To support their graduates with the right skills and knowledge, it is mandatory to no longer have disciplinary boundaries and to launch interdisciplinary degree courses and master’s degrees,» Passarotti reiterated.

For example, the humanities can become experimental disciplines thanks to AI: «Humanists have always made use of data,» Passarotti noted, «but they have never had such a large amount of data at their fingertips and such a quality of massive processing. This computational breakthrough does not remove the role of humans; yet, it is a new challenge for them: it puts data and correlations between data in their hands like never before. And it makes their work replicable. No more separation between Humanities and Science disciplines: AI is an opportunity for multidisciplinarity.»

For the Universities of SACRU, Artificial Intelligence does not threaten humans but instead enables them to achieve a greater understanding of themselves and the world, if used correctly. And this is why it is crucial to promote a vision of AI as a catalyst for improving human potential: «Universities have always had a profound influence on individuals and society. Now, universities must play this role to meet the challenge of the necessary evolution of AI towards an approach that puts humans at the center. And Catholic universities have a strong duty to inform about the impact of AI, making it crucial to recognize and harness that impact to steer AI development towards an approach that is willing to respect human dignity, to avoid delegating moral responsibility to machines,» Passarotti concluded.

The outcome of these two valuable days of discussion will be a position paper to be published by the end of the year, which will formalize the Universities’ positions and proposals on the central tasks of universities, i.e. teaching, research and service to society, and how to adapt them to the age of Artificial Intelligence.

SACRU Governing Board meeting held in Milan 

The Governing Board of the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (SACRU) met on Friday, July 14, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, under the chairmanship of SACRU President and Australian Catholic University Vice-Chancellor and President Prof. Zlatko Skrbis.

Prof. Pier Sandro Cocconcelli, Vice Rector of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, was confirmed as the Secretary-General of SACRU for the term 2023-2026.

 

University and AI, Cardinal Tolentino:
«Renewal and Awareness to Win the Challenge of Algor-Ethics»

Artificial Intelligence has the same innovative power as the transition from orality to writing. Being able to channel this innovation towards the common good is one of the great challenges of our time, and universities are at the forefront. This is a topic on which the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities has been working for some time with its multidisciplinary approach.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See, emphasized the need for the renewal to face the new challenges posed by reality while firmly maintaining awareness of one’s own identity and origin. The international meeting is organized by the SACRU network and hosted today and tomorrow at the Milan campus of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

Artificial Intelligence is a sector that, as highlighted by Zlatko Skrbis, President of SACRU and the Australian Catholic University, in his opening speech of the first plenary session of the two-day event, will grow by 38% by 2030, with its global market predicted to be worth over $1.5 trillion. This rapid and constant growth will revolutionize every aspect of our daily life, including education, medicine, work, and the fight against climate change.

«Personally, I believe that we should not fear new technology tools but learn to use innovations wisely to build new educational and research paths- said Franco Anelli, Rector of the Università Cattolica-. The major global challenges of our time have prompted the urgent need to formulate new models of thought […] One of the main strengths of the activities of SACRU in these three years has been the criteria of multidisciplinarity. […] This is very important because, as we know, in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’, Pope Francis called for a virtuous dialogue between different disciplines to strengthen the impact of science for the common good».

This is the common thread guiding the work of the plenary and parallel sessions of the conference, which will conclude tomorrow with a preview of the network’s Position Paper on the topic of AI. Anelli emphasized, «I am confident that this Scientific Colloquium will not be only an occasion for examining the benefits and risks of a particular technology. On the contrary, I hope it will address Catholic Universities’ fundamental purposes and aspirations ina technologically advanced society. Universities must be open to innovation».

In order to achieve this and make a real impact, all educational institutions must be willing to take risks, particularly when it comes to addressing the future, which is most prominently embodied by Artificial Intelligence in our present time. «Risk, we know well, is inseparable from an educational context worthy of its name – said Tolentino-.  Reasonable risk is, for example, in the present context, to keep priorities duly safeguarded: the priority of the ethical over the technical, the primacy of the person over things».

