This Year’s RSU Research Week Breaks Attendance Record

The broad program of this year’s Riga Stradiņš University (RSU) Research Week (RW2021) gathered a record-breaking audience, both in terms of participants as well as of countries represented. More than 1,300 research papers were presented at the five conferences by researchers from 45 countries bringing together a total of 6,463 participants. The first RSU Research Week in 2019 gathered about 6,000 visitors from 28 countries.

‘Although completely virtual, this year’s Research Week served as an inspiring platform for networking and learning about new discoveries and innovations,’ says Agrita Kiopa, RSU Vice-Rector for Science. She emphasises that RW2021 managed to bring together researchers, industry experts and representatives from both governmental and non-governmental organisations thanks to a wide range of topics and new content, like the innovation section.

Professor Aivars Lejnieks, Chair of the RW2021 Scientific Committee, also highlights the range of subjects. Thanks to the organisers’ exceptional teamwork, this year's event covered 29 different topics from healthcare to communication science. A large team of about 200 people from the Research Department, the Department of Information Technology, the Communications Department, the Legal Department, the Finance Department, the Rector's Office, various faculties, other university departments, as well as student volunteers helped make the event happen. ‘An ambitious event like this required a united team that worked as a well-oiled machine. But, unlike a machine that stops when a cog breaks, we were able to take over from one another and support each other when necessary,’ says Prof. Lejnieks.

This year, it wasn’t only the scope of the event in terms of contents and duration that was challenging, but also the online format where three virtual platforms were used – Ex Ordo, Mitto and Zoom. ‘Accessibility was initially a concern, but now that RW2021 is over, we can look back and see that participants of all ages adapted to the new format really well. This was both due to the excellent IT base that RSU provided and the participants’ willingness to learn new things,’ says Prof. Lejnieks. The professor is particularly pleased with the young researchers who stood out at this year's conferences with a large number of brilliant oral and poster presentations. All RW2021 contents will be available to all registered participants on the LiveRW platform for another three months.

RW2021 is the largest and most international event of its kind in Latvian research and could only take place thanks to a number of supporters: platinum sponsor Olainfarm, silver sponsors Siemens Healthineers, LMT and Janssen, as well as MikroTik, the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation and AS Grindeks. RSU also wants to thank Riga East Clinical University Hospital, Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital, the Children's Clinical University Hospital, the Latvian Medical Association, the Latvian Medical and Dental Association, the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Riga Technical University and the University of Latvia Faculty of Computing.

See you at the next research marathon – RSU Research Week 2023