Program of the 2nd EU4Dual Young Researcher School

2026-02-11 12:02

YOUNG RESEARCHER SCHOOL

JOHN VON NEUMANN UNIVERSITY

04 May – 08 May 2026

LECTURES and WORKSHOPS

05 May 2026 - Tuesday

Circular Economy

Dr. Julia SCHUCHMANN, PhD.

The topic of the lecture is the critical analysis of the transformation of the linear economy into circular economy. The transition to circular economy is given high priority in development strategies, and national policies, but the real processes are controversial. The energy demand of the global economy is increasing, the number of the world population increase, more people live in large urban areas, the overconsumption of the resources has not slowed down. The transition to the so-called environmentally friendly technologies requires the inclusion of more new raw materials, which generate more energy as well. At the same time the impacts of climate change, and other global challenges became increasingly severe. The main question of the lecture: The transition into circular economy can be a global solution or not? What interests and counter-interests can be formulated in the realization of the circular economy? 

The lecture (from 9 to 9:45 a.m.) is followed by an interactive workshop (from 10 to 11:30 a.m.) focusing on the comparative analysis of the two models: that of the linear and the circular economy. The aim of the workshop is to discuss the main opportunities and obstacles of the circular economy. The students will be divided into two teams, one team has to argue for linear economy, the other for the circular economy. 

Why attend? 

Participants will understand deeper, how the different interests of the different actors (economic, social, environmental, or even political) can hinder or support the realization of a more sustainable economy. The comparative analysis as a research methodology can help PhD students to critical thinking as well as in critical thinking and arguing in scientific debates.

06 May 2026 - Wednesday

The Sharing Economy in the Green Transition:

Rethinking Work, Sustainability, and Value Creation

Dr. Kinga SZABÓ, PhD.

The lecture in this session explores the sharing economy as an important driver of the green economy and ongoing changes in the world of work. Digital platforms are increasingly influencing how people collaborate, organize work, and access resources in more sustainable ways. The lecture discusses how sharing-based models contribute to flexible employment, lower environmental impact, and more efficient use of existing assets. Using real-world examples, the session demonstrates how platform-based work brings together innovation, sustainability, and evolving career opportunities. Participants will reflect on both the benefits and the challenges associated with green, platform-driven employment. Overall, the session invites young researchers to critically reconsider work, sustainability, and value creation in a highly interconnected global context.

The lecture (from 9 to 9:45 a.m.) is followed by an interactive workshop (from 10 to 11:30 a.m.) that focuses on practical research skills, including scientific communication, basic data analysis and interpretation, as well as the clear visualization and presentation of research results. The workshop provides concrete tools and approaches that participants can readily apply across different research fields.

Why attend? 

Participants will deepen their understanding of how sharing-based and green economy models are transforming work, skills, and career opportunities, while also gaining practical competencies that support their future academic and professional development. The doctoral school students participating in this workshop will receive a short guide in the research methodology regarding sharing economy.

07 May 2026 - Thursday

Smart Cities

Dr. Sára FARKAS, PhD.

The lecture explores how technological innovation and digitalisation are reshaping the policy instruments and governance logic of urban development. It provides an overview of the evolution of the smart city concept, from technology-driven approaches toward more people-centred, sustainable, and inclusive models of urban development. The presentation also addresses agile and mission-oriented policy frameworks, as well as the changing role of local governments in responding to complex urban challenges. Special attention is given to ethical considerations, data governance, and the societal impacts of digital solutions. Through practical examples, the lecture illustrates how technology can support urban collaboration, sustainability, and improvements in quality of life.

The lecture is followed by a workshop introducing students to the key indicators of smart and sustainable urban living through an overview of major international smart city rankings (created by e.g.: EIU, Mercer, IESE). Participants will examine how different indices measure quality of life, sustainability, and urban performance. In the final exercise, students can design their own set of indicators and develop a simple index to assess what they define as a “good life” in cities.

Why attend? 

This workshop helps to decode how cities are evaluated globally by leading rankings and understand the assumptions behind commonly used quality-of-life and sustainability indicators. Participants will develop critical skills to compare, question, and interpret urban indices and the researchmethodology behind the complex indexes, rather than treating rankings as objective truths. By creating their own indicators and index, the participants gain hands-on experience in translating values and policy priorities into measurable urban outcomes, a core competence for urban development, policy analysis, and sustainable economic planning.

08 May 2026 - Friday

Sustainability: system approach vs capital approach

Dr. Antal Ferenc KOVÁCS, PhD.

The lecture presents two distinct approaches that are used to assess the sustainability and the sustainability of economic development. According to the System approach, sustainability is about to maximize development goals across economic, environmental and social systems. The Capital approach, which can be derived directly from the Brundtland definition of sustainability, provides a macroeconomic platform to assess if over a defined period of time well-being across generation, reduces, or not, which is the criterion of sustainability. The construct of the UN SDG-s includes goals and targets designed with a fully developed system approach. The capital approach allows macroeconomic analysis of the sustainability of economic growth. The lecture presents the assessment of global sustainability over the 1995-2020 period using World Bank data.

The lecture (from 9 to 9:45 a.m.) is followed by an interactive workshop (from 10 to 11:30 a.m.) focusing on the comparative application of the system and the capital approach to sustainability, respectively, in practice. Assisted by the lecturer, participants will investigate, present and discuss the sustainability trends of selected economies using publicly accessible online data from repositories of international institutions. 

Why attend? 

Participants will get acquainted with accessing and applying data from the repositories of international institutions in empirical research to assess the sustainability of selected countries globally, from different sustainability perspectives. It helps participants to obtain researchmethodological skills in analysing data from public sources, as well as understanding the concept of sustainability in a practical sense.