Therefore, it becomes necessary to choose where to focus, and for Cardinal Tolentino, the path is clear: «The great investment to be made can only be a human one, that is, an investment in the formation of every member of the human family so that they may develop their cognitive, creative, spiritual and ethical potential and thus contribute, in a qualified way, to the common good. The big question behind artificial intelligence continues to be anthropological». Tolentino, referring to the words of the Holy Father, emphasized that the true frontier will increasingly be that of algor-ethics: Artificial Intelligences are not neutral but require intermediate social bodies that represent the ethical sensitivity of researchers, educators, and scientists. The technological world is becoming increasingly complex, and this aspect cannot be left to the sensitivity of individuals alone.

In such a broad challenge that concerns all academic institutions and the entire world and may seem discouraging at first glance, Catholic universities have one certainty: the trust radiated by the Christian promise. «Those who inhabit the university world cannot afford not to have hope. Hope is our mission. It is not superficial optimism, but it is knowing how to risk in the right way» concluded Tolentino.

Scientific Colloquium
The Future of Catholic Universities in the AI age

13-14 July 2023, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

The 2023 Scientific Colloquium aimed to provide a platform to reflect on the role of SACRU Universities in addressing the challenges in the AI age and to engage a high number of members of the SACRU academic communities, including the younger generation of researchers. It was opened on the morning of Thursday, July 13, by Prof. Franco Anelli, Rector of Università Cattolica, followed by a keynote lecture by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, and an introduction by Prof. Zlatko Skrbis, the President of SACRU.

The multidisciplinary initiative involved different disciplines in the discussion on the impact of AI on universities. The Colloquium was organized in plenary sessions, which included a keynote speaker from each SACRU University, and two parallel sessions (AI, Education & Research; AI, Universities within Society) in which the issues presented by the plenary speakers were further addressed.

The outcome of these two valuable days of discussion will be a position paper to be published by the end of the year, which will formalize the Universities’ positions and proposals on the central tasks of universities, i.e. teaching, research and service to society, and how to adapt them to the age of Artificial Intelligence.

SACRU International Relations Directors met
at the NAFSA Conference in Washington DC

The SACRU Delegation

On May 30, 2023, the International Relations Directors of the eight Universities partner of the Alliance met in Washington DC during the 75th NAFSA Annual Conference & Expo. NAFSA, the world’s largest association dedicated to international education and exchange, has welcomed educators from more than 100 nations to discuss themes such as the role of international education in addressing social, economic, and environmental justice, the local, national, and global advocacy for community engagement and impact and model practices for virtual, in-person, hyflex, and hybrid program design and delivery.

The meeting of SACRU IR Directors was an excellent opportunity for networking that showed the international dimension of the Alliance. The group had a wide-ranging discussion about respective institutions and convened to hold regular contacts.

Conference on Innovation, Sustainability, and Regeneration
Call for Papers/Extended Abstracts

 

 

Call for Papers/Extended Abstracts | Submission deadline: 17 July 2023

The INSURE.hub, a partnership between Católica Porto Business School, Faculty of Biotechnology and Planetiers New Generation, is organizing the third Innovation, Sustainability and Regeneration international conference, to be held on UCP Porto campus on November 16-17, 2023.

The aim of the conference is to bring together students, researchers, and professionals of the industry to discuss topics related to innovation, sustainability, and regeneration. We intend to prepare a program that aims to be at the forefront in the international landscape, having the contribution of professionals and leaders that have been directly involved in disruptive, circular, sustainable and/or regenerative innovation processes applied in practice.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Manuela Veloso (Head of J.P. Morgan AI Research & Herbert A. Simon University Professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University)

PAPER/EXTENDED ABSTRACTS SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

Authors are requested to electronically submit a full paper or an extended abstract. Papers/extended abstracts must be in English and clearly define the objectives, methodology, findings and significance of the investigation or study, and should clearly identify the names and affiliation of all authors. To submit the paper/extended abstract in pdf use the email: insure.hub@ucp.pt, with the subject “3rd INSURE Conference: Abstract Submission”.

