SCIENCE-BASED CRISIS MANAGEMENT - SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE AGAINST NEWLY EMERGING THREATS

The three-day Trans-Atlantic Research and Development Interchange on Sustainability (TARDIS) World Programme on Sustainability, which explores local and global sustainability challenges from a variety of perspectives, hosted a three-day international scientific conference on the UM campus on 14-16 September 2022. The meeting brought together experts from engineering, mathematics, physics, ecology, economics and political science from the United States, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Croatia, the United Kingdom, the Vatican, Belgium, India and Hungary. The presentations covered topics such as a nature-positive approach, social justice, the perception of nation states, the links between the circular economy and sustainability, tackling the drinking water crisis, and the harnessing of underground energy.

Building on the benefits of cross-disciplinary linkages, TARDIS meetings have been held every two years since 2004, alternating between the US and Europe. The theme focuses on the local and global challenges facing sustainability, which is important because global trade chains and internet-based information flows have resulted in a hyper-connected world by the 21st century, where all events and issues are amplified globally by the accelerated speed of modern communications and the movement of goods. These emerging global threats can manifest locally as major disruptions such as floods, droughts, forest fires, economic hardship and public health problems.

Finding solutions to sustainability can enable civilised existence to continue on Earth for as long as possible. This challenge must be met in the face of emerging threats such as pandemic coronaviruses, wars, climate change or similar crises.

At the TARDIS conference in Miskolc, scientists looked at the most practical and effective ways to mitigate these threats and the most practical and effective ways to achieve resilience and sustainability in the face of these threats.

The event was co-organised by the University of Miskolc, the University of Graz and the Vishwamitra Research Institute (USA).

Study tour