An international study published in PLOS Medicine documents the progressive decline in stillbirth and early neonatal mortality between 1990 and 2023 across 17 low- and middle-income countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Jordan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Colombia, and Peru).

The study was conducted by Dr Mohammed Ali (World Health Organization, Geneva) and Prof. Saverio Bellizzi (United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Ontario, Canada), in collaboration with Prof. Luca Cegolon, Professor of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Trieste.

Lower perinatal mortality was found to be associated with residence in urban areas, higher levels of maternal education, greater household socioeconomic status, and stronger national welfare systems. By contrast, maternal age of 30 years or older was associated with an increased risk.

Stillbirth and early neonatal mortality remain a major global health challenge, with the vast majority of cases occurring in low- and middle-income countries that rely on household surveys—such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)—for their estimates, as civil registration systems are often incomplete.

However, DHS data tend to underestimate the scale of the problem and misclassify cases of stillbirth and early neonatal death, limiting their usefulness for planning maternal and child health interventions.

“Although most countries have experienced a decline in perinatal mortality, progress remains uneven and significant socioeconomic disparities persist. Strengthening maternal and neonatal health services and improving data collection systems in low- and middle-income countries remain essential to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of reducing perinatal mortality,” state Prof. Cegolon and Dr Bellizzi.

The study, recently published in PLOS Medicine, analysed 93 DHS surveys conducted between 1990 and 2023 across 17 low- and middle-income countries, covering a total of 1,019,253 reported pregnancies among 733,181 women. Pregnancies lasting at least seven months were included, in line with the standard definition of stillbirth.

Age-specific risks of stillbirth and early neonatal death were estimated using life-table methods and a modified Gompertz-Makeham model, which is able to correct for common DHS data-quality issues, including underreporting, misclassification between stillbirths and deaths occurring on days 0–1 after birth, and age heaping at death—that is, the tendency to systematically report neonatal deaths as occurring at 7 days of age rather than on adjacent days.

UniTS and the University of Rijeka (UNIRI) have launched efforts to strengthen their collaboration through an official meeting. The two institutions share a strong focus on research, innovation, engagement with the local area, and their strategic position in the Upper Adriatic region.

Among the first initiatives identified to give concrete form to the agreement is the organization of Joint Research Day Seminars, initially focusing on three areas: Naval Engineering, Blue Economy and Physics. The two universities will explore potential collaborations in other strategic fields in the future.

The collaboration may also be extended to administrative and student communities through staff meetings, student entrepreneurship programmes, technology transfer initiatives and Erasmus Traineeship opportunities.

The meeting builds on a relationship that began in 2001 and has led over the years to nearly one hundred joint scientific publications, as well as joint participation in NAHV – North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley, the major European project dedicated to developing the renewable hydrogen economy in the Upper Adriatic region, which originated from an UniTS initiative.

The meeting was attended, on behalf of UNIRI, by Rector Goran Hauser, Vice-Rector for Strategic Projects Goran Vukelić and Vice-Rector for Digitalisation and Development Marin Karuza. Representing UniTS were Rector Donata Vianelli, Vice-Rector for Research Paolo Fornasiero, Vice-Rector for Relations with Companies and the Local Community Guido Bortoluzzi and Delegate for Technology Transfer and Relations with Research Institutions Erik Vesselli.

Can artificial intelligence help us assess how robust a scientific finding is? This is the question at the heart of the Predicting Replicability Challenge, an international competition organised by the Center for Open Science, in which Federico D’Atri, a PhD student at the University of Trieste, took third place, receiving a prize of $3,375.

The COS competition tested automated systems designed to estimate the likelihood that a scientific finding will be confirmed when a study is independently replicated. In other words, the algorithms are asked to “predict” whether repeating a study with new data and new samples will produce similar results. Replicability is an important factor in assessing the reliability of scientific research, as it helps determine how robust a finding is and whether it can be confirmed using new data.

To generate his predictions, D’Atri developed a system based primarily on a Large Language Model (LLM) specifically adapted and trained for this task. The model analysed the full text of scientific papers, using the information they contained to estimate the likelihood that their findings would be confirmed by an independent replication.

In one of the solutions he submitted, the LLM’s predictions were also combined with those of a more traditional machine-learning model, which used structured information from the studies, including sample size, statistical significance, effect size, year of publication and research discipline.

In the final round of the competition, participants worked on studies from the Replicability Project: Health Behavior, which focuses on health-related behaviours. For each finding, they had to estimate the likelihood that it would be confirmed by an independent replication before learning the actual outcome.

