IV International Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education

Research, Innovate, Transfer: Universities Addressing the Sustainability Challenge

PRESENTATION

We are pleased to welcome you to the fourth edition of the International Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education (CISMES26). This event brings together experts, researchers, faculty members, undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students, as well as individuals committed to promoting sustainable development in all its dimensions-particularly those related to sustainability and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. The theme of this fourth edition is: Research, Innovate, Transfer: Universities Addressing the Sustainability Challenge.

CISMES26 has become a driver of change towards more equitable and sustainable development fostered within the university context. This conference promotes knowledge exchange, critical reflection from diverse perspectives, and the creation of strategic partnerships that support collaborative initiatives aimed at building a more resilient and hopeful future. This fourth edition further strengthens its international reach with a scientific committee composed of national and international experts from all continents. Contributions may be presented in Spanish and English.

The conference is structured around three pillars: research, teaching innovation and, most notably, knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer facilitates the dissemination of academic advances to society, encouraging their practical application. Through collaboration with the productive sector, communities, and public administrations, universities can help develop and implement sustainable initiatives. Furthermore, outreach activities, promotion of social entrepreneurship, and professional training extend the positive impact of higher education on sustainable development.

The event will take place at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Valencia on 14 - 15 July 2026, in a hybrid format (in-person and online, with virtual participation reserved for presenters residing outside Valencia). In collaboration with the Faculty of Economics, this conference is coordinated by the EFICO Research Group and the GINFICO Consolidated Innovation Group.

SPECIALISED THEMATIC TRACKS

Participants may present their contributions within one of three specialised tracks, enabling focused discussion and exchange of recent advances:

TRACK 1: RESEARCH

This track focuses on promoting sustainability in research within and beyond the university context. These lines may inform institutional policies, action plans, or systems for assessing research sustainability:
2.1.    Integration of sustainability into research agendas
2.2.    Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research
2.3.    Ethics, social and environmental responsibility
2.4.    Sustainable resource management in research projects
2.5.    Inclusion and equity in research
2.6.    Assessment of sustainable impact

TRACK 2: KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

This track addresses sustainability and knowledge transfer, focusing on how generated knowledge can be shared, applied, and managed responsibly and sustainably:
1.1. Transfer oriented towards sustainable development
1.2. Sustainable social and technological innovation
1.3. Co-creation and co-production of knowledge
1.4. Knowledge management for sustainability
1.5. Ethics and responsibility in knowledge transfer
1.6. Evaluation of the sustainable impact of transfer

TRACK 3: TEACHING INNOVATION

This track explores sustainability and innovation in higher-education teaching, promoting the integration of sustainable development principles into curricula, training, and pedagogical practice:
3.1. Sustainable teaching strategies and practices
3.2. Sustainable entrepreneurship
3.3. Artificial intelligence and sustainability
3.4. Transparency, good governance, and gender perspectives
3.5. Sustainable technologies for education

Submissions may be presented in Spanish or English and will undergo a double-blind peer review. Selected contributions, with authors approval, will be published as book chapters in a book with ISBN by the prestigious publisher DYKINSON, ranked in Q1 (4th of 99) in SPI (Scholarly Publishers Indicators).

ASSOCIATED ENTITIES

The Journal International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing and the Young Researchers Association in Economics and Business Management through the AJICEDE Conference will select the best contributions (see the section Associated and Collaborating Entities for further information):

ORGANISING AND SPONSORING ENTITIES

		Faculty of Economics University of Valencia Campus de los Naranjos  (International Campus of Excellence) Avda. de los Naranjos s/n 46022 Valencia (Spain)
		EFICO - Research Group Sustainable Finance, Corporate Governance and Greenwashing Vice-Rectorate for Research and Scientific Policy Department of Corporate Finance University of Valencia
		GINFICO - Consolidated Group for Teaching Innovation Innovation in Corporate Finance Vice-Rectorate for Educational Transformation, Continuing Education, and Professional Development Department of Corporate Finance University of Valencia

Contact the CISMES technical secretariat at the following email address: cismes@uv.es

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“Rethinking Social Justice in Education: Theory, Action and Imaginaries”

University of Valencia · 2026

“Supposing you have fairly good laws, one of the best will be that which forbids the young to question which of them are just and which are not; instead, all must unanimously declare that all of them are good.” (Plato, Laws).

