Data has become the new gold, and this truism is increasingly holding true. Organisations and society at large are confronted with an ever-growing flood of data — collected, stored, and hoarded as a matter of course. Yet behind the promise of the immaterial “cloud” lies a very material reality, think of data centres straining energy grids and impacting the surrounding communities.

This seminar tackles this interlinkage between data and sustainability and provides avenues for improvement – from a technical and organisational perspective.

Bringing together academic insight and frontline industry experience, this event will explore this most urgent topic. Joining us are:

• Dirk Deridder, CTO of Smals, who will offer his account of navigating these pressures from within a major organisation. Smals is a Belgian ICT organisation delivering digital infrastructure and services to over 300 public institutions in the social security, healthcare, and e-government sectors. In doing so, it operates 4 data centres.
• Fieke Jansen, University of Amsterdam: Dr. Fieke Jansen is co-principal researcher at the critical infrastructure lab, and co-lead of the Green Screen Coalition. Her work investigates how the infrastructure of our digital world, data centres, and AI influence the environment, raw material use, and climate.
• Academic members of the SDM consortium: prof. An Braeken (VUB), prof. Jan Tobias Mühlberg (ULB), prof. Geoffrey Aerts (VUB). They will share their latest insights into how organizations can improve the sustainability of their data management practices.

Audience: The seminar welcomes industry professionals, academics working in related fields, and the wider public interested in the link between data management and sustainability.

Location: Becentral. Upon arrival, register at the main entrance. Event takes place at the FARI auditorium – 4th floor.

Date: 26/05

Time:

· 12:30-13:00 Lunch

· 13:00-15:10 Industry and academic speakers

· 15:10-16:00 Networking drink

This seminar is organised by the SDM (Sufficiency & Data Minimization) consortium, a collaboration between research groups at VUB and ULB. Funded by the Brussels-Capital Region – Innoviris.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seminar-interlinking-sustainability-and-data-management-tickets-1985288060030