The AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub held meetings with both the Advisory Board and Steering Group in June 2022.

For the Steering Group, which is based in Bergen, it was finally possible to have a physical meeting on June 16^th, after virtual meetings during the pandemic. For the Advisory Board, with members from the Nordic and Baltic region, there was a virtual meeting on June 17^th.

The Academic Director of the hub, Eystein Jansen, gave an overview of the hub activities of the past year, as well as some upcoming projects.

Among the 2021/22 activities summed up in Jansen´s presentation, were our participation in the Rosendal Week, as well our cooperation with NTVA-Bergen and Tekna on local technology seminars. The Hub also offered technical support for the Academia Europaea Building Bridges 2021 Conference, as well as the SAPEA webinar om new energy systems on October 11^th. The AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub organized the founding of the AE Task Force on Environment, Climate and Sustainability, including a survey among members and report to the AE Board.

Arctic Frontiers Side-Event

Turning the page to 2022, we co-hosted a Norwegian webinar on biodegradable plastics held by NORCE scientist Gunhild Bødtker on March 23^rd. We also co-hosted the Darwin Day lecture by Professor Yadvinder Malhi, as well as organized a side-event on deep-sea mineral mining during the Arctic Frontiers conference. In late May, we were honored to host László Lovász, the academic director of our sister hub in Budapest, for two days during his Norway visit. We also co-hosted his lecture “Graphs and Geometry”.

Many of these activities, including the local technology seminars with NTVA-Bergen and Tekna, will continue in the autumn. A new, major project in the autumn, is a report coordinated by Ole Øvretveit on the effects of the Ukraine War on science diplomacy and scientific cooperation in the Arctic. There will be more news on this major project at our website as the project progresses in the autumn.

AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub Steering Group:

Dag L. Aksnes; MAE, Professor, Univ. of Bergen (Marine biology)

Petter Bjørstad; MAE, Univ. Bergen (Informatics)

Kjersti Fløttum; MAE, Univ. Bergen (Linguistics)

Jessica Jewell; Research scholar/Assoc. prof., IIASA/Univ. of Bergen (Energy and Political science)

Matthias Kaiser; Professor, Univ. of Bergen (Philosophy of science)

Stein Kuhnle; MAE, Professor, Univ. of Bergen (Political science)

Dieter Roerich; MAE, Univ. Bergen (Physics)

Anne Gro Salvanes, MAE, Professor, Univ. of Bergen (Marine biology)

Sigrid Eskeland Schütz; Professor Univ. of Bergen (Law)

Svein Sundby, MAE, Professor, Institute for Marine Research, Bergen (Oceanography)

Marit Warncke, CEO Bergen Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Ole Øvretveit, CEO Initiativ Vest

AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub Advisory Board:

Margareth Hagen; Chair, Rector and Professor, University of Bergen, Norway (Italian Literature)

Erland Källen; MAE, Professor, University of Stockholm, Sweden (Meteorology/Climate)

Kirsten Drotner; MAE, Professor, University of Southern Denmark, (Media)

Carl G. Gahmberg; MAE, Professor Emeritus, University of Helsinki, Finland (Molecular and Integrative Biosciences)

Björn Wittrock; MAE, Professor Emeritus, Uppsala University and Vice President AE

Jüri Allik; MAE; University of Tartu, Estonia (Psychology)

Ole Arve Misund; MAE, Director/Professor Tromsø (Marine and fisheries biology)

Martin Fernø; MYAE, Professor, University of Bergen (Physics)

The AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub was honored to host László Lovász, the academic director of our sister hub in Budapest, for one evening during his Norway visit this spring. Possible cooperation was discussed.  

The academic director of the AE Hub in Budapest, mathematician László Lovász, was awarded the Abel Prize for 2021. Because of Covid restrictions last year, he visited the Norwegian Acadamy of Science and Letters this year instead. His week in Norway included 2 days in Rosendal in western Norway, as well at 3 days in Bergen, where a meeting with the AE-Bergen Hub took place.