The lecturer

on 05 May 2026 – Tuesday 

Circular Economy

	urban areas suburbanisation social and environmental impacts of urbanisation economic geography   E-mail: schuchmann.julia@nje.hu
Dr. Júlia Schuchmann associate university professor
Publications: https://m2.mtmt.hu/api/publication?format=html&labelLang=hun&sort=publishedYear,des  c&cond=authors;eq;10029052.
She graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at ELTE in 2007 as a regional and urban development geographer. She completed her doctoral studies at the Széchényi István University Doctoral School of Regional Economics, where she obtained her PhD degree in 2014. The topic of her doctoral dissertation was the examination of residential suburbanisation processes in the Budapest agglomeration. During her professional career to date, she has gained research experience as a research assistant at the Western Hungarian Scientific Department of the Institute for Regional Studies at the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies. She has been working in higher education for 12 years as a lecturer and researcher. She has been working as an associate professor at the John von Neumann University Centre for Economic Geography and Urban Marketing since March 2022. Her research topics include suburbanisation processes, the development of socio-spatial inequalities in metropolitan areas, and the social and environmental challenges of global urbanisation. Since 2008, she has regularly published articles in Hungarian and English, which are available to the public in the Hungarian Scientific Works Repository.   She is an active member of the Hungarian Regional Science Association and the Hungarian Urban Planning Association. She is a member of the editorial board of City.hu, an online urban studies journal launched in 2021, and also participates in the journal's work as the editor of the "Háromvé" (guests-cities-opinions) column (https://www.cityhu.net/home).

The lecturer

on 06 May 2026 - Wednesday

The Sharing Economy in the Green Transition

	sustainability sharing economy smart city management servitization     E-mail: szabo.kinga@nje.hu
Dr. Szabó Kinga associate university professor
Publications:  https://m2.mtmt.hu/gui2/?type=authors&mode=browse&sel=10058537
She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities of ELTE in 2006 as a teacher of English and German language and literature and then obtained a Master of Arts degree in English language and literature from the same university in 2009. She obtained her PhD degree in the English-language doctoral program of Széchenyi István University’s Doctoral Program in Management Doctoral School of Regional Sciences and Business Administration. Her research topic is the sharing economy, and she wrote her dissertation entitled “In Trust, We Thrive and the Platforms We Use: Pillars of and a Case for the Sharing Economy”. Starting in 2021, she had been a researcher at the Center for Economic Geography and Urban Marketing of John von Neumann University as an associate professor from 2023. She gained her professional experience at civil society organizations, the Indian Embassy of Hungary, the Ministry of National Economy and the Hungarian National Bank. Her research focuses on the sharing economy, “servitization”, and sustainability and their connections, and how and in what form the sharing economy can be an alternative to sustainable development. She participated in the writing of the textbook "Service Process Management in Public Administration" and the electronic textbook and study volume "Public Burden Bearing in Digital Welfare" at the National University of Public Service. In 2023 she joined John von Neumann University.

The lecturer

on 07 May 2026 - Thursday

Smart Cities

	smart cities technology-driven urban development data-driven settlement development     E-mail: farkas.sara@nje.hu
Dr. Sára Farkas assistant university professor
Publications: https://m2.mtmt.hu/gui2/?type=authors&mode=browse&sel=10072681
She began her university studies at the Faculty of Science of Eötvös Loránd University, where she obtained a degree in Geography in 2011, specialising in regional and settlement development. She subsequently completed the postgraduate Urban Planning (Urbanist) specialist programme at the Faculty of Architecture of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics between 2010 and 2012. As part of her professional experience, between 2011 and 2013 she worked at the Department of Spatial Planning and Development of the Ministry for National Economy, where she participated in the preparation of European Union–funded regional and urban development strategies and programmes. Between 2013 and 2019, she worked as an analyst at the Central Bank of Hungary. In 2016, she obtained a postgraduate Bank Management diploma from the Institute for Training and Consulting in Banking Ltd. In 2024 she joined the Economic Geography and Urban marketing Centre of the John von Neumann University. In 2025, she earned a PhD from the Doctoral School of Business and Management Sciences at John von Neumann University, where her research focused on the evaluation of the financial intermediation system of repayable European Union funds and their strategic role in economic development. Her current research focuses on urban and economic development policy instruments, with particular attention to how smart digital and communication solutions can support sustainability and strengthen collaboration among local stakeholders.

The lecturer

on 08 May 2026 - Friday

Sustainability: System Approach vs Capital Approach

	resource economics environmental economics asset-based sustainability environmental accounting   E-mail: kovacs.antal@nje.hu
Dr. Antal Ferenc Kovács assistant university professor
Publications: https://m2.mtmt.hu/gui2/?type=authors&mode=browse&sel=10062656
He has been working at the Centre for Economic Geography and Urban Marketing at Neumann János University since 1 September 2021. His academic interests are fundamentally shaped by his decades of professional experience in the fields of engineering, finance and international relations. He holds a PhD in Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and an MBA from the Yale University in the United States. His main research topic in economics is asset-based sustainability, which he considers a suitable framework for the scientific description of the relationship between the environment and human systems. He submitted his doctoral dissertation to the Doctoral School of International Relations and Political Science at Corvinus University of Budapest, where he participated in the design of the course the planning of the course entitled Hungary's role in achieving global sustainability and climate goals and is a guest lecturer for this course. He also lectures on the MNB's Green Finance course at Neumann János University. He has published around 15 publications in Hungarian and English related to his research. He considers the dissemination of scientific knowledge and journalistic activities to be important. Since 2021, he has been a member of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.