ASSOCIATION FOR EUROPEAN LIFE SCIENCE UNIVERSITIES

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & the One Health Triad Challenges for Life Science Universities

was held on 19 and 20 October 2023 at JUNIA grande école d’ingénieurs, Lille, France

The face-to-face Rectors and Deans Forum programme on the 19 and 20 October will have two half day sessions focusing on the strategic management challenges of AI and the One Health Triad for life science universities.  In the previous week there will be three Webinars focusing on the science relating to the One Health Triad.

See the Webinar presentations and the Forum presentations in Lille

ICA Rectors and Deans Forum Programme 19 & 20 October

Location:  JUNIA ISEN BUILDING, 41, boulevard Vauban, Lille.  (see the Joining Instructions map: entrance 14 of the BATIMENT ISEN, Room Co-working space on the ground floor)

THURSDAY 19 October

13.00 Registration & Buffet lunch

14.00 Welcome
Arthur Mol, President of ICA & Rector Magnificus Wageningen University and Research, NL
Joop Lensink, Dean Academic Programmes, JUNIA grande école d’ingénieurs, Lille, FR

Session 1 Strategic Management Issues of AI for Life Science Universities

 
17.15 ICA General Assembly 2023 Follow up & ICA Excellence Awards

ICA GA Follow up
Report by the President and announcement of the result of GA decisions.

ICA Excellence Awards
Vice President introduces the ICA Excellence Awards, and the President makes the presentations to the Awards winners. 

20.00 Forum Gala Dinner
19.45 Meet in the Novotel Grande Place and Crowne Plaza - EURALILLE hotels to be guided to the restaurant, if you are in other hotels please make you way to the restaurant.
Location:  Restaurant L’Assiette du Marché, 61 rue de la Monnaie, 59000 Lille.  www.assiettedumarché.fr  

FRIDAY 20 October

Session 2 Strategic Management challenges for Life Science Universities of One Health Triad

14.00 - 17.00 JUNIA Roundtable addressing the One Health challenge

Come and share with staff from JUNIA how you are approaching the One Health challenge 

Even though the One Health approach is receiving more and more coverage in the scientific community, it remains, like all approaches that aim to be transdisciplinary, a real managerial and operational challenge for pilots of these projects. How do we get communities of specialists to work together, each with their own expectations, their own fields of expertise (associated with their own vocabulary) and, above all, their own evaluation criteria?

The arising question is to consider how, at the level of our institution's governance, is it feasible to initiate research strategies and policies aiming at integrating the One Health issue into an innovative and transdisciplinary collaborative approach.

We invite all Forum attendees to a round table discussion. After a brief presentation of research programs conducted at JUNIA (14.00 - 15.00) on the issue of One Health (human, animal, plant, and environment health) through transdisciplinary approaches, we will invite participants to share their experience and to reflect on the best methods to pave the way to successfully develop strategic partnerships to address One Health.

Pre-Forum One Health Webinar Programmes

The face to face Rectors and Deans Forum programme on the 20 October focusing on the strategic management challenges of the One Health Triad for life science universities.  In the previous week there will be three Webinars focusing on the science relating to the One Health Triad.  The three Webinars will set the scope for the discussion of the One Health Triad strategic management challenge for life science universities at the face to face Forum.

Stef Bronzwaer, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, IT

Webinar: Healthy People from the One Health perspective

Many recent global health threats are linked to zoonotic and (re)emerging infectious diseases (e.g. SARS, COVID-19, AMR, BSE, avian influenza), climate change and environmental sustainability. These health threats are complex and cannot be adequately addressed by any individual discipline acting alone. A comprehensive strategy and transdisciplinary collaboration on all aspects of health for people, animals and the environment is required: a One Health approach^[1].

In the coming decade, Europe will dedicate billions of euros to the necessary research and innovation (R&I) to support a transition to safe and sustainable food systems. EU Agencies are knowledge centres, bringing together know-how to inform policy makers, and can support the European research agenda. EU Agencies that have traditionally dealt with aspects of human health, animal health, plant health and ecosystem health in silos, now need to take a broader perspective and move towards a One Health approach^[2]. It is urgent to define transdisciplinary research needs and formulate a One Health research agenda. It is encouraging that EU Agencies have established a cross-agency task force on One Health that can support this.