The deadline for submission is July 17, 2023. The authors of accepted papers will be notified by September 17, 2023.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: The members of the conference Scientific Committee are: Alexandra Leitão (Católica Porto Business School); António Vasconcelos (Planetiers New Generation); Célia Manaia (Faculty of Biotechnology); Cristina Sá (School of Artes); João Cortez (Faculty of Biotechnology); João Pinto (Católica Porto Business School); Luís Rochartre (Planetiers New Generation); Manuela Pintado (Faculty of Biotechnology); Patrícia Moreira (School of Artes); Patrícia Oliveira-Silva (Faculty of Education and Psychology); Raquel Carvalho (Faculty of Law – Porto School); Ricardo Ribeiro (Católica Porto Business School).

CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS: António Vasconcelos (Planetiers New Generation); João Pinto (Católica Porto Business School); Manuela Pintado (Faculty of Biotechnology).

CONFERENCE STRUCTURE: papers/extended abstracts will be selected for presentations in plenary sessions over the day on November 16. A set of additional papers/extended abstracts will be selected for presentation in a Poster format. On November 17, before the keynote speech, participants are invited to attend case studies presentations by INSURE’s business partners.

TOPICS: The conference is calling for high-quality and original research or case studies on topics including (but not limited to):

  • Innovation and business transformation;
  • Disruptive innovation;
  • Circular economy;
  • Leadership & governance for sustainability;
  • Sustainable business strategy;
  • Social entrepreneurship and responsible business;
  • Sustainability literacy and education;
  • Sustainable investment and financing;
  • Challenges owing to the impact of climate change;
  • Climate risk management;
  • Laws and regulations related to sustainability.

BEST PRESENTATION AWARD: the best presentation (taking as criteria the scientific quality, innovation, and performance) will be awarded with a prize of 1,000 euros.

 

MORE INFORMATION HERE

Rectors of URL, UCP, UC Chile, and PUC Rio met
at the Universia Summit

 

Seven hundred rectors from 14 countries worldwide met in Valencia, Spain, for the 5th International Rectors’ Meeting organized by Universia. Under the “University and Society” title, the meeting focused on analyzing the challenges faced by higher education. Specifically, there was a debate on the great challenge for universities to lead and collaborate in the technological and social transformations that must facilitate social progress. 

During the meeting, the Rectors of Universitat Ramon Llull, Prof. Josep. A Rom, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Prof. Isabel Capeloa Gil, UC Chile, Prof. Ignacio Sánchez Díaz and PUC Rio, Prof. Anderson Antonio Pedroso, S.J. had the opportunity to exchange views on SACRU. The four rectors took advantage of the meeting to share the good results of the Alliance and reaffirm the great work being done to foster global cooperation among research-intensive Catholic universities to advance knowledge and higher education for the common good.

 

The voices of SACRU students on climate change

 

 

The Alliance has collected multidisciplinary testimonies of five students from Boston College, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Sophia University, and the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. Students addressed the situation in their countries and proposed solutions to deal with climate change.

Click on the image or here to watch the video

Reflections for the
International Day of Multilateralism

The Global Day of Diplomacy for Peace is celebrated by the United Nations every 24th April. Experts from the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities have provided insights into the value of international cooperation

In 2018, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Resolution 73/127, which officially instituted the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace. This recurrence aims to celebrate the founding principles of multilateralism, such as consultation, inclusion, solidarity, and their role in promoting the United Nations’ three pillars of peace, sustainable development, and human rights.

Inspired by its mission of global cooperation for the Common Good, the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (SACRU) has collected insights from its experts to focus multilateralism’s relevance for addressing global and multifaceted challenges. SACRU is a network composed of eight Catholic Universities from four different continents. The contributions represent the personal views of individual academics and are not intended as the official positions of SACRU and its partner Universities.

