The 11th Australia-Spain Research Forum entitled “AI:Friend or Foe?“ was hosted at the Australian Museum, (Sydney, NSW) on Friday 24th of October 2025.
The full recording of the event is available in our YouTube channel:
Opening
The 2025 SRAP Research Forum commenced at 10:00am with registration and a morning tea. Following Acknowledgment to the Country by SRAP member Ivan Martinez Botella, the official opening took place at 10:30am by HE Ms Esther Monterrubio Villar, Ambassador of Spain in Australia, who inaugurated the forum. After that, we were honoured to feature two special video recordings: the first one from HE Mr Luis Sánchez-Vellisco, Ambassador of Spain in New Zealand, and then another recording by Ms Inmaculada Riera, General Director of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce (Madrid). We continued by an update on the role of Spanish researchers in the Australia-Pacific community by A/ Prof Ángel Lopez-Sánchez, President of SRAP, and the joint announcement with Mr Rod Noel, General Manager of La Camara-Spanish-Australia Chamber of Commerce, of SRAP becoming an institutional member of La Camara (the 1st association of Spanish researchers abroad to achieve this).
SESSION 1: Keynote Lecture
Following the opening ceremony, Session 1 commenced with a keynote lecture “The impact of IA” by Prof Ian Oppermann (University of Technology Sydney) and a lecture on “AI systems as an anticorruption tool” by Dr José Miguel Bello-Villarino (University of Sydney).
Dr José Miguel Bello-Villarino, Senior Research Fellow at the Law School University of Sydney and SRAP 11th SRAP Forum Co-Chair
Some of the in-person participants of the 11th Australia-Spain Research Forum “AI: Friend or Foe?”