E³UDRES² – Ent-r-e-novators PhD Summer School 2025 – Open Practices in Higher Education, hundreds of international students, dozens of international experts connecting for 5 days in Timișoara
Timișoara, Romania – June 6, 2025 – Politehnica University Timișoara successfully hosted the first edition of E³UDRES² – Ent-re-novators PhD Summer School 2025 – Open Practices in Higher Education, an event that brought together over 70 international students from 22 countries physically, along with others 400 of participants, via the Zoom platform. 14 international experts from Romania, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Austria delivered a series of valuable presentations and workshops on topics related to open education, open science, open access, and open innovation.
The event brought together a vibrant academic community in Timișoara, both physically and online: over 70 doctoral students and young researchers from 22 countries (Romania, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Kenya, Germany, Pakistan, Philippines, Ukraine, Greece, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iran, India, Indonesia, Syria, Ecuador, and Morocco) students from 12 universities (Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA), Leiden University, Hellenic Mediterranean University, "Lucian Blaga" University Sibiu, Polytechnic University of Setúbal, St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Sumy State University, Cherkasy State Business College, and West University of Timisoara)
They interacted with 14 international speakers recognized in their fields, from Romania, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Hungary, the Netherlands and Austria, who held a series of intensive sessions for students, from presentations with cutting-edge information to particularly valuable practical workshops.
The presentations were held in English and at the end of the summer school, the students were rewarded with official certificates of participation, recognized with 2 ECTS credits, attesting to the successful completion of the necessary criteria for this postgraduate training (validated by Politehnica University Timișoara) for the activities carried out during the period both in Timișoara and online. In addition, the participants also received two open digital certificates: one for completing MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) courses focused on Licensing and Open Licensing, and a second open digital certificate confirming completion of learning modules on the new Arena Hub E³UDRES² platform (https://arena.eudres.eu/) .
Day 1: Artificial Intelligence and Open Education
At the opening of the event, Dr. Diana Andone, director of the Digital and Distance Education department, and Prof. dr.eng. Liviu Marșavina, vice-rector of UPT, officially welcomed the participants. They were followed by Prof. Em.Dr. Eng. Radu Vasiu, responsible for the E³UDRES² – Ent-re-novators project, who emphasized the importance of the E³UDRES² university alliance, as well as the objectives of the Ent-re-novators project.
The first presentation of the day, “The Use of AI in Open Education, OER production and Open Science”, was given by Dr. Eng. Diana Andone, exploring in depth the fundamental principles of open education and detailing the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in the educational context, from content generation to complex ethical considerations.
Continuing the program, Associate Professor Dr. Eng. Vlad Mihăescu presented an in-depth session on “MOOCs”. The presentation provided a clear definition of Massive Open Online Courses, exemplified a variety of relevant platforms, and explored their characteristics. It also analyzed the application of MOOCs in education, highlighting both the benefits and challenges inherent in their integration.
Both presentation sessions generated active dialogue and numerous questions from students, who also benefited from increased interaction with the speakers through the Mentimeter platform, used for real-time voting and responses.
The afternoon was dedicated to a practical workshop entitled “Open Education & AI”, led by Dr. Eng. Diana Andone, Dr. Eng. Vlad Mihăescu and Dr. Silvia Couvaneiro (Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, Portugal). Participants were guided in the use of advanced AI tools for educational purposes, including machine translation, content generation, video creation, and the use of Notebook LM for developing personalized educational resources. The workshop allowed students to explore practical applications of artificial intelligence in learning processes and the creation of teaching materials.
Day 2: Open Science Fundamentals
The second day of the summer school was dedicated to deepening the concepts of Open Science.
Prof. Sarah de Rijcke (Leiden University, PLOS, UNESCO, Netherlands) gave a presentation on “Implementing Open Science Principles in Early-Career Research: From Policy to Practice”, highlighting the urgent need for a reassessment of how researchers are evaluated. The presentation also addressed perceived barriers to practicing Open Science and covered key issues such as transparency, collaboration, reproducibility, equity, policy factors, and UNESCO’s recommendations on Open Science. Prof. de Rijcke also discussed open access publication routes (Gold, Green, Diamond), FAIR Data principles, pre-registration, and collaborative tools.