Universitat Ramon Llull (Spain)

 Written by Oscar Mateos, delegate of the Rector of the URL for the promotion of the 2030 Agenda

 We need a strong civil society to foster
a democratic and effective multilateralism

At a time when our global village needs more than ever global institutions and mechanisms capable of dealing with problems of an increasingly transnational nature, multilateralism has entered a critical phase. The new wave of “nativism” advocating the idea of “my country first” questions the need for such mechanisms. Moreover, the increasingly securitarian context, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has returned to a logic of rearmament and militarisation that compromises the other logic of peacebuilding or diplomacy as the main responses.

However, two facts highlight the need for effective and inclusive multilateralism as never before. On the one hand, the problems that most condition and compromise our lives, in any part of the planet, are problems “that do not understand passports”, as the late former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan once reminded us. Only a well-articulated multilateralism, therefore, will be able to deal effectively with the effects of the climate crisis, the effects of future pandemics, or the revived challenges posed by the nuclear threat. On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that our multilateral institutions, which are the legacy of the Second World War, must be more inclusive, participatory and democratic, proportionally incorporating the voice of a global South that is on the rise, or of civil society organisations at the international level, in a world that no longer belongs to states alone.

Precisely, the active role of a critical global citizenry is key to being able to promote a new paradigm of a more inclusive multilateralism that puts the voice of people and societies at the centre. Universities have much to say and contribute to the construction of this critical global citizenship that aspires to transform our world and which is also key to promoting the longed-for multilateralism.

 Boston College (United States of America)

 Written by David Deese, Department of Political Science

 US Diplomacy and multilateralism toward China and East Asia

Does the “hyper vigilance”, if not hostility, of many US politicians and thought leaders toward China serve to advance US interests and values, or global public goods such as security, financial stability, prosperity, ecological balance, and human rights?  Are US, Pacific Basin, and global security and cooperation improved by ever more consistent exaggeration of Chinese capabilities, intentions, and “threats” by US leaders and media?  Likewise, are human rights in China, China’s provocative actions toward smaller east Asian states, or North Korea’s nuclear and conventional weapons provocations effectively addressed by assuming an ever more cold war US posture toward China in our diplomacy?  Even among the public intellectual community, a typical recent article was entitled “China’s Hidden Tech Revolution: How Beijing Threatens US Dominance” (Wang 2023).

Indeed, it can be argued that the US and China have several crucial areas of overlapping, if not common, fundamental interests—from secure sea lines of communication to east Asia from the Middle East, US, and Latin America, to a stable Pacific Basin, balancing Russian assertiveness and restraining its provocative actions, stabilizing the international financial system, minimizing destabilizing actions by North Korea, supporting critical manufacturing and rare earth supply chains, mitigating the climate crisis, reducing global poverty levels, commercializing new technologies, attracting talented Chinese students to US universities (and specifically in natural  science and engineering) from the bachelor to doctorate levels, and holding sports and cultural exchanges.

Instead of framing China’s rapid progress in many key areas as a threat, it might be helpful to  understood it as a useful challenge, if not an opportunity, for the US to reconsider and renovate some of its own practices and policies.  Instead of framing China’s key accomplishments as harmful to the US and West, we might work harder to discern the ways in which mutual benefits can be created.  More specifically, it might be worth trying out a simple thought experiment by asking what if US and western diplomacy toward China and multilateral initiatives in the Pacific Basin were re-focused on enticing, even leveraging China, to cooperate?  Since the US “tilt”, “pivot “ or “rebalance” toward the Asia Pacific in 2011-2012 under President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, US diplomacy has been much more about challenging China than engaging it.  In principle, Obama and Clinton’s approach was to strengthen bilateral security alliances, deepen relationships with emerging powers, including China, and engage with regional organizations. However, in practice the US approach was quite explicitly designed in ways that could only be perceived as threatening by Chinese officials and publics  in the rapidly rising power of the Pacific Basin and well beyond.

