Designing Collaboration for Sustainability Transitions: Governance, Data, and IP in Practice – online conference

Why do sustainability transitions so often stall, even when the technology already exists? The answer lies not in innovation gaps, but in the difficulty of inducing and sustaining effective collaboration across sectors. This event tackles that challenge head-on, bringing together cutting-edge perspectives from ecosystem governance, EU data law, and intellectual property. It explores how rules on data, knowledge, and organisational design can either enable, or hinder, collaboration between public authorities, businesses, researchers, and citizens.

The programme is built on the premise that effective collaboration depends on the combined design of governance structures, data-sharing rules, and IP frameworks, rather than treating these domains separately. By linking these three critical pillars, the event offers a fresh, interdisciplinary lens on key issues that influence the creation of collaborative ecosystems that actually deliver sustainable change.

ECTS: Member university students can receive two ECTS credit for participating in the seminar and completing the related assignment (see below). Before registering, please confirm with your own institution that the course can be credited towards your degree. IPR University Center will provide a certificate of participation, but credits are granted by each student’s home university. The seminar can also be attended without completing the credit requirements.

Designed as a dynamic two-day experience, the programme moves from insight to action:

Day 1 – Foundations will equip participants with key knowledge on key issues related to collaboration and sustainability transitions, such as ecosystem governance, EU data law, and IPR. Participants will engage with expert-led sessions that build a shared framework for understanding how complex collaborations can be structured, governed, and sustained.

Day 2 – Case Assignment moves from theory to practice. Participants will be working in teams to tackle real-world challenges through case scenarios. They will design innovative, cross-disciplinary governance solutions that address legal, organisational, and incentive structures needed for effective sustainability collaboration. The case will address both physical resources (such as infrastructure and material flows) and data and knowledge resources, highlighting how their different characteristics require distinct governance approaches.

By combining deep expertise with hands-on application, the event equips participants with the tools to move beyond theory, and start designing collaboration that works in practice.

The event is jointly organised by the University of Lapland and the University of Tampere, in collaboration with the IPR University Center, in the context of the Research Council of Finland funded project: eColabor – Ecosystem Governance for Sustainability Transitions https://projects.tuni.fi/ecolabor/

Learning Goals

By the end of the event, participants will be able to:

• Explain why sustainability transitions require coordinated multi-stakeholder collaboration and identify key governance challenges;
• Recognise different collaboration models (e.g. ecosystems, platforms, data spaces) and select appropriate governance approaches;
• Understand how EU data law shapes data sharing, access, and accountability in collaborative settings;
• Assess the role of IP, confidentiality, and trade secrets in enabling or constraining collaboration;
• Apply governance principles to both physical resources and data-driven ecosystems;
• Integrate legal, governance, and IP considerations into practical collaboration designs for sustainability contexts.

Target Audience

This event is designed primarily for PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers working in fields such as intellectual property law, EU data law, environmental and sustainability law, innovation studies, business and management, and sustainability science. The programme is also well suited to advanced masters students seeking to engage with complex, practice-oriented questions around data, innovation, and collaborative governance. In addition, it addresses the needs of policy officers and in-house legal, regulatory, and sustainability professionals working in sectors where multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential, such as energy, mobility, digital services, and circular economy industries, providing them with conceptual tools and practical frameworks directly applicable to real-world challenges.

Event requirements

In order for you to complete the event (pass/fail), you are expected to:

• Read the assigned pre-readings linked to the key topics of the event will be delivered about one month before the course
• Participate in the sessions and discussions on Day 1
• Complete the group assignment presented to participants on Day 2

Program
Day 1

12.00 – 12.45 Opening and introduction to the topic, Ballardini Rosa, University of Lapland and Jaakko Siltaloppi, University of Tampere

12.45 – 13.30 The multi-stakeholder regulation of access to AI training data in the EU, Professor Alexander Peukert, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

13.30 – 13.45 Break

13.00 – 13.45 Sustainability considerations in merger control and the incentives for sustainability-oriented innovation, Professor Hans Vedder, Groningen University (The Netherlands)

15.00 – 15.45 TBC

Closing

Day 2

9.00 – 16.00

Case assignment, TBC

(Presentation of case; Group work; Students presentations)

Closing

Bios of confirmed speakers

Ballardini Rosa, University of Lapland (Finland).  Rosa Ballardini is Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Vice Dean for Research at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Law. Since January 2026, she has also served as Director of the IPR University Center. Her research focuses on the interlinks between intellectual property law, technology, sustainability and power in innovation and decision-making. She has led numerous multidisciplinary research projects in these areas, combining legal, technological, business, and ethical perspectives and multi-methods. Rosa serves on the Board of the Finnish Association for Industrial Property Rights (STY) and is a vice-member of the Finnish Copyright Council.

Jaakko Siltaloppi, University of Tampere (Finland). Jaakko Siltaloppi is a Senior Research Fellow at Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business, and holds the title of docent at Turku School of Economics. His research focuses on sustainable value creation, including how organizations and ecosystems develop new value creation models, manage transitional processes, and organize collaboration across institutional and disciplinary boundaries. He has contributed extensively to research on service ecosystems, sustainable business and innovation, and organizational change. In addition, he has substantial experience in interdisciplinary project leadership, university teaching, and doctoral supervision.

Alexander Peukert, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Alexander Peukert (pronounce as Poikert) has since 2009 been full professor of civil, commercial and information law at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. He studied law and obtained his Dr. iur. at the University of Freiburg (1993-1999). After passing his second state examination and working as an attorney in Berlin (1999-2002), he was senior research fellow and head of the U.S. department at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law in Munich. Peukert has published five monographs, three comprehensive commentaries in several editions, and more than 100 articles, particularly on copyright and other areas of intellectual property, unfair competition law, and EU digital regulation. He has participated in several interdisciplinary research projects, in particular as principal investigator of the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” (2009-2019). Peukert was chair of the European Copyright Society (2023-2024) and of the working group tasked with drafting the copyright-related rules of the first EU General-Purpose AI Code of Practice (2024-2025). Next to his teaching at Goethe University, Peukert has been a guest lecturer in LL.M. courses at several universities, including the Universities of Amsterdam (IViR), Lyon III, Mainz (Mainz Media Institute) and Strasbourg (CEIPI).

Professor Hans Vedder, Groningen University (The Netherlands). Hans Vedder is professor of economic law at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where he researches and teaches a variety of courses related to EU economic and environmental law. He is also a substitute judge in the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Appeals Court as well as a non-governmental advisor to the Netherlands competition authority and DG Comp for the International Competition Network.