Continuing on an equally essential note, Dr. Agnese Davidson (Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia) presented “Ethical Dilemmas in Open Science”. The presentation initiated discussions through a Mentimeter survey on the estimated proportion of student papers that will be published in open access. Dr. Davidson emphasized the crucial importance of ethics in research, highlighting historical examples of ethical issues and contemporary ethical challenges, including dilemmas of privacy vs. openness, misuse of open data, and access equity. Ethical concerns related to artificial intelligence in the context of open science were also addressed, such as bias in AI-assisted research and data privacy.
The afternoon was dedicated to an intensive practical workshop, “Open Access & Open Science Ethics”, led in collaboration with Prof. Sarah de Rijcke and Dr. Agnese Davidson. The workshop involved a self-assessment of participants’ readiness for Open Science, covering issues such as open access, data sharing, and collaboration. Afterwards, students participated in group discussions on barriers and enablers specific to their disciplines. The session culminated in the development of individual Open Science action plans, with SMART objectives and a role-playing exercise to practice negotiating Open Science practices with supervisors or peers.
Day 3: Advanced Practices and Tools in Open Science
The third day of the Doctoral Summer School brought to the forefront essential aspects related to Open Science practices and research data management.
The presentation sessions were opened by Simone SacchiResearch Data Librarian at the European University Institute (Italy), with the paper “Open Science practices in support of Open Access publishing”. The presentation provided an overview of the fundamental practices of Open Science that support open access to research results. It addressed both the formal modalities of publishing in open-access journals and the complementary practices that contribute to a more open, transparent, and reproducible research ecosystem. Particular attention was paid to the influence of these perspectives on innovative approaches to research evaluation at European and international levels, in the context of the work of the Coalition for the Advancement of Research Evaluation (CoARA). His presentation generated numerous questions from students, both those present in the room and those connected online, demonstrating the lively interest in the subject.
This was followed by the presentation “Open Data Analysis and Visualization for Transparency and Change”, given by Silvia Fierascu from the West University of Timisoara (Romania). The session explored how network analysis and visualization techniques can illuminate complex relationships in diverse ecosystems, from anti-corruption initiatives to cultural institutions. It highlighted best practices for collecting, standardizing, and using data to ensure FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) datasets, illustrating how to model and communicate impactful network diagrams. The presentation also engaged the audience through Mentimeter surveys about their perceptions of data and the benefits of open science, in turn generating multiple questions from students regarding data collection methodologies, storage, and levels of analysis.
The afternoon was dedicated to practical workshops, giving students the opportunity to apply the knowledge they had acquired. The workshop “Empowering Researchers: Skills and Roles in Open Science"was led by Alina Irimia, Open Science Projects Coordinator, and Alexandra Roman, Expert Open Science Knowledge Hub, both from UEFISCDI (Romania) and explored the evolving landscape of skills required for Open Science, discussing new training needs, emerging career options (such as data stewardship and scholarly communication) and the transformative impact of Open Science on research and education. The discussions also contributed to a national exercise to identify skills gaps and curricula, supporting the development of recommendations for a national skills framework for Open Science in Romania.
Another practical workshop, “Openness, reproducibility and trust: practical advice”, was held by Simone SacchiThis hands-on session guided students in choosing open access journals and implementing strategies to make their research workflows more open and transparent. Participants explored key steps and tools to increase the credibility and visibility of their scholarly work.
Day 4: Open Publishing, Open Data and Digital Tools for Research
The fourth day of the PhD Summer School was dedicated to the practical aspects of open publishing and the use of digital tools in research, with presentations and an interactive workshop.
The sessions began with Dr. Tassilo Pellegrini (St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences), who delivered the presentation "Open Data 1-0-1", online, via Zoom, exploring the key concepts of open data and licenses.
