GIFFT Project Ignites Sustainable Innovation in European Glass Industry
On October 12, 2023, Brussels, marks the official commencement of the GIFFT project, a European Union-funded initiative aimed at transforming the glass industry’s sustainability landscape. Held at the Lithuanian Research Development and Innovation Liaison Office in Brussels, the kick-off meeting signifies the beginning of a collaborative effort to revolutionize glass manufacturing.
A Vision for Sustainable Glass Manufacturing
Europe leads in glass production, but the industry’s high energy consumption and CO2 emissions present challenges. GIFFT aims to overcome these hurdles by developing a groundbreaking heat production technology. Utilizing plasma-assisted combustion and gasification systems, the project will integrate bio-based solutions, such as biomass and waste, into glass manufacturing processes.
Kick-Off Meeting Highlights
The kick-off meeting for the GIFFT project marked a promising start with welcoming remarks from the project coordinator Dr. Nerijus Striūgas. Project Officer Javier Sanchez Lopez provided a thorough overview, detailing the project’s structure and objectives. Work package leaders presented insights into concept development, gasification, and combustion system plans, highlighting the project’s multifaceted approach. The meeting laid a strong foundation for collaborative efforts among partners, setting the stage for GIFFT’s pursuit of sustainable innovation in the glass industry.
Powerful Partnerships Driving Change
- LEI (Lietuvos Energetikos Institutas), Lithuania – Coordinator
- CTH (Chalmers Tekniska Hogskola AB), Sweden
- TUM (Technische Universitaet Muenchen), Germany
- VMU (Vytauto Didziojo Universitetas), Lithuania
- WIP (WIP Renewable Energies) Germany
- PS (JSC Panevezio Stiklas), Lithuania
- SHU (Sheffield Hallam University), United Kingdom
- SCHOTT AG, Germany
- PlasmaAir AG, Germany
These entities will collaboratively develop and validate innovative technologies to create a sustainable, hybrid, and biofuel-flexible heat production system for the glass industry.
Coordinator contact:
Dr. Nerijus Striūgas, Chief of Laboratory of Combustion Processes, E-Mail: Nerijus.Striugas@lei.lt
Tel: +370 37 401877
Representatives of the Sports Business Management MBA program at the Euroleague Final Four event
On May 18-21, Kaunas hosts the EuroLeague Final Four, the biggest basketball tournament in Europe. The Faculty of Economics and Management of the VMU, conducting the Sports Business Management MBA studies together with the Euroleague Basketball Institute, is an active participant in this event, as it is every year.
The teachers, together with the students of the program, participate in various presentations prepared by the top managers of the Euroleague organization. Reports are read by Euroleague head M. Glickman, Euroleague Coaches Council head G. Sasic, Sheridans partner D. Geey, Eurohoops co-owner A. Barkas and others.
Discussions, excursions and observation of the whole event from the perspective of both the fan and the organizer make the students of the program feel the realities of sports management.
Vytautas Magnus University is hosting annual International Staff Week
This year, International Staff Week is held on April 24-28. The event brings together 140 professors and experts from 43 countries to share knowledge and experience, network, and develop new collaborations.
During this week, professors give classes to VMU students, experts attend a series of presentations and discussions covering a wide range of topics: Keeping ties with international alumni; International students integration: challenges and good practices; Recruitment tools to attract international students; Promotion of mobility possibilities for outgoing students and staff and more.
The programme also includes a Joint Mobility Office meeting organized by the Transform4Europe Alliance. The participants share their experiences and insights on student mobility procedures, including blended intensive programmes, funding opportunities, IT tools for managing mobilities, etc.
The International Staff Week programme is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of opportunities for participants to connect with one another and share ideas. In addition to formal sessions, there are social events, such as guided excursions to Kaunas and Vilnius, introduction to the Lithuanian language, folk music and dances, and food fair, that allow participants to experience the local culture and connect on a more personal level.
Visit the faculty in virtual reality!
The importance of virtual reality in modern organizations
While organizations are experimenting with meta worlds, the Faculty of Economics and Management of VMU moved to virtual reality with the help of student Linas Zairis’ company 360 angle.
“This is not an experimental toy, on the contrary, it is a necessity these days, in order to create a close relationship with current, future, and former members and partners of the faculty community, especially those who do not have the opportunity to visit the faculty live” – says the vice-dean of the faculty Assoc. Dr. Justin Kisieliauskas. Along with the possibility of a virtual tour, during which you can visit all the faculty’s auditoriums, the offices of the dean, vice-deans, and teachers, the social network accounts of the faculty, informative fragments of the website, and the official shop of the faculty’s paraphernalia are conveniently presented and integrated into virtual reality.