^[1] https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.2903/j.efsa.2021.e190501
^[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352771422000969

Annemarie Rebel, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research Institute, Wageningen University and Research, NL

Webinar: Healthy Animals from the One Health perspective

Global challenges, such as climate change, urbanisation, increase in food demand and international trade and travel give rise to challenges for society. These challenges can give serious risks to human, animal, and ecosystem health. Adequate response and preparedness for new and old challenges should therefore involve the development and implementation of research bridging different domains, integrating human, veterinary, wildlife and environmental expertise: One Health research.

In the Netherlands 3 academic partners started an initiative 7 years ago to combine human and veterinary science within the domain of One Health, the Netherlands Centre of One Health (NCOH). At this time 6 other academic partners have joined the NCOH. We work together in 4 interconnected themes: Tackling antimicrobial resistance, emerging infectious disease preparedness, Smart & healthy farming and Healthy wildlife & ecosystems. We have built an One health community that connect the different themes and professionals working in the different domains via for example science cafes and annual meetings. Most importantly we also encourage young researchers in the field to exchange experience via the Young NCOH PhD’ network.

WUR is working in a broad research programme Erraze@WUR (Early Recognition and Rapid Action in Zoonotic Emergencies) were water, environment and behavioral science  are integrated in this zoonoses programme.

We aim at working in new large research programmes on the intersection of prevention, detection, and preparedness. As well as increasing health in livestock and humans. The fact is that in the Netherlands this research is really hard to get financed, so we are mostly doing research in pillars, and combining it because we as researchers acknowledge the importance of the work done in this field.

Raf Aerts, Part-time Professor, KU Leuven and part-time researcher Sciensano, Belgian One Health Institute

Webinar: Healthy Environment from the One Health perspective

One Health is the interconnection between human health, animal health, and the environment.  From the perspective of an environmental scientist and epidemiologist, I will describe seven aspects that define a ‘healthy environment’ for plants, animals and people.  I will conclude this keynote by highlighting the multiple benefits of exposure to nature and green space on mental, physical and social wellbeing.

Matthieu Laneuville, Program Manager AI, SURF Innovation Laboratory, Utrecht, NL

Impact of AI on Teaching and Learning now and in the next 5 years

AI is a hard to miss concept these days. It impacts our lives and societies, but it is sometimes hard to grasp what is really happening. What is hype, what has concrete implications? What is part of a marketing narrative, what are true capabilities? In this talk, I will present a way to understand the ongoing innovations and their impact on teaching and learning. I will present common use cases, how they interact with existing practices and potential scenarios for the coming years based on decisions made by the sector today.

Alistair Nolan, Senior Policy Analyst, OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, Paris, FR

Impact of AI on Research now and in the next 5 years

Accelerating the productivity of research could be the most economically and socially valuable of all the uses of artificial intelligence (AI). While AI is penetrating all domains and stages of science, its full potential is far from realised.

Based on recent OECD work, the following topics will be addressed:

• Why AI in science matters for science, society, and the economy.
• The rapidly growing scope of AI’s applications in science.
• What we know so far about AI and research productivity.
• The (future) importance of AI-enabled research assistants.
• The advent and use of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, and the possible implications for science. Recent experiments on using LLMs and other forms of AI to aid research governance processes, for instance in supporting peer review.
• Possible impacts on the scientific workforce, including the impacts of AI on everyday scientific practice, such as human-AI teaming, work, and career trajectories.
• The narrowing thematic diversity of research on AI and implications for less well-resourced research centres.
• Developing specialised tools to enhance collaborative human-AI teams, and how to integrate these tools into mainstream science.
• Why broad multidisciplinary programmes are needed that bring together computer and other scientists with engineers, statisticians, mathematicians, and others to solve challenges using AI.
• Targeting areas of research where breakthroughs are needed to deepen AI’s uses in science and engineering, including in high-risk, speculative ideation.
• Possible dangers of the dual use of AI-powered discovery.

