This year's meeting of representatives of member universities of the 4EU+ Alliance was held in Copenhagen on October 26-28, 2022. The alliance includes 7 universities, i.e. Warsaw University, Charles University (Czech Republic), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Sorbonne University (France), University of Geneva (Switzerland), University of Heidelberg (Germany), and University of Milan (Italy). The 4EU+ Alliance universities jointly conduct research and educate students, and create initiatives related to innovation, technology transfer, and university social responsibility.

This year's meeting was held under the theme "Sustainability - an ever closer alliance," within the framework of the 4EU+ Flagship 1 program, "Health and Demographic Change in an Urban Environments". Representatives from 4EU+ universities presented the program's thematic scope and the key challenges faced by researchers, doctoral candidates, and students working together under the initiative. According to the program objectives of the 4EU+ Flagship 1, by implementing joint scientific and educational ventures, F1 representatives want to contribute to the promotion of health and the development of smart cities.

On the third day of the meeting, a competition of doctoral students, the so-called PhD Cup, was held from various member universities. PhD students from each university presented their work, related to the topic of sustainable development. The University of Warsaw was represented by our PhD student Maciej Karasewicz, from the Remote Sensing Laboratory (RS-Lab) Team of the Atmospheric Physics Department, led by dr hab. Iwona Stachlewska, prof. ucz. The RS-Lab belongs to ACTRIS  - pan-European aerosol, clouds, and trace gases research infrastructure (RI) producing high-quality data and information on short-lived atmospheric constituents and on the processes leading to the variability of these constituents in natural and controlled atmospheres.

The presentation given by Professor Stachlewska's doctoral student "Air pollution research using the combination of Mie, Raman, and Doppler lidars," dealt with the use of measurements from various remote sensing devices to monitor and characterize atmospheric aerosols, which are part of air pollution. In addition, the topic of monitoring urban aeration corridors was addressed, in order to check their aeration quality and the possible impact of newly built urban infrastructure on the corridors. The research plans presented in the presentation include the use of the NARLa (Near Range Aerosol Raman Lidar) lidar, the PollyNeXT (Raman polarization water vapour lidar) lidar, and the HALO Doppler lidar, all of the aforementioned lidars located at the EARLINET and CLOUDNET stations, at the Institute of Geophysics. The results of the research will be used for Maciej Karasewicz's  PhD thesis.

In addition to this year's Alliance 4EU+ meeting, Maciej also had the chance to participate in the "Career Development and Leadership" workshop offered by the Heidelberg Graduate Academy in cooperation with the Alliance 4EU+ office at Heidelberg University. The workshop was held November 16-18 at Heidelberg University. Participation in both events was made possible thanks to the support of the University Centre for Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, led by dr Mariola Zalewska, UCBŚ Director.

More information about the 4EU+ Alliance / 4EU+ Alliance is available at: https://www.uw.edu.pl/wspolpraca/4euplusalliance/