What’s more, the virtual tour also includes gaming elements, which L. Zairys connected with the virtual VDU Faculty of Economics and Management influencer Vidukas’ persona. “We have integrated this function exclusively for the young audience – schoolchildren, for whom we offer to get to know the faculty through the prism of the game,” said Dr. Assoc. J. Kisieliauskas. According to L. Zair: “Using the currently extremely popular style of the 90s and a time limit, players are offered to find all the virtual tokens scattered around the faculty.”
Those who want to try a virtual tour of the VMU Faculty of Economics and Management, please visit here.
Faculty students tried inclusive basketball
On January 16-20, the VMU Faculty of Economics and Management hosted a live session of the master’s study program “Sports Business Management”, one of the traditions of which is a friendly basketball tournament.
However, instead of the usual basketball, the students were in for a surprise. Representatives of the Lithuanian integrated sports association and members of the Lithuanian wheelchair basketball team offered to try inclusive basketball.
“Students expected to play basketball at the V. Adamkaus Sports Center, but when they got there, a surprise awaited them – representatives of the Lithuanian Integrated Sports Association and members of the Lithuanian wheelchair basketball team, with the president of the Lithuanian Disabled Sports Federation Kęstutis Skučas and playing coach Vytautas Skučas, were waiting for them in the hall of the VDU sports center. Students played inclusive basketball together with the disabled,” says Dr. Mantautas Račkauskas.
There were tons of emotions in the competition, but not the competitiveness of the unusual competition format, but the determination and combativeness of the Lithuanian wheelchair basketball team left no one indifferent.
“Sports Business Management” MBA counts fifth graduation
On the afternoon of January 20, another generation of graduates of the “Sports Business Management” study program run by the VMU Faculty of Economics and Management and the Euroleague Basketball Institute threw their academic caps into the air in the amphitheater of the Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas.
The graduates of the program were congratulated by VMU Faculty of Economics and Management Dean R. Bendaravičienė, Vice-Dean M. Račkauskas, Kaunas “Žalgiris” General Director P. Motiejūnas, as well as M. Ferreira, representative of the Euroleague Basketball Institute.
Among the master’s theses defended, it was possible to find the topics of sponsoring sports organizations, financing sports events, sustainability of sports arenas, creating mediating platforms for the sports market, and other topics. After an intensive session in Kaunas, the students who defended their master’s theses were happy with the knowledge they had acquired during their studies and the friendships they had established, and their evening was crowned by the victory of Kaunas “Žalgiris” against Belgrade “Crvena Zvezda” in a packed arena.
The unique study program, the partner of which the Euroleague Basketball Institute chose the Faculty of Economics and Management of the VMU, already has its fifth generation of graduates this year. More information about the program can be found here.
Faculty of Economics and management has become a member of EFMD
We are happy to announce that the VMU Faculty of Economics and Management has become a full member of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) organization.
Founded in 1972, EFMD is a global, non-profit, membership-driven organisation dedicated to management development. It is recognised globally as an accreditation body for business schools, business school programmes, and corporate universities. Their mission is to act as a catalyst to promote and enhance excellence in management development globally.
With a network of 30,000 management professionals from academia, business, public service, and consultancies, EFMD plays a central role in shaping the global approach to management education and provides a unique forum for information, research, networking, and debate on innovation and best practice.
EFMD is a network for schools and companies that aim to develop socially responsible leaders and managers looking for opportunities to connect. Alongside organisation emphasises on educational standards for management education, and firmly believes in bringing companies and academic institutions together and works towards facilitating and strengthening exchanges between the two.
The updated neuromarketing laboratory will reveal what is really hidden in the user’s mind
Neuromarketing laboratory researcher dr. V. Grigaliūnaitė demonstrates the capabilities of the devices
The neuromarketing laboratory established at the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Vytautas Magnus University has received new equipment that allows us to find out not only what a person says, but also what he does or even feels.
Neuromarketing research has been conducted at the faculty since 2014. The laboratory uses the latest physical and software equipment for neuromarketing research:
- electroencephalograph (EEG), which allows to evaluate cognitive processes occurring in response to a marketing stimulus;
- eye-tracking glasses and stationary eye-tracking equipment, which allow analyzing the trajectory and intensity of users’ visual attention to both marketing stimuli presented on the computer screen and marketing stimuli presented in the environment (outdoor advertisements, placement of goods on store shelves, etc. );
- an emotion recording system (face reader), which allows analyzing the change of emotions as a response to the presented marketing stimulus;
- equipment for measuring electrical conductivity of the skin (English GSR), which allows to assess the level of emotional arousal as a response to a marketing stimulus.