Robbert Boudewijns, One Health Institute, KU Leuven, BE

Report of the outcomes of the three webinars focusing on the science of the One Health Triad

Presentation is based on a reflection of the outcomes of the three pre-forum webinars.  So no abstract is available.

Susanna Sternberg-Lewerin, Programme Director, SLU Future One Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, SE

The challenge to develop interdisciplinary education programmes focusing on One Health

Historically, the One Health concept focused on zoonotic diseases, then developed to encompass other challenges facing people and animals alike but considering the environment mainly as a backdrop. Today, the One Health Triad could be seen as consisting of four elements within an ecosystem, using the global quadripartite (WHO, FAO, WOAH and UNEP) definition of One Health as “an integrated, unifying approach… that recognises that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment are closely linked and inter-dependent”.

However, the variety of interpretations of One Health, as well as new similar concepts like One Welfare and Planetary Health makes it difficult to decide what to include in One Health education. As the concept inherently requires an interdisciplinary approach, the institutional host of such education programmes is not immediately obvious but usually influences the content of the programme offered. In addition, the interdisciplinary aspects may be challenging to students and researchers in their early career, before they have acquired skills and experience within one discipline.

A number of One Health educations are already available, ranging from short courses to longer programmes, on MSc or PhD level. Some focus on zoonoses and/or other health challenges shared by people and animals while others take a broader approach to also cover environmental aspects, biodiversity, welfare and sustainability.

The main challenges in developing One Health education lie in the wide number of subjects and disciplines that could be included, and how to achieve an appropriate level of in-depth knowledge in these so that a thorough understanding of their relatedness can be obtained.

Stef Bronzwaer, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, IT

Stef Bronzwaer is a medical doctor who serves as a Research Coordinator at the European Food Safety Authority in Parma, Italy. His domains of expertise include One Health, scientific cooperation, antimicrobial resistance surveillance, research, communicable diseases and food safety. He has previously worked in the Infectious Disease Unit of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome, Italy, and in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands, where he helped establish the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS). Before he joined EFSA in 2006, he worked at the European Commission in Luxembourg where he held responsibility for the proper functioning and coherence of a number of European surveillance networks on communicable diseases and coordinated the implementation of the Community strategy against antimicrobial resistance. 

Annemarie Rebel, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research Institute, Wageningen University and Research, NL

Annemarie Rebel holds a special chair as professor at the Adaptation Physiology group, she studies resilience of animals, the possibility to optimize the intrinsic capacities will lead to animals that are able to cope with challenges. At present, she is chairperson of the Netherlands Centre or One Health (NCOH), a collaboration in which several scientific partners in human and animal health participate to improve research in the area of One Health, both in a national and international context.

Annemarie gained my doctorate from Erasmus University Rotterdam for the human medicine subject ‘Recurrence rate of bladder cancer’. Subsequently did research at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore on metastasis of prostate cancer. Following a switch to research in livestock she started at Infection Biology within the Central Veterinary Institute.  As head of the department of animal health and welfare at Wageningen University and Research she was responsible for research into the interaction between animals and the environment, such as nutrition, pathogens, microbiome, and stress. With the aim to improve animal health, intestinal health and welfare.

Raf Aerts, Part-time Professor, KU Leuven and part-time researcher Sciensano, Belgian One Health Institute.

Raf Aerts holds a Master and a PhD (2006) in bioscience engineering in land and forest management from KU Leuven.  For his PhD he investigated the restoration ecology of dry Afromontane forest in Ethiopia.  Recently Raf obtained a second PhD, in biomedical sciences (2022), from Hasselt University and Maastricht University with a dissertation on green space and biodiversity in relation to health in Belgium.

Raf Aerts is currently an environmental epidemiologist at Sciensano, the Belgian OneHealth institute, and is a part-time professor in biodiversity and health at the Biology Department of KU Leuven.  Raf also serves as an officer with the Belgian Armed Forces and in that capacity helps to design sustainable management plans to conserve and restore the exceptional biodiversity in military training areas.