László Lovász was awarded the 2021 Abel Prize jointly with Avi Wigderson.

– Lovász and Wigderson have been leading forces in the development of theoretical computer science and its mathematical foundations over the last few decades. Their work interlaces in many ways, and they have both made fundamental contributions to understanding randomness in computation and in exploring the boundaries of efficient computation, says Hans Munthe-Kaas, chair of the Abel Committee, and continues:

– Thanks to the ground-breaking work of these two, discrete mathematics and the relatively young field of theoretical computer science are now firmly established as central areas of modern mathematics.

Several opportunities for cooperation were discussed during the meeting between Hub directors László Lovász and Eystein Jansen. Among these were the thematic mission of the Budapest Hub: Methodology of Science Education, as well as Urban Sustainability. Of these, the theme of Urban Sustainability is a good fit with the focus on sustainability in the strategy of the Bergen Hub.

Explore the recording of a UiB and Academia Europaea Bergen Knowledge Hub organized Side Event at this year’s Arctic Frontiers Conference – “Race to the (seabed) bottom – realities and sustainability dilemmas in the demand for minerals”.

Vast quantities of metal-rich mineral deposits have been found in deep sea areas including deep sea regions of the Arctic and sub-Arctic. While the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has granted exploration licenses in various locations, in particular in the Pacific Ocean, several countries are planning to initiate exploration within their own jurisdiction. Norway being one of them.

The green transition generates a need for critical minerals, expected to be greater than the supply from existing land-based mining industry and recycling. Norway is in a position to become a leader in the exploration for deep-sea minerals. The race has started, and this event will address both challenges, opportunities, and dilemmas.

Does the Green Shift really need deep-sea minerals? Do deep-sea minerals have a potential for creating new industries? Is the technology advanced enough? Do we have the knowledge base needed to safely explore these resources without irreversible damage to surrounding ecosystems? How is Norway preparing for its 1st licensing round for deep-sea minerals, and how will this influence the arctic regions? Is the Norwegian Act on Mineral Activities on the Continental Shelf (Seabed Minerals Act) a sufficient regulatory framework? And finally; can deep-sea mineral extraction be sustainable enough to be justified?

Target audience: Industry professionals, environmental groups, policymakers, the geoscience community, and other stakeholders.

Regrettably, the sound quality is varying on this recording.

List of speakers:

• Chair: Eystein Jansen (Scientific director of AE-Bergen Knowledge Hub, University of Bergen)
• Andrew Bloodworth (Policy director, BGS – British Geological Survey Keyworth)
• Walter Sognnes (CEO of Loke Minerals, Stavanger Norway)
• Kaja Fjærtoft (Senior Advisor , Sustainable Oceans in WWF-Norway)
• Pedro A. Ribeiro (Dr., UiB – University of Bergen)
• Anita Parlow (MSt., Formerly Harvard-MIT Arctic Fisheries, Wilson Center Team Lead Polar Code Initiative, Fulbright Scholar-Iceland, United States)

In this lecture Professor Yadvinder Malhi examines human influence on the natural world through the concept of metabolism: how much energy flows through human societies compared to how much flows through the biosphere. The lecture was held at the University of Bergen on April 25th, to mark the Darwin Day.

 

In this interesting lecture, prof. Yadvinder Malhi first looks at the biological metabolism of the planet, how it is measured and how it is distributed over the Earth. He then explores how these energy flows have changed through human history and prehistory, and scenarios for how they may change over this century, where human-appropriated energy flows threaten to overwhelm the life-sustaining metabolism of the planet.

The metabolic profile of a modern industrialised country (the UK) is explored detail: how much of our energy is directly consumed or embedded in products and in societal infrastructure?

The lecture was  a joint event organised by the Horizon Lecture Committee at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Darwin Day Committee at the Department of Biological Sciences, and Academia Europaea Bergen Knowledge Hub. It is also available at Vimeo: