Best Practice University: Transformation and Adaptation Process in Challenging Environment

The project will research the interdisciplinary challenges of the transformation and adaptation of the higher education institutions of both nations to become more resilient and address emerging challenges. This research project is devoted to comprehensively studying the mechanisms and tools for managing higher education institutions that ensure their resilience to a challenging environment. The scientific project will address the issues of the sustainability and business continuity of the educational and scientific processes during the crisis. During the project, the crisis management experiences and business continuity of the universities of both nations will be analysed, as well as the rationale for the effectiveness of the implementation of the chosen management strategy. The substantiation of the effectiveness of modernization of management methods, development, and implementation of operational measures will become an integral part of this study.

The deliverables of the project:

• published scientific papers
• video training lectures
• guidelines for an internal system for ensuring the sustainability of higher education and scientific institutions to promote the continuity of educational and scientific processes, including the potential foreign interference and verification of the foreign partners,
• and E-handbook with recommendations for university and scientific institution’s management in crises.

Project team

Karina Palkova

Ph. D. in law, Assistant professor and Lead researcher at Riga Stradiņš university. Karina Palkova is the head of doctoral study programm “Social Sciences”. In 2023, Karīna acquired the status of an expert in law in the Latvian Science Council.  Karina has considerable record of publications and presentation, necessary for successful dissemination and communication of the project. She is the scientific editor of the international scientific journal “Socrates” (Erih pluss). Apart from the scientific experience, she is an active in several law associations not only in Latvia, but also in Europe (The European Association of Health Law, World Association for Medical Law, The European Association for Artificial Intelligence). Karina Palkova is competent in new generation technologies, artificial intelligence legal issues, robotics. 

Lidija Rozentāle

Ph. D. in law, a Researcher and a Assistant professor at Riga Stradins University. An expert of Latvian Council of Science in Law. Over 10 years of experience in teaching in the fields of National law, Administrative and EU law. Currently, Lidija is employed at RSU Faculty of Law as a assistant professor, the head of Bachelor’s study programme “Law”, and a studies coordinator for the implementation of a distance learning programme at RSU.

For the past two years, Lidija has been working on various innovative methods in the digital environment as a digitalized methodological support tool specialist at RSU. Besides the teaching practice, Lidija has been working with law firms in Latvia for several years. Lidija has over nine years of experience in representing clients’ interests before Latvian national courts. Over these years, Lidija has developed a comprehensive understanding of how both courts and judges work, the role of attorneys in the judicial system, and the evolution of law. Lidija has valuable scientific experience and has authored 16 scientific publications in the field of civil law, focusing primarily on human rights. Will work on the scientific part of the project related to teaching methods and security aspects in science. 

Vitālijs Rakstiņš 

Master of Laws (LL.M.), Latvian University). A practitioner with more than 17 years of experience in the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence. Director of the Legal Department (2010-2012), Deputy Defence Counsellor to NATO (2012-2015), Director of the Crisis Management Department (2015-2021), Defence Counsellor to the UK (since 2021). Since 2021 a non-resident resilience advisor to the Ukrainian governmental institutions. Lecturer of the National Security Course of the Master Programme Economic Security of the RSU. Guest lecturer on business continuity planning, whole-of-society approach, resilience and cybersecurity. Primary expertise: contingency planning and countering hybrid warfare, resilience and business continuity planning, cybersecurity and information security. Part of the international experts' group to develop Resilience Curricula for defence universities. Coordinator and creator of three national booklets/brochures, “What to do in case of a crisis” (2019-2022). Author of the books “Diaries of the Hybrid War” (2022) and “the Resistance” (2023). Vitalijs Rakstins will cover part of the scientific research on security and resilience issues, providing the theoretical concepts.