Matthieu Laneuville, Program Manager AI, SURF Innovation Laboratory, Utrecht, NL

Matthieu is the program manager for AI within the innovation department of SURF. Matthieu obtained a PhD in geophysics from IPG Paris in 2023 and went on to Japan as a researcher for 7 years. During that time, as the impact of AI on research practices grew, he explored how those new methods could shed light on various research problems. Coming back to Europe, he joined SURF (the cooperative organization for in Dutch education and research), to help with the organization of their AI efforts. Since then, he helped develop public values driven AI activities for research and education.

Alistair Nolan, Senior Policy Analyst, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD Paris, FR.

Alistair Nolan currently coordinates various strands of OECD work on artificial intelligence (AI), most recently on AI in science and on the diffusion of AI and other advanced technologies in the business sector. Working with a team of scientists and AI experts he edited and co-authored the 2023 OECD book Artificial Intelligence in Science: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future of Science. He is currently working on a publication reporting the findings of a new survey of AI adoption in firms in G7 countries.

Prior to the OECD, Mr. Nolan spent nine years with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation working on technical assistance and policy analysis to support industrial development in Africa and Latin America.

John Walker, Emerging Tech Advisor, SURF Innovation Laboratory, Utrecht, NL.

John Walker is an emerging technologies advisor at SURF investigating the role of new technologies in education and research. His educational background follows from the University of Montana to the University of Twente on the philosophical explorations of technologies in science, society, and design. John’s work on AI and XR reveal considerations for responsible technological advancements, placing emphasis on ethical considerations. At SURF, John’s work focuses on the importance of aligning technological innovations with our public values and responsibilities.

Robbert Boudewijns, One Health Institute, KU Leuven, BE

After a Master’s in biochemistry & biotechnology, Robbert Boudewijns obtained his PhD in biomedical sciences in the field of virology and vaccine design, at the Rega Institute of KU Leuven. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was involved in setting up a small animal model for pre-clinical development of COVID-19 biologicals, and characterizing the innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in this model.

Since 2022, he is coordinator of One Health activities at KU Leuven, where he is leading the effort of setting up a One Health institute, to strengthen transdisciplinary collaboration across the university and beyond.

Susanna Sternberg-Lewerin, SLU Future One Health, SLU Future One Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE

Veterinarian, who after a few years of clinical practice, moved into research and work on national level. PhD in Veterinary Bacteriology, EBVS Specialist in Veterinary Public Health. Professor in Epizootiology & Disease Control. Has worked as an expert on animal disease control and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at Swedish and EU level. Conducts research on contagious animal diseases and AMR in Sweden, Europe and Africa. Teaches disease control, veterinary public health and One Health to veterinary and animal science students in SLU as well as in some programmes in other universities. Since 2021 programme director of the transdisciplinary research platform SLU Future One Health.

Book your hotel

JUNIA proposes that you book at one of these hotels in the centre of town.  Bus transport to these two hotels will be provided at the end of the Forum programme on Thursday evening and from the hotels to JUNIA on Friday morning.  More detailed travelling instructions will be provided in the Joining Instructions to be sent out by email one week before the start of the event.  There are no special rates at these hotels.

Crowne Plaza - EURALILLE
https://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/gb/en/lille/lilbl/hoteldetail?cm_mmc=GoogleMaps-_-CP-_-FR-_-LILBL

The hotel is right in front of the Lille Europe train station and 5 minutes from Lille Flandres train station.

The hotel is 10 min walking from the main square and old city

Novotel Lille Centre Grand Place (Accor group)
https://all.accor.com/hotel/0918/index.fr.shtml

The hotel is 15 minutes walking from Lille Flandres and Lille Europe train stations. 

The hotel is less than 10 min walking distance from the main square and old city

Grand Hotel Belle Vue
https://www.grandhotelbellevue.com/en/
This hotel is close to the Novotel, next to the main square.