Swetaly is a collaboration agreement established in 2019 between more than 30 Italian and Swedish universities with the aim of creating academic and research collaboration networks. Swetaly aims to organise workshops and seminars on topics of interest to the universities in the consortium with the goal of connecting students, PhD students and researchers allowing them to expand their network, compare national points of view and strategies, and discuss common trends and research topics.

Themes

At the moment, the collaboration promoted by Swetaly focuses on three main themes:

• Aging
  Demographic change as a result of an ageing population and improved living conditions represents a major challenge for Europe. Indeed, demographic ageing is foreseen to influence everyday life on various aspects (e.g., political, social, economic, cultural and technological). This research theme aims to analyse the change in society due to the phenomenon of demographic ageing through the adoption of a multi-perspective approach capable of jointly considering some of the aspects mentioned above and studying their relationship.
• Academic freedom
  Academic freedom, considered as a fundamental human right, means the freedom to do research by disseminating and publishing the results obtained through association and collaboration with other researchers. One such network is 'Scholars at Risk', which aims to defend academic freedom and support individuals at risk, enabling them to continue their research and discuss ideas and results. This research theme aims to study aspects related to the promotion and protection of academic freedom.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  The topic of Artificial Intelligence is gaining more and more importance in modern society, with applications ranging from industry to the arts, communication, and health. This is due to the increasing availability of data generated, collected, and analysed by machine learning and artificial intelligence tools, which can help improve many aspects of life. This research topic therefore aims to study the effects of introducing such technologies into society, highlighting benefits and problems associated with their adoption.

In the near future, new topics will be proposed within the consortium with the aim of creating new collaboration networks.

Who is it for?

• Students of master's degrees.  Swetaly aims to create new exchange opportunities for master's degree students through the creation of new Erasmus+ agreements.  The aim is to define new bilateral agreements for financing mobility periods for study and/ or thesis development.
• PhD students.  Swetaly aims to promote research periods abroad for PhD students, giving them the opportunity to do research in close contact with foreign professors and researchers who are experts in specific research fields.  Not only, but the goal of these collaborations is also to allow young researchers to create from the beginning of their career a network of contacts with other PhD students, researchers and professors engaged on the same research topics to be exploited in the future for mobility, research, and projects proposal.
• Researchers and professors.  For researchers and professors, the possibility of getting in touch with international research networks has mainly two aims. On the one hand, the idea is to strengthen existing collaborations with other researchers and professors. On the other hand, the goal is to create new collaborations, especially in an interdisciplinary perspective. The achievement of these two objectives, in the medium to long term, should form the basis for the promotion of visiting periods in partner universities and the writing of project proposals of national and European interest on the topics covered by Swetaly.