Series of discussions around Public Engagement and Social Responsibility

Open to teachers, students and technical and administrative staff

Beyond technology transfer: enhancing social impact, the humanities and social sciences

Join us on Thursday 16 May 2024, for discussion around public engagement and Social responsibility, open to teaching and research staff, technical and administrative staff, PhD and post-doctoral students, and students of the University of Trieste, as well as external researchers and other organisations that have collaborated with the University of Trieste in the field. The event will take place from 15:00 to 17:00 in the Bruno de Finetti Conference Room (Building D, first floor, Piazzale Europa 1).

The guest speaker is Francesca Spigarelli who will give a talk entitled: ‘Beyond technology transfer: enhancing social impact, the humanities and social sciences’. Francesca Spigarelli is a Full Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Law and former Vice Rector for Third Mission Policy at the University of Macerata. Her main areas of research include the analysis of industrial dynamics, public engagement and social responsibility in universities, sustainability and circular economy, industrial policies and the development of the Chinese economy.

For ten years Francesca Spigarelli directed public engagement and social responsibility policy (known as the ‘third mission’) at the University of Macerata, a university with a vocation for the humanities and social sciences where it would be reductive to speak of innovation as a purely 'technological' phenomenon. On 16 May, Spigarelli will provide case studies and concrete examples to illustrate how universities can create social impact by drawing on breadth of competencies and knowledge, with full use of the humanities and social sciences. In this sense, universities' commitment to combating inequality, to promoting fairness, equal opportunities, solidarity, and to encouraging active participation in the construction of fairer, more inclusive and sustainable social contexts is of particular relevance. All this can be achieved partially (but not exclusively) through technological progress, which is the means and not the end of public engagement and social responsibility.

Please see the attachment below.

For further information and to confirm your attendance please write by Monday 13 May to: divulgazione.scientifica@units.it