The Trans -Pacific Partnership (TPP), or cornerstone of Obama’s economic policy in the Asia-Pacific, for example, was to include all of the major countries in the region (40 percent of the global economy) except China in a comprehensive, integrated economic area. US rhetoric was very much framed in terms of having the US “write” the rules for the global economy in direct opposition to China. Indeed, once leading US politicians from both parties opposed the TPP during the 2016 presidential campaign, the agreement was doomed, at least in terms of US engagement.  Even as President Trump strongly criticized the TPP and withdrew the US in 2017, most of the other countries created their own version.  By the time of Trump’s explicitly hostile stances toward China beginning in 2018, the Chinese pushed for a much less comprehensive regional economic partnership with 15 countries, to accompany their ambitious Belt and Road Initiative that focused on South and Central Asia  This Chinese-led trade deal was agreed in late 2020, although India later pulled out, which substantially undercut its breadth and importance. Essentially, these US diplomatic and multilateral efforts aimed specifically against China ended up enhancing China’s position in the region and eroding US influence (McBride, et al. 2021).

The broader and deeper effects of what has become by 2023 “geopolitical fragmentation” of global capital flows, especially foreign direct investment, are not yet completely clear. The intentional movement of production home or to trusted countries is certainly likely longer term to slow worldwide economic growth, diversification, and resilience to economic and financial shocks (Ahn, et al. 2023).  The effects on developing countries are likely to be the greatest in terms of reduced access to capital and technology, at a time when climate change mitigation and adaptation urgently require acceleration of these flows.  In the US and western economies, the loss of inward foreign investment and competition from Chinese firms is likely to slow innovation and productivity improvements.

Presidents from Truman to Nixon recognized that mass US public opinion toward a foreign country is both a lever that they can sometimes manipulate to accelerate, and one that they must be careful not to accelerate out of control.  Trump’s relatively hostile rhetoric toward China from 2018 through 2020, as well as after his presidency, especially when he framed the pandemic as the “Chinese virus”, certainly helped to sharply increased negative US public opinion of China to unprecedented levels (Silver, et al. 2022).  President Biden’s policies have done relatively little to turn this around, and Republican leaders have especially taken up the cause of villainizing China, despite their brief romance with China in 2017 when it looked like bilateral trade agreements might work out.  In turn, Democratic party leaders seem to fear criticism from the Republicans if they should say or do anything that would be perceived as working with China.  Overall, US foreign policy is potentially locked into a fearful, deeply suspicious, and overly assertive policies and postures toward China.

This is most concerning with regard to Taiwan.  Both President Biden, in his remarks about protecting Taiwan, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi took unnecessarily assertive, one might say provocative, gestures with regard to Taiwan, the single most sensitive and inflammatory issue area for top Chinese officials.  Speaker Kevin McCarthy then followed up by meeting most recently with Taiwan’s president in the US, which triggered yet another round of Chinese military responses with exercises and drills in the Taiwan Strait.  If there is any issue area and situation that will provoke China into direct military action against Taiwan, it is US actions considered to be overtly provocative on Taiwan, and overly embarrassing to President Xi in the face of his domestic audience.  Xi’s provocative and brutal crushing of Hong Kong’s independent political governance is a very clear signal of the extent to which he is willing to stamp out any degree of democratic or pluralistic politics.  And yet it is a very different matter for Xi to decide to invade Taiwan, unless provoked by imprudent US actions.  The countries in the East Asia region are especially fearful  about having China be provoked, into, or provided with any excuse for, military confrontation over Taiwan.

It is also worth considering whether quiet, face to face diplomacy over China’s unacceptable repression in Xinjiang and Tibetan populated areas is likely to be more effective than public, media intensive, diplomacy.  China has become truly a repressive, “police state” under Xi that subjects Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang, as well as certain religious leaders and human rights defenders, to intrusive surveillance, harassment, arbitrary detention, and forced indoctrination.  Chinese leaders generally and Xi specifically simply are not going to compromise on their actions inside the country in any way in the public domain. Human rights, like other issue areas, calls for cross issue area trade-offs and bargaining where the US and its allies offer something of value in exchange for positive steps.