The laboratory also conducts an implicit association test (Implicit Association Test), which evaluates the strength of implicit associations between the presented concepts, thus allowing to determine a person’s attitude towards the analyzed object. Given the fact that a person is not always able (besides, not always willing) to explain his behavior, these technologies help to assess users’ cognitive processes, attitude, course of visual attention, time, level of excitement, emotions in a more detailed, accurate and objective manner. Undoubtedly, according to laboratory researcher dr. V. Grigaliūnaitė, in order to comprehensively evaluate consumer behavior as a response to a marketing stimulus, several neuromarketing research methods are combined (e.g. gaze tracking and an emotion measurement system helps to determine which specific element in a visual marketing stimulus causes a certain emotion) with usual marketing research methods (quantitative and qualitative). These interdisciplinary studies, when appropriate neuromarketing and conventional marketing research methods are integrated, allow conducting research of high scientific and practical value even now in Lithuania.
VMU Faculty of Economics and Management is moving to new premises
We are happy to announce that from now on you will find the Faculty of Economics and Management of VMU in new, modern premises. The administration of the faculty, the teachers will work and the whole life of the faculty will take place in K. Donelaičio str. 52, on the top floor of the building.
As the representatives of the faculty say: “it was obvious that the community, which cherishes the values of openness, freedom and dynamism, has outgrown the premises of the former central building of VMU, which requested modernization. When the opportunity arose, the community unanimously accepted the possibility of change, as a result of which they decided to jointly create a new step in the life of faculty of VMU Economics and Management”.
It is said that from next semester, most of the classes organized by the faculty should take place in the new spaces.
VMU Extends a Helping Hand to Ukraine: Everyone is Welcome to Donate
FOR THOSE WHO SEEK HELP / ДЛЯ ТИХ, ХТОПОTPEБYЄ ДОПОМОГИ
Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), continuing the initiative dedicated to the support of Eastern Partnership countries, has extended a helping hand to the Ukrainians. In 2020, VMU established a support fund dedicated to students who suffered from repression by the Belarusian government. Now, this fund will also support students who suffered from military operations in Ukraine. The university is also prepared to welcome students and lecturers who are fleeing from war in Ukraine. Like other higher education schools in Lithuania, VMU has terminated relations with higher education institutions of Russia and Belarus.
Everyone is welcome to donate to the support fund for the Ukrainians: businesses, the public and individual persons. The received funds are used for scholarships to the Ukrainians who come to study at VMU: the support covers their expenses on studies, accommodation, and settlement. If needed, these funds may also cover the students’ subsistence expenses.
“We must not stand on the sidelines as the horrors of war are taking place so close to us. We ask everyone who is not indifferent to human suffering and supports democratic and humanistic values to donate to this fund. Our support is very important to people who have been affected by war and the political situation. The donated money will reach the members of academic community in Ukraine and the incoming students who need it the most. We express strong support to communities of our partner universities in Ukraine”, VMU Vice-Rector for Communication, Assoc. Prof. Vilma Bijeikienė said.
As a way to show its support of the Ukrainian government and people, in response to the recent events, the university is also prepared welcome up to 400 students and up to 50 lecturers or researchers who are fleeing the war. The graduates of VMU also contribute to the support of the Ukrainian citizens in various ways.
Currently, 87 citizens of Ukraine are studying at VMU. Ukraine is an important partner of VMU: as part of the Erasmus+ program, VMU cooperates with 10 Ukrainian universities, while bilateral agreements have been signed with 30 other higher education schools.
Since 2013, in order to contribute to the consolidation of democracy, Vytautas Magnus Unviersity has been paying special attention to students of the Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Each year, 20–40 students from these countries receive scholarships.
We invite natural and legal persons to contribute to the support fund dedicated to students who have suffered from state repression. The donors may provide students from Ukraine with financial support or their own products or services; they may also create the conditions for the students to do paid internship at their companies or organizations, thus providing the students with possibilities to live independently during their studies in Lithuania.
The funds for this project can be transferred to the following account of AB SEB Bank:
LT41 7044 0600 0284 8638
Beneficiary’s name: Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas
Payment description: Support for students from Ukraine
JOB/INTERNSHIP OFFERS
We invite companies to present job or internship offers to the Ukrainian academic community by email: karjera@vdu.lt
INVITATION TO SIGN A PETITION AGAINST WAR CRIMES
We invite you to sign a petition organized by the Ukrainian World Congress. The petition, which aims to stop war crimes, can be found here.
More information: academic.support@vdu.lt
