This week, all of Europe is celebrating Erasmus Days! Erasmusdays2024 invites you to enrich your experience and think bigger! We, Ventspils University of Applied Sciences, are also taking part in this initiative and invite every student to the event "Erasmus days 2024", which will take place on Wednesday, 16 October 2024 at 18.00 in D0 – Student lounge room . The event will be held in English! We will have Latvian representatives of the Erasmus Student Network as guests ; Stories from Erasmus experiences; Refreshments and valuable time! If you have any questions - come to C301, email: erasmus@venta.lv 

We are pleased to announce the first annual COLOURS Conference, which will take place in Osijek, Croatia, from October 24-25, 2024, with a pre-conference day on October 23. This event will be organized by Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia in cooperation with Paderborn University, Germany. It represents a significant step in the development of our alliance, bringing together COLOURS partners, stakeholders, and students to discuss key initiatives and foster collaboration across institutions. The conference will be held in a hybrid format, enabling wider participation from across the COLOURS community. Those who are unable to attend in person will have the opportunity to join online and engage with the sessions remotely. The conference will provide a structured platform for sharing ideas and strengthening partnerships. The program will include workshops, presentations, and discussions focused on innovation, education, and strategic collaboration within the COLOURS network. Key Details: Pre-Conference Day (October 23) : Field study focused on the COLOURS Smart Specialization Strategy IT and Digital Transformation, for internal COLOURS members. Day 1 (October 24) : COLOURS Innovation & Engagement Day, involving external partners and stakeholders, with workshops highlighting Smart Specialization Strategies and a session dedicated to student talent development. Day 2 (October 25) : COLOURS Collaborative Progress Day, aimed at reinforcing internal collaborations, featuring the “Creators’ Corner” for showcasing innovative solutions and projects. We invite all partner universities to contribute ideas, and participate actively in the program. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of a pioneering event that celebrates collaboration and the creative spirit of our alliance. Please register here by October 14, 2024

On the 16th and 17th of September was held in Paris the kick-off meeting for the Astrophysics Centre for Multimessenger studies in Europe - ACME. This HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01 EU-funded project coordinated by Centre national de la recherche scientifique CNRS aims to realize an ambitious coordinated European-wide optimization of the accessibility and cohesion between multiple leading astroparticle and astronomy research infrastructures, offering access to instruments, data and expertise, focused on the new science of multi-messenger astrophysics. With 40 world-class collaborating institutions from 15 countries, ACME brings together the astroparticle and astronomy communities in a joint effort to forge a basis for strengthened long-term collaboration between these research infrastructures irrespective of location and level up access opportunities across Europe and beyond. ACME objectives are to implement the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium’s (APPEC) and the Planning and Advisory Network for European Astronomy’s (ASTRONET) roadmaps’ recommendations and act as a pathfinder to broaden and improve access to the respective research infrastructures services and data, assess and evaluate new models for better coordination and provision of at-scale services, provide harmonized trans-national and virtual access, develop centres of expertise, improve science data products management, improve interoperable systems for rapid identification of astrophysical candidate events and alert distribution to optimize follow-up observations, provide training for a new and broader generation of scientists and engineers, open the astrophysics and astroparticle physics data sets to other disciplines and increase citizen engagement. The ACME project coordinator Prof. Antoine Kouchner (CNRS/Université Paris Cité), and co-coordinator Paolo D’Avanzo (INAF), represent each community to ensure balance and drive cross-domain collaboration. The Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC) at Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (VUAS) is dedicated to research in radio astronomy, astrophysics, and space sciences. Its key instruments include the fully steerable parabolic antennas RT-16 and RT-32, and the LOFAR-LATVIA station. A primary scientific goal is conducting VLBI observations in collaboration with global networks like the European VLBI Network (EVN) and LOFAR. VIRAC has rapidly expanded beyond radio astronomy and astrophysics to include robust scientific groups in satellite communication, space technologies, and high-performance computing. As part of the ACME project, VIRAC will provide transnational access to its infrastructure, coordinated by Dr. Ivar Shmeld and Vladislavs Bezrukovs. Project page: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101131928 Contact: Antoine KOUCHNER, Scientific Coordinator (CNRS/UPCité): kouchner@apc.in2p3.fr Paolo D’AVANZO, Scientific Co-coordinator (INAF): paolo.davanzo@inaf.it Julie EPAS, Project Manager (CNRS): epas@apc.in2p3.fr Vladislavs Bezrukovs (VIRAC): vladislavsb@venta.lv More information: Multi-messenger astronomy is the coordinated observation and interpretation of multiple signals received from the same astronomical event. Many types of cosmological events involve complex interactions between a variety of astrophysical processes, each of which may independently emit signals of a characteristic "messenger" type: electromagnetic radiation (including infrared, visible light and X-rays), gravitational waves, neutrinos, and cosmic rays. When received on Earth, identifying that disparate observations were generated by the same source can allow for improved reconstruction or a better understanding of the event, and reveals more information about the source.