In the world of scientific discovery, process engineering, and  commercializing new technologies, China plays a parallel and crucial role to the US. Each country leads in certain ways and areas, but for discovery and innovation they cannot effectively be separated (National Science Foundation 2022).  US industry, universities and the economy more generally all depend substantially on Chinese students, firms, data, products and especially process engineering and highly skilled factory workers.  The treatment of US scholars by US federal authorities who happen to have Chinese roots is particularly concerning.  Particularly under the so called “China Initiative” by the Trump Administration in 2018, scientists in the US with any China affiliation were targeted without any viable connection to “espionage.”  Public accusations and long investigations ruined careers for leading scientists and began to breakdown the basic, essential collaborations between US and Chinese researchers across key fields of inquiry. Even as the prosecutions failed and the China Initiative was ended in 2022 by the Biden Administration, the Department of Justice continues this activity. To the extent that the US subjects Chinese American scholars and Chinese students in general to secret surveillance, intrusive interviews by federal agents, or other forms of intimidation, we are also engaging in “police state” procedures.

It is well worth considering more fully the long-term contributions of first and second generation Chinese Americans and Chinese students to our society, as well as the more specific benefits to US research and development and higher education.   From 1949 until 2000, and then 2020, the number of Chinese students in the US jumped from essentially zero to nearly 55,000 and 375,000, respectively.  This was approximately double the number of students from India by 2020, the second largest contributor of students to US universities, and more than seven times the number from South Korea, the third largest sending country (National Science Foundation 2022b). In addition, among all of the US doctorates awarded to temporary visa holders from 2005 to 2015, China accounted for more than twice those from India, the second highest country of origin.  Most important, for US doctorate recipients from China (on temporary visas), 87 percent intended to remain in the US after graduation.  This is the same rate as those from India, and only those from Iran had a higher rate.  Among doctorate recipients reporting a definite post-graduation commitment to non-postdoc employment in 2011-2015, temporary visa holders intending to stay in the US were very likely to work in industry or business.  Furthermore,  these foreign graduates were much more likely than US citizens to the work in computer science, natural science or engineering related positions.  US citizens much more often earn doctorates and pursue employment in non-scientific and engineering fields or the life-sciences (National Science Foundation 2022b).

It is difficult to measure precisely the benefits of the Chinese students to US citizen students and the US economy.  The Christian Science Monitor reported (Chu and Tyson 2020) that they contributed about $15 billion to the US economy in 2018.  Certainly these students represent billions of dollars annually in export earnings, and the overall attractiveness of US universities has been declining in recent years as British, Australian and Canadian universities have become relatively more appealing.  In addition, the more that western countries do not attract top students from China, the more likely that some substantial fraction of them will earn their degrees in rapidly expanding Chinese doctoral programs in natural science and engineering, and then seek employment in China.

In sum, is it not critical for the cohesion and health of US society that citizens understand and respect the basic values and contributions of Chinese Americans and Chinese students seeking work and lives in the US?  Harsh rhetoric against China, if not Chinese people, has consequences.  A rise in anti-Asian violence, hate crimes, and bias should mobilize our attention and support for reducing the underlying drivers.   Hyping the “geopolitical threat” of China is a serious matter for Asian Americans, native Hawaiians, and Pacific islanders in the US.  Even before Trump’s inflammatory attempt to mobilize Americans around the “Chinese virus”, the “Wuhan virus” or ”kung flu”, hates crimes against Asians increased more than 30 percent between 2016 and 2018. Even during the Biden Administration, one in six Asian Americans was the victim of a hate crime in 2021, and the rate was rising by 2022.  Strikingly, it is reported that by 2022 one in three Americans believe that Asians are more loyal to their country of origin than to the US (Lee 2022).  This perception directly spills over to East Asians generally from so many different countries and societies.

Is it not time for US political, religious, and thought leaders to highlight what the US stands for instead of what it fears!  US diplomacy and diplomatic approaches have deep consequences at all levels from the global to the local.  In the case of US-China relations, US policies and practices need to incorporate our values and principles, even as issues are perceived as matters of “geopolitical” importance.”

