The 2026 Salerno Winter School on Internet Governance (SWING), an advanced interdisciplinary training initiative designed for graduate students, early-career researchers, ICT professionals, policymakers, and anyone interested in the field, will take place in Bruges, Belgium, from April 20 to 24 April.
Hosted by the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), the intensive week-long programme seeks to strengthen participants’ understanding of the actors, processes, and policy challenges shaping the governance of the internet and digital technologies.
Through a combination of expert-led lectures and interactive group work, the participants will collaboratively analyse key governance issues and develop policy recommendations to be presented during the programme’s final sessions.
The session will focus on Digital Sovereignty, one of the most pressing issues at the intersection of Internet governance, geopolitics, economics, innovation, and fundamental rights.
Digital sovereignty, broadly speaking, is concerned with the ability of states, regions, organisations, communities, and individuals to make autonomous choices in the digital sphere, including how data is generated, stored, accessed, and governed; how critical infrastructures are built, secured, and maintained; how strategic technologies are developed and regulated; and how dependencies on external actors are managed.
During the week, the participants will examine digital sovereignty both as a policy objective, covering issues such as resilience, security, competitiveness, and strategic autonomy and as a normative challenge, dealing with openness and interoperability of the Internet, human rights protections, inclusive governance, and international cooperation.
The programme will devote particular attention to concrete domains where sovereignty claims are most visible, from cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) to semiconductors, undersea cables, and satellite infrastructures; as well as to the trade-offs that emerge between protection, innovation, and openness.
The core seminars and lectures will include: Introduction to Digital Sovereignty; From Governance to Sovereignty; EuroStack: European Digital Sovereignty; Digital Sovereignty and Competitiveness; The Impact of Digital Sovereignty on the Internet; Digital Sovereignty and Fundamental Rights; Indigenous Data Sovereignty; Digital Sovereignty and Undersea Cables; Digital Sovereignty and Semiconductors; Digital Sovereignty and Artificial Intelligence; Digital Sovereignty and LEOs (Low Earth Orbit satellites); Internet Governance: Conflicts and Cooperation; and The Geopolitics of Digital Sovereignty.
Lectures and seminars will be delivered by internationally renowned scholars and experts, combining academic depth with policy relevance and practical insight.
The programme also includes interactive group work throughout its duration, culminating in policy recommendations presented during the final sessions.
More information about the programme, the faculty and registration is available at: https://cris.unu.edu/swing-school-on-internet-governance. Additional information about the School and registration can be obtained by contacting Sophie Hoogenboom at shoogenboom@cris.unu.edu.