“This topic stems from a long-standing interest of mine in the replicability and reliability of scientific findings, particularly in psychology and the social sciences,” explains D’Atri. “The project gave me the opportunity to explore how artificial intelligence tools can be applied to the analysis of scientific literature”.

Directly replicating a study can require considerable time and resources. This is precisely where systems of this kind could find one of their most interesting future applications. Automated predictions cannot replace actual replications, but they can provide a useful initial indication more quickly and at a lower cost, helping to identify the studies for which further verification may be most valuable.

“The result achieved by PhD student Federico D’Atri once again highlights the central role of curiosity in doctoral training,” says Professor Longo, UniTS Delegate for PhD Programmes. “Curiosity can also lead researchers to explore cross-cutting topics or areas that are not strictly connected with their own research project, as in this case, while playing a fundamental role in shaping their development as researchers”.

The University of Trieste confirms the high quality of its doctoral programs. The 2026 AlmaLaurea Report, which analyzes employment outcomes one year after obtaining the degree, highlights particularly positive results for the University's PhD graduates, with all key indicators exceeding the national average.

The most significant figure relates to the employment rate, which reaches 96%, confirming the strong capacity of UniTS doctoral programs to foster rapid and high-level entry into the labor market.

The alignment between education and professional activity is also high: 77.5% of respondents report conducting substantial research activities in their current jobs, demonstrating the full utilization of skills acquired during their doctoral studies.

The data regarding degree effectiveness is equally notable: for 80.7% of PhD graduates, the doctorate proves highly effective in performing their professional duties, reinforcing the value of the advanced training offered by the University.

Finally, the average net monthly salary stands at 1,963 euros.

The findings of the 2026 AlmaLaurea Report confirm the University of Trieste’s ability to train highly qualified researchers capable of swiftly integrating into the job market and capitalizing on the expertise developed during their PhD programs. The University’s positioning above the national average across all analyzed indicators underscores the effectiveness of its doctoral training and the growing recognition of the degree in research, innovation, and high-level professional sectors.

The 32nd edition of the international Bovec Summer School concluded on 25 July. Over the course of two weeks, it brought together 32 students from Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, including five from the University of Trieste. The 2026 edition focused on the relationship between artificial intelligence, multilingual communication, and cultural and digital transformation. The Summer School was held from 12 to 25 July in the Slovenian town of Bovec, in the heart of the Alps-Adriatic region.

The programme combined intensive courses in Italian, Slovenian, Croatian, German and Friulian with lectures and workshops exploring the opportunities and challenges of applying artificial intelligence to languages. Particular attention was devoted to the contribution of new technologies to translation and language learning, the protection of less widely spoken languages, and digital inclusion, while also addressing the risks associated with algorithmic bias and the limited representation of minority language communities.

Organised by the University of Klagenfurt, the Summer School is held in partnership with the Universities of Trieste, Udine, Ljubljana, Primorska, Rijeka and Osijek. The initiative is one of the longest-running examples of university cooperation in the Alps-Adriatic region, bringing together language education, academic discussion and dialogue among young people from different cultural backgrounds.

Alongside classroom activities, the programme included opportunities to engage with the local area, cultural events and a day trip to Ljubljana, where participants visited the Jožef Stefan Institute and its nuclear research reactor. The experience enabled students to develop language, digital and intercultural skills, while building relationships across national borders.

The X-Culture Global Business Week has begun in Trieste, transforming the city into a global international business laboratory until 8 August. For the first time, the University of Trieste is hosting and organising the final event of a programme that brings together universities, students and businesses through hands-on experience in developing business projects and multicultural collaboration.

The Trieste edition, organised by the Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics “Bruno de Finetti” – DEAMS together with X-Culture’s international organising committee, brings together almost 150 selected students from 36 countries, alongside academics, researchers, managers and professionals from different continents.

The plenary sessions are taking place at MIB Trieste School of Management, a partner of the event, while the awards ceremony will be held on Friday, 7 August, during the closing evening, which will also include a gala dinner in Piazzale Europa.

The event marks the culmination of an international educational programme that is unique in both scale and structure. Since its launch in 2010, X-Culture has involved more than 130,000 students from 701 universities and 115 countries, organised into over 16,000 international teams. Participants work remotely, communicating in English across different time zones, cultures and academic backgrounds to develop solutions to real-world challenges set by companies around the globe.

Some of the best-performing students in the 2026 edition have travelled to Trieste after being selected on the basis of the results achieved during the international online phase. They include seven students from the University of Trieste, whose participation is supported by DEAMS and the Fondazione Pietro Pittini, which has long been committed to promoting educational and international opportunities for young people.