1. General introduction

Thinking about justice today is both an urgent and complex task. This is not only due to the magnitude of the problems we face —Growing inequality, the resort to war and genocide, precarity, and ecological destruction— but also because we often lack the language and the symbolic and political frameworks needed to recognise injustice and act against it.

Many of the tools that once helped us to do so have been deactivated or absorbed by discourses that neutralise their transformative potential. Critical thinking, often reduced to a slogan or a transversal competence, has lost part of its power to question what is presented as natural.

This conference emerges from the desire to reopen the meaning of justice and to reconnect critical thinking with its emancipatory roots. We aim to place justice at the centre of pedagogical, social and symbolic debate, and to do so through three inseparable dimensions:

• Theory – rethinking the roots of critical thought.
• Contexts of action – exploring transformative social and educational practices.
• Imaginaries – recovering the creative power of words, bodies and images and their relationship with social practice.

To guide the collective work of the conference, each axis is structured around a central question. From these questions, dialogue panels and workshops will be created in which participants may address these issues from their own experiences, research and practices, in an open and situated way.

These thematic axes are not intended to set boundaries of thought, but rather to offer tools for thinking about justice from different perspectives. None of them is exclusive: panels may cut across more than one axis, and intersections between theory, action and imaginaries —as well as between generations, disciplines and contexts— will be encouraged.

Axis 1 · Theory

Rethinking the roots of critical thought and the conditions for transformative education

Critical education can only exist if it keeps alive its connection with the human sciences that gave it meaning. This axis invites a review and updating of the theories that have connected knowledge and emancipation: from Freire’s critical pedagogy to feminist, queer, ecological, anti-racist, anti-fascist, decolonial and anti-capitalist thought.

Central question of the Theory axis

How can we recover today the critical power of thought in order to reconnect knowledge, truth and collective emancipation?

Axis 2 · Contexts of action

Exploring critical practices in social and educational spaces

No theory transforms unless it is put into practice in the world. This axis focuses on situated practices: spaces where ideas encounter reality and become experience, conflict, care or resistance.

Central question of the Contexts of action axis

Where and how is educational and social justice practiced today, and what kinds of learning emerge from these experiences of resistance, care and transformation?

Axis 3 · Imaginaries

Symbolic and expressive forms as tools for thought and transformation

There is no transformation without new imaginaries. This axis explores how words, bodies and images can function as forms of critical thinking, not merely as decorative or supportive elements.

Central question of the Imaginaries axis

How can words, bodies and images open up new ways of thinking, feeling and narrating social justice?

Final articulation of the axes and dialogue panels

Based on the three central questions that structure the thematic axes —Theory, Contexts of Action and Imaginaries—, 15 dialogue panels have been established. Each of them will address these questions from a specific issue (feminism, university, poverty, social movements, art, childhood, body, democracy, etc.), thus creating spaces of encounter between diverse perspectives.

These panels are not conceived as closed compartments or rigid categories, but as devices for collectively thinking about the conference questions from multiple, transversal and complementary perspectives.

Each panel may therefore be simultaneously shaped by the theoretical dimension, situated action and imaginaries, and will be formulated around open questions that invite debate, dialogue and the confrontation of viewpoints.

The aim is not to classify, but to activate questions, encourage thought and cultivate mutual listening, keeping alive the link between education, justice and the collective transformation of the world.

I International Congress

Risk, Responsability, and Trust in

                   Digital Society

The I International Congress “Riesgo, Responsabilidad y Confianza en la Sociedad Digital” (Risk, Responsibility, and Trust in Digital Society), will be hosted at La Nau building of the Universitat de València. Its purpose is to create a space for interdisciplinary reflection about the big legal challenges that digital transformation raises. In a context characterised by increasing automation, Artificial Intelligence development, and the expansion of digital environments, issues like risk management, allocation of responsibilities, and trust building are in the spotlight of the contemporary legal debate.

