WINIR 2019 - Venue
The Sixth WINIR Conference was held in Northern Europe, in one of the oldest cities in Sweden, Lund. Located in the country’s southernmost province, Skåne (Scania), Lund’s neighbour is Malmö, one of Scandinavia’s largest cities, which is connected to the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, by the Öresund Bridge, made famous by the Scandinavian noir crime series, The Bridge.
Lund is believed to have been founded in 990, when Scania was part of Denmark. From 1103 it was part of the Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Lund, and the towering Lund Cathedral, built circa 1090-1145, still stands at the centre of the town. Lund Cathedral School (Katedralskolan) was founded in 1085 by the Danish king Canute the Saint. It is the oldest school in Scandinavia and one of the oldest in Northern Europe. The city was ceded to Sweden in the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. It was recaptured by Denmark in 1676 during the early phases of the Scanian War, during which the exceptionally bloody Battle of Lund won by Sweden was fought just north of the city in 1679. Lund’s status as part of Sweden was formalised in 1720.
Today, Lund is a city of contrasts where 1,000 years of history combine with modern knowledge and ideas. The Malmö region, including Lund, is the 4th most inventive region in the world, as measured by the number of patent applications per 10,000 residents (see here). Sweden’s first and most successful science park, Ideon, is situated in Lund.
Lund University was founded in 1666 on the location of an old Franciscan studium generale dating back to 1425. The university, consistently ranked among the top 100 in the world, has a strong influence on the city, and plays an important part in its cultural landscape. Several museums in the city, including the Historical Museum and the Zoological Museum, are attached the university. The opening session of the conference was held in the University Building is the historic part of Lund. The rest of the conference was held in the Ideon Science Park at Elite Hotel Ideon.