The UNESCO Chair Aid4GEA on Technologies and Materials for Green and Energy Applications has just been established at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy and at the Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. The chair holder is Prof. Elisa Moretti (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) and the co-chair holder is Prof. Alberto Vomiero (Luleå University of Technology). It aims to strengthen awareness of the key role of advanced materials and technologies to promote sustainable development, especially in developing countries. The program aims to achieve two strategic objectives of UNESCO’s medium-term strategy (2022-29): “Ensuring quality, equitable and inclusive education” and “Working towards sustainable societies and protecting the environment”, and the five strategic objectives of the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy Report for Africa 2024 (STISA-2024).
Human activities are pervaded by materials in all aspects, from industrial production to daily life, and functional materials allow for unprecedented possibilities compared to the past. However, social development must consider a careful use of natural resources, including the strong reduction of anthropogenic effects on the climate and the environment. Materials and production technologies are central to sustainable development: they improve the quality of life and, at the same time, can offer solutions for environmental restoration and the efficient use of energy sources.
Some examples: materials for hydrogen production, solar energy conversion and storage, water desalination and purification, treatment of contaminated soil. A circular life cycle is needed, in which the reuse and recycling of waste are central. Aid4GEA promotes this awareness through capacity building at the local level, creating a network of teaching/research institutions and the most authoritative global Societies in the sector. North-South-South and South-South cooperation includes the exchange of students and researchers, support for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers from developing countries, the definition of joint research and training projects, the sharing of knowledge through the organization of symposiums and multilateral workshops. Aid4GEA aims to increase awareness at a societal level through specific actions involving the public, stakeholders, and policy makers. The focus is on needs-driven requests from developing country partners. In the long term, Aid4GEA will impose a new vision of the use and reuse of materials in society through education and the development of skills towards sustainable development.
Launch of the UNESCO Chair at the Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, and the Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
October 15, 2024
Auditorium Scientific Campus
9.30 Welcome to the audience
Maurizio Selva, Department of
Molecular Sciences and Nanosustems,
Director
9.40
Tiziana Lippiello, Rector, Ca’ Foscari
University of Venice
9.50
Margareta Groth, Prefekt, Department of
Engineering Sciences and Mathematics,
Luleå University of Technology
10.00
Claudio Pettinari (VicePresident Italian
Chemistry Society SCI, University of
Camerino),Teaching Chemistry Today:
Challenge, Opportunity or Necessity?
10.15 Coffee Break
10.45 Megumi Watanabe (UNESCO
Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in
Europe),
Addressing the needs of a sustainable
future and the strategic role of UNESCO
11.05 Elisa Moretti / Alberto Vomiero
(UNESCO Chair Aid4GEA), Aid4GEA – A
bridge across the world: when hard science
fertilizes sustainable development
11.25 Gianfranco Pacchioni (Accademia
Nazionale dei Lincei, University Milano
Bicocca),Open science, closed science. Is
academic research declining?
12.05 Lunch
13.20 Zhong Lin Wang (BINN-Chinese
Academy of Sciences), Triboelectric
Nanogenerator (TENG) for High-entropy
Energy and Systems
14.00 Balla Diop Ngom (TO BE
CONFIRMED), Biomass derived
affordable and sustainable energy
storage devices
14.40 Malik Maaza (UNESCO UNISA
ITL/NRF Africa Chair in Nanosciences
& Nanotechnology), The UNESCO
UNISA ITL/NRF Africa Chair in
Nanosciences & Nanotechnology
14.55 Pietro Omodeo (UNESCO
Chair Water Heritage and Sustainable
Development), The UNESCO Chair
Water Heritage and Sustainable
Development
15.10 Roundtable with the speakers
15.30 Closing remarks
15.45 End of the workshop