Randa Deraz, PhD researcher at Heritage Science Laboratory Ljubljana (HSLL) participated in the PhD Winter School “Holistic Learning of Sustainable Chemistry – HOLOS”, held from 27–30 January 2026 at University of Padova, Italy.

The Winter School was organised by the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Padova, in collaboration with Monash University (Australia), the University of Bath (UK), and the Italian Chemical Society. The programme brought together early-career researchers from diverse scientific backgrounds to explore advanced approaches in green and sustainable chemistry.

HOLOS promotes a broad interdisciplinary framework, focusing on translating sustainability theory into practical analytical tools. A central theme of the programme was the application of holistic and systems-thinking approaches to address complex sustainability challenges and to identify critical intervention areas where targeted changes can generate the greatest environmental improvement.

The systems-thinking perspective gained during the Winter School directly strengthens Randa’s doctoral research at HSLL, which applies Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools to evaluate the environmental, economic, and social impacts of long-term storage systems for historical paper collections.

For more information about the HOLOS winter school, please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/holos-ws/home?authuser=0

Image credit: HOLOS Winter School 2026