The initiative’s Lead Host is Rector Donata Vianelli, Professor of International and Cross-Cultural Marketing, who over the past fifteen years has involved more than 700 University of Trieste students in the project.

“Global Business Week offers students an experience that reflects the complexity of international work in a very tangible way: people with different languages, cultures and backgrounds are called upon to work together to develop solutions for real companies. At the same time, initiatives of this kind strengthen Trieste’s role as an international platform for education and innovation, capable of attracting talent, building connections with the business community and contributing to the economic development of the local area through the University’s global outlook,” said Donata Vianelli.

The organisation directly involves UniTS academics Guido Bortoluzzi, who is also Academic Director of MIB’s MBA in International Business, Andrea Tracogna, who also serves as Dean of MIB, and Rubina Romanello, together with researcher Chiara Marinelli, MIB lecturer Stefano Pilotto, the University’s administrative staff and around ten students involved in preparing and managing the event.

Universities and companies working together on real-world challenges

A central feature of Global Business Week is the collaboration between the University and its partner companies and organisations, some of which represent the economic and cultural fabric of Friuli Venezia Giulia: Assicurazioni Generali, Barilla, Modiano, Fondazione ITS – International Talent Support, Associazione Caffè Trieste and Genuino.

Students are engaging directly with managers and professionals and are being asked to develop analyses, strategies and potential solutions to the real cases and challenges presented by the partner organisations.

This collaboration enables international students to learn more about local businesses, supply chains and organisations, while giving the participating partners the opportunity to gather ideas and perspectives developed by talented young people from a wide range of cultural and academic backgrounds.

Internationally renowned academics

Among the most influential academics attending the event in Trieste is Vasyl “Vas” Taras, Professor of International Business at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, founder of X-Culture and one of the leading experts on multicultural teams and global working groups collaborating remotely.

The event also involves 22 international business academics and experts from universities and institutions in several countries. They include Richard Griffith, Professor of Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the Florida Institute of Technology and Director of the Institute for Culture, Collaboration and Management. His areas of expertise range from international management and cross-cultural collaboration to the development of the skills required to work in complex international environments.

A week working as international consultants

During Global Business Week, participants meet company representatives, analyse the challenges assigned to them, visit company premises and other organisations, and take part in workshops, training sessions and mentoring activities with international academics.

The teams will develop their proposals and submit them to the faculty for an initial assessment and further refinement. At the end of the week, they will present their strategic recommendations to company representatives and an international panel of academics. The best solutions will be recognised during the closing awards ceremony.

The programme also includes opportunities to discover Trieste, its scientific community and its economic and international history.

The event is supported by ARDiS – the Regional Agency for the Right to Higher Education, Fondazione Pietro Pittini, illycaffè, MIB Trieste School of Management, the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trieste Trasporti. Upon their arrival in Trieste, the international group of students and academics was also welcomed by Confcommercio Trieste and FIPE.

Determining whether a gene is mutated in a tumour may not be enough. In many cases, it is also important to know how many copies of that mutated gene are present in the cancer cells and how strongly this alteration affects the behaviour of the disease.

This is the starting point of the study led by Giulio Caravagna, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Trieste and head of the Cancer Data Science Laboratory, published in Nature Genetics. The researchers proposed a new way of reading tumour DNA that more closely reflects the true complexity of cancer: mutations are considered not only in terms of whether they are present or absent, but also in relation to the tumour's overall genomic architecture.

In cancer cells, somatic mutations - those that arise during a person's lifetime in cells other than germ cells - can combine with changes in DNA copy number. As a result, some regions of the genome may be amplified while others are lost. The combination of mutations, amplifications and losses of genomic regions gives rise to the concept of gene mutant dosage. The aim is to estimate how many mutated copies of a gene are actually present in a tumour and assess whether this information has implications for prognosis and metastatic spread.

To address this question, the research team developed INCOMMON - INference of COpy number and Mutation Multiplicity in ONcology - an open-source computational method that estimates the number of mutated copies of a gene and mutation multiplicity from targeted sequencing panels routinely used in clinical oncology.

One of its most significant features is the ability to derive new information from data already generated during diagnostic workflows. INCOMMON uses advanced statistical inference and machine-learning models to interpret the results of clinical molecular tests in the light of large collections of tumours sequenced at whole-genome level.