Ahn, JaeBin, et al. 2023. Fragmenting Foreign Direct Investment Hits Emerging Economies Hardest. IMF Blog (Economic Growth) April 5
Chu, Lenora and Ann Tyson. 2020. “Chinese Students have cooled on US: Could Biden Change that?” Christian Science Monitor, December 15
Lee, Jennifer.2022. “When the Geopolitical threat of China Stokes bias against Asian Americans” Proc Natl Aca Sci Dec 13 119(50)
McBride, James, et al.. 2021. “What’s Next for the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP)?” Council on Foreign Relations. September 20.
National Science Foundation. 2022. Science and Engineering Indicators. The State of US Science and Engineering 2022.
National Science Foundation. 2022b. Higher Education in Science and Engineering. Science and Engineering Indicators.
Silver, Laura. et al. 2022. “How Global Public Opinion of China has Shifted in the Xi Era,” Pew Research Center, September 28.
Wang, Dan. 2023. “China’s Hidden Tech Revolution: How Beijing Threatens US Dominance,” Foreign Affairs, March/April.

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile)

Jorge Sahd K, Director of the International Studies Center

    The criticality of the current multilateral system

“The relationship between the United States, China and Russia is more dysfunctional than ever,” said a pessimistic UN Secretary General in 2020, on the anniversary of the United Nations amid the Covid-19 pandemic.This statement anticipated an increasingly tense international order, where emerging powers such as China demanded a greater role, the United States tried to balance its troubled domestic politics with its global influence, and Russia became a pariah for the West. Different “tectonic plates” in motion that express the rivalry among the great powers.

The illegitimate military action of Russia in Ukraine, unexpected due to its intensity and duration over time, raises many questions, but one of them is rather a verification of reality: the international system, as we know it, has no responses to the current conflicts. The limited relevance of the UN in the war, whose Security Council is paralyzed, coupled with difficulties in the past to other organizations such as the WTO in the face of the trade war and the recently questioned (and today revitalized) NATO, where Trump and Macron themselves came to describe it as “obsolete” or “brain dead”, demonstrate that the international multilateral system needs to be re-thinking.

The impotence of the international system – clear in the current war – has made it incapable of controlling the Russian impetus, as in the past it was unable to contain the Sino-American trade confrontation and the US invasion of Iraq. The harsh reality is that the rule-based international order is unable of curbing the will of a power: only another power or a group of them can do it. The loss of relevance of the international order is also manifested in the way the allied powers act against Russia: a collective action, even coordinated at the level of economic sanctions and military support for Kyev, but without further communication with international organizations such as the UN. This form of action, where organizations and international law become a sort of mere spectators, involves risks, especially for small and medium-sized nations that remain at the mercy of “the law of the strongest”.

How to combat this growing incapacity of the international multilateral system? First, we must start with the self-criticism of the organizations themselves. Excessive bureaucracy to manage budgets, accountability problems in international cooperation, lack of political diversity and an agenda that is often distant from citizens. International organizations continue to operate under a cold war logic, but little connected with the new geopolitical scenario.The second, and fundamental, responds to the powers themselves. At the end of the day, a new architecture in the international order will be the result of whatever the powers want it to be. International organizations are relevant to the extent that they have the commitment of the powers and international law will be revitalized if the big ones start by leading by example. This will mean concessions on both sides, acknowledging the rebalancing of power in recent decades, but drawing clearer lines in terms of security, democracy and defense of human rights.

The current dysfunctionality makes the task more difficult to undertake. But there is no other alternative. Not only the current woes of war, the pandemic and a fragile economy will require global coordination. It will also be the humanitarian crisis, the new strategies for food and energy security, climate change or the fight against new forms of terrorism. None of these tasks can be successfully addressed in the dysfunctionality of these times. And while the world continues to move towards its fragmentation and the perception of disorder continues to increase, the containment of war risks will be increasingly difficult. Let the current tragedy in Ukraine serves as a lesson.