Enhance your language learning experience by joining us for activities such as language cafés, quizzes, videos, presentations and more in the languages of our nine partner universities : Croatian , French , German , Italian , Latvian , Macedonian , Polish , Spanish and Swedish . Registration UCLM, LMU, UNIFE, HKR, UNIOS, UPB: --> No need to register! To log in you simply: go to Bloomhub click on EduGAIN login choose your institution and log in with your university account UKLO, JDU, VUAS and external parties: Send an email to stefanie.muehlbaecher@upb.de asking to register for the European Day of Languages. Please provide your name and email address. The deadline is the 23 September 2024. You will receive your login details via email on the 25 September.

Tell us a little about yourself! My name is Marine Le Cordroch, I am from France from Brittany, in the west part of it. I am in my third year of Business studies and foreign languages in the university of south britanny in Lorient. I love watching movies and series and listening to music, I love going to festivals and concerts. And overall, I am a traveller who love exploring new countries and cultures. In university, I have done an internship from the 2nd of April to the 24th of May, and I have asssisted Helena Koha, the Erasmus+ coordinator, in the international office. How did you decide to do your internship in Latvia, at Ventspils University of Applied Sciences ? A few reasons led to this choice. But I would say that the main one is my experience I had during my Erasmus semester in autumn. I came from the end of august until mid of january and everything happened so good. Erasmus was on my top things to do and that was the best decision I have ever made and I am very happy having chose Latvia as country because I did not want to go to a famous one but really experience something new. I discovered so many things during this semester. I met amazing friends. I lived alone for the first time abroad and I realized that I really liked it and did not really miss my relatives as some can. And just the fact to be away of what we know is a really great experience and I learnt a lot about myself. And my skills in english are better. So for the internship I knew it would not be hard because I knew how it would be being here and I wanted to discover the other part of Erasmus. Then, I saw Ventspils during winter, I had to see it in spring ! And the last thing is I know that having as experience a study period and an internship abroad is an advantage for the job market, espacially with the job I would like to do. Tell us a little about the internship here, what you liked, what you didn't like, what were the tasks of the internship, any interesting projects you participated in, what skills or knowledge have you gained, etc. I was in the international office with Helena. My main tasks wer to create visuals for communication, I really liked doing that because I like using design platforms and use my creativity. I also helped in the organization of some events. For me, I really liked to participate in the Culture days in which I represented France. I could share my culture and show it to the students, it was fun and the process to get here was interesting. What are some similarities or differences between your internship/studies in France and Latvia? Are there any teaching methods or academic practices at VUAS that are different from those in France? I would say that they are more differences than similarities. For having studied here, I can say that the lecture rhythm is not the same. I would say that it is more difficult in France, we can have a big day like start lecture at 8am and finish it at 6pm several times in a week, the same for the exam period, I was surprised that here there is a whole month to pass the exams, in france, we pass all in a week even if we have to do 2 exams in a day. But one difference is that here everyone speaks english very well and that is not the case in france. Most of people only know the basics and struggle to have a conversation with a non french-speaker. Did you have any expectations about Latvia before coming here? I did not really have expectations, I just came here without any cliches in order to be able to make my own thoughts about Latvia. Just maybe about the english thing but as I said, I was surprised to see that most of people I met are almost bilingual and I did not expect that, and that is a good surprise. After staying here for several months, are there any things you very much liked about Latvia? I loved a lot of things here in Latvia. Concerning the food, I discovered the “Biezpiena sierini Karums” and that is very good, I also got through the latvian culture with the balsam, the currant one and I have to say that now I love it. I have tasted quite a lot of typical latvian food and I almost liked everything. About songs, I have two that remind me a lot about some great moments I had here and it is “Lidmašīnas” and “Meitene”. Being here in Latvia, what culture shock moments (cultural differences) did you experience? I do not really have a big culture shock but indeed some stuff surprised me. The first one I would say that it is the way of greeting people, here you do not really great eachother or something, maybe it is because in France we do the kisses on the cheeks but I found that really weird for me to not do anything to greet. The second one is about alcohol, like you can not pop up in the street with alcoholic drinks or drink in it, it is forbideen so you have to hide yourselves. In France it is not forbidden, you can drink in the street or have alcoholic drinks in the street. And the last thing is th fact of how clean the streets are, there is no rubbish in the street and it is so nice to see people actually respect nature. That is not the case in France, it is common to see waste on the street.