COFET second conference - FET and the city

FET and the City. A European conference is due to be held at the Sant'Anna Institute of Pisa on 29th and 30th January 2014. It will focus on communicating the achievements of FET projects in the 2014-2020 programme.

The event will take place in the Lecture Hall of the Superior School of Sant'Anna. Entitled "FET and the City", this conference will cover the COFET project, funded by the European Commission. The aim of COFET is to connect the entire European scientific community to design the future of the FET projects – Future Emerging Technologies – a field of the ICT research dealing with highly innovative and experimental technologies.
The conference will be attended by professionals of the research world and others who study the relation between society and research, such as Massimo Bergamasco, professor of biomechanic at Sant'Anna, or Fermin Serrano Sanz, a complex systems researcher based in Zaragoza. The latter is the author of Socientize, a European green paper about the so-called "citizen science", which involves the active participation of citizens in research and experimental activities.

"The idea behind the conference is to hear directly from European researchers why projects that study and develop highly innovative technologies should look for the involvement of social actors and citizens", says Erich Prem from Eutema, the Austrian company which coordinates the event. "The focus will be both on outreach – how to inform the public about the activities and results of research – and on inreach, trying to design how citizens, and youngsters most of all, could be involved in this field."

The first COFET conference held in London in June 2013 focused on the relation between technology and innovation. This time, the Sant'Anna Institute was chosen as location because of its outstanding position in the European research landscape. "Sant'Anna is internationally renowned as a leading research institute in the different fields of ICT", says Ian Morgan, director of Optimat, a Scottish consulting company which contributes to the event's organisations. "It holds a key position in the Italian scientific research system".

Italy has an important role in the FET programme and coordinates many projects that will be represented at the conference. These include the SIEMPRE project, coordinated by the Genoa University, and the PLEASED project, which focuses on the usage of plants as complex sensing devices, coordinated by W-Lab, a company linked to University La Sapienza of Rome.

Participation to the conference is free of charge, though registration is mandatory. In order to register, please e-mail the project secretary at office@fet2020.eu

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