Organised by the University Institute of Patrimonial Law of the Universitat de València, and by the Private Law Department of the University of A Coruña, the congress will gather both national and international experts to analyse, from different perspectives, the impact of new technologies in Private Law. Through conferences, panel discussions, and academic activities, key issues will be addressed, such as business automation, cyber risks, digital identity, opacity of Artificial Intelligence systems, or the opportunities that digitalisation offer in fields like housing or dependency.

This meeting aims to study in more detail the theoretical analysis of these issues, as well as contributing to the formulation of legal solutions that respond effectively to the digital society challenges, thereby strengthening the pillars of safety, responsibility and trust that must sustain it. 

What outcomes does this International Congress provide?

Participants registered for the Congress may obtain:

1. Certificate of attendance (online/in person)
2. Publication of their paper in the Conference Proceedings
3. Certificate of paper presentation (online/in person)
4. Certificate of poster presentation (in person)
5. Participation in the book published by Marcial Pons with open access
6. Award for the three best papers, where applicable (in person)

This year 2026, the University of Valencia, in collaboration with other Spanish and foreign Universities, is committed to organizing the VIII International Online Symposium of Young Optometrists to promote scientific knowledge, present the latest advances and exchange information and experiences. In this event, the protagonists are the recent graduates and the students who are about to finish. Researchers, institutions and companies are invited to participate directly in the activities of this congress.

The Symposium is aimed at active professionals and optometrists who are engaging for the first time in clinical and basic reseach work to contribute their new ideas, original investigations and evaluations carried out in various areas related to vision. Additionally, there will also be contributions from important scientists within the sector.

The symposium is online and asynchronous.

The Neurolaw Research Group of the Universitat de València (GIN) (www.uv.es/neuroderecho) will organize its 1st International Congress of Neurolaw on “Legal Challenges Posed by Technological Innovations” on 26 and 27 November 2026 at the Rector Peset University Hall of Residence of the Universitat de València.

The programme of the 1st International Congress of Neurolaw, devoted to “Legal Challenges Posed by Technological Innovations”, will be structured into three three-hour sessions. Each session will include three keynote presentations (30 minutes each) and up to three selected papers (10 minutes each), which will be presented publicly. At the end of each session, an open discussion will take place on the presentations and papers.

Conference Sessions

FIRST SESSION. Thursday, 26 November 2026 (morning)
NEUROLAW, PSYCHOLOGY AND ETHICS

SECOND SESSION. Thursday, 26 November 2026 (afternoon)
NEUROCRIMINOLOGY AND PROCEDURAL LAW

THIRD SESSION. Friday, 27 November 2026 (morning)
NEUROLAW AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

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Neurolaw Research Group (GIN), Universitat de València

11th REPS Congress
on 9, 10 and 11 June 2027 in Valencia

The sustainability of social policies constitutes one of the major challenges facing contemporary democracies. In a context shaped by demographic ageing, transformations in the labour market, the rise of artificial intelligence, persistent inequalities, migration movements, environmental crises, and new social demands, it is essential to reflect on how public policies are designed, governed, and implemented in order to guarantee citizens’ rights.

Under the theme “Governance and Sustainability of Social Policies: From Diagnosis to Democratic Action”, this 11th edition of the Congress of the Spanish Network for Social Policy focuses on the need to move beyond the analysis of social problems towards the construction of collective, effective, and democratically legitimised responses. The Congress aims to provide a space for academic, institutional, and professional dialogue to identify current challenges, analyse experiences and good practices in the multilevel governance of social policies, and develop proposals for action that promote and guarantee social cohesion, democratic quality, and the rights of all citizens in the face of new global challenges and transformations.

• Coordination and presentation of Thematic Panales