Prof. Em. Dr. Eng. Radu Vasiu from Politehnica University of Timișoara continued with a discussion on "Open Publishing", delving deeper into digital skills and the principles of open access publishing, highlighting self-assessment and skills development tools, as well as their crucial role in increasing research productivity.
Next, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Silviu Vert from Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania) presented “Open Science & Open Innovation Tools”, introducing students to the Open Science taxonomy. In addition, he detailed the tools that support transparency, collaboration and impact throughout the research lifecycle, from discovery to publication and evaluation.
At the conclusion of the series of presentations, Dr. Simona Bursașiu, librarian at the Central Library of UPT (Romania), presented "How to publish with open access" highlighting the diverse services offered by the UPT Library, including access to a vast consortium of databases and support for open access publishing, especially through transformative agreements.
The afternoon was dedicated to an intensive practical workshop entitled “Open Research and Digital Tools”. This session was guided by Dr. Simona Bursașiu and Lect. Dr. Silviu Vert, with an intervention by Dr. Diana Andone. Students gained practical experience in creating personal libraries with Zotero, managing researcher profiles and using AI tools to improve their research workflow. They also explored assigning DOIs, using the UPT Institutional Digital Repository (DSpace), generating Creative Commons licenses and uploading research data to platforms such as FigShare.
Day 5: Open Innovation and Open Data
The last day of the PhD Summer School kicked off with an engaging presentation on the intersection of open innovation and the circular economy. Sara Gilissen from UC Leuven-Limburg University of Applied Sciences, Belgium, gave the presentation “Open Innovation in SMEs: Transitioning from a Linear to a Circular Economy”. She explored how open innovation and co-creation can bring significant benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Gilissen stressed that open innovation is crucial in a globalised economy focused on sustainability, encouraging collaboration across different layers of society and industries. She also highlighted the importance of the quadruple helix model (government, academia, industry, civil society) for business model innovation in SMEs, providing examples of projects and lessons learned from Limburg. The session ended with participants reflecting on the main ideas they took away and on the roles they want to play in open innovation.
Subsequent, Klaudia Polgar (Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Hungary) presented a paper on “Open Data & FAIR”. This highlighted how open science increases transparency and public trust by making research data accessible. Polgár elaborated on the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), highlighting their importance for effective data management, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence and large-scale analytics. He clarified key concepts such as metadata, file formats and vocabularies, emphasizing that while data can be FAIR or open, or both, FAIR data significantly increases usability and value, and, critically, “FAIR does not mean open”.
After the last presentations, the students benefited from a mentoring session in the hall, supported by Dr. Diana Andone, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Silviu Vert and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Vlad MihăescuThis session was followed by the official closing ceremony of the PhD Summer School, during which participants received certificates of participation.
Social and Connection Program
In addition to the academic sessions, the event also facilitated socializing moments aimed at strengthening the bonds between participants. On Monday evening, students, speakers, and the DeL and E³UDRES² team participated in a festive opening dinner at Casa Politehnicii 2. This occasion provided a relaxed setting for networking and sharing first impressions of the summer school, creating an atmosphere conducive to collaboration.
On Tuesday afternoon, participants had the opportunity to explore the beauties of Timișoara through a guided tour of the city, accompanied by a licensed guide. This cultural experience allowed them to discover the city's rich history and impressive architecture, thus complementing their academic program with a valuable local perspective.
On Wednesday afternoon, PhD Summer School students embarked on an exciting guided tour of the National Museum of Banat. Guided by a museum expert, they explored two remarkable exhibitions: “Belle Époque Woman,” which highlighted the quiet courage and resilience of women during World War I, and “Igriș – Monastery of the Kings,” showcasing archaeological finds and architectural fragments from the Cistercian Abbey of Igriș.
On Thursday, participants had a relaxing and scenic experience, enjoying a vaporetto ride on the Bega River, admiring the city from a new perspective and strengthening bonds of camaraderie.
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