“INCOMMON represents a new approach to obtaining higher-resolution analyses than current standards, without changing the type of data generated. This new opportunity reveals features of oncogenic processes that may prove relevant from a prognostic and predictive perspective,” explains Giulio Caravagna.

In the study, supported in part by the AIRC Foundation for Cancer Research, the researchers analysed more than 60,000 clinical patient samples, covering 39 different cancer types and over 500,000 mutations. By stratifying more than 20,000 patients according to the mutant dosage of different oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes, the team identified 46 cancer-specific biomarkers associated with overall survival.

The most significant finding is that 13 of these biomarkers, across 12 cancer types, would not have been detected using conventional models based solely on whether a gene is mutated or not. Gene mutant dosage can therefore reveal prognostic signals that a simpler reading of tumour DNA may miss.

The findings also provide new insight into the metastatic behaviour of tumours. In particular, the researchers identified 26 biomarkers recurrently associated with metastatic spread in 10 cancer types, as well as 20 biomarkers whose presence predicts a tumour's tendency to spread to specific organs in five cancer types.

“The data collected in this study show that genomic information already contained in molecular analyses routinely performed in clinical practice can be reinterpreted with far greater precision using advanced statistical inference and machine-learning systems,” says Nicola Calonaci, an AIRC-funded postdoctoral researcher at the University of Trieste and co-first author of the paper.

“One particularly interesting aspect is that gene mutant dosage seems to capture biological properties of tumours that do not emerge when mutations are treated simply as present or absent,” adds Eriseld Krasniqi, a medical oncologist at the IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute in Rome, a University of Trieste PhD candidate and co-first author of the paper. “This is especially relevant to the study of metastasis, where it has historically been very difficult to identify genomic features that distinguish primary from metastatic tumours.”

“This research is an excellent example of how collaboration between highly specialised clinical centres and computational research groups can translate into knowledge that benefits cancer patients,” says Giovanni Blandino, Scientific Director of the IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute (IRE) in Rome. “IRE's participation in a study of this scale reflects our commitment to working at the frontier of translational research, where clinical expertise meets the most advanced technologies for genomic data analysis. Extracting new information from molecular tests already available in clinical practice is one of the most promising directions for precision oncology, and an area in which we intend to continue investing.”

The work also opens the way for future studies integrating information on the treatments received by patients, to determine whether gene mutant dosage has not only prognostic value but also predictive value for response to specific therapies.

Further validation will be required before any potential clinical implementation. The direction indicated by the research is nevertheless clear: to make better use of information already available in molecular data, in order to understand disease evolution and contribute to the development of new biomarkers for precision oncology.

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STUDY PUBLISHED IN NATURE GENETICS, 31 JULY 2026

Gene mutant dosage is associated with prognosis and metastatic tropism in 60,000 clinical cancer samples

Nicola Calonaci1,†, Eriseld Krasniqi2,†, Daniel Colic3, Stefano Scalera4, Giorgia Gandolfi1, Salvatore Milite5, Konstantin Bräutigam6,7, Andrea Sottoriva5, Trevor A. Graham6, Leonardo Egidi8, Biagio Ricciuti9, Marcello Maugeri-Saccà10, and Giulio Caravagna1,11

1 Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, Italy
2 Phase IV Clinical Studies Unit, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, 00144 Rome, Italy
3 Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona, Spain
4 Clinical Trial Center, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Division, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy
5 Computational Biology Research Centre, Human Technopole, Milan, Italy
6 Centre for Evolution and Cancer, Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom
7 Institute of Medical Genetics and Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
8 Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics “Bruno de Finetti”, University of Trieste, Italy
9 Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
10 Division of Medical Oncology 2, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy
11 Area Science Park, Trieste, Italy
† These authors contributed equally.

DOI: 10.1038/s41588-026-02666-z

The 14th edition of the Ciamician Summer School, organised by the University of Trieste’s Department of Engineering and Architecture, has come to an end. Nineteen students and PhD candidates from seven countries gathered at Passo Monte Croce Comelico, in the heart of the Dolomites, to explore key aspects of the energy transition alongside leading experts in the field.

Selected from around forty applications submitted by candidates from Italian and European universities, the participants followed an interdisciplinary programme focusing on the main challenges of decarbonisation: sustainable construction materials, renewable energy sources, the evolution of the electricity system, sustainable mobility, critical raw materials, and the economic, social, geopolitical and regulatory implications of the energy transition.

The Summer School brought together 22 lecturers from Italian and European universities, research institutions and companies, including University College London, the Technical University of Munich, Hasselt University, the Polytechnic University of Milan, the University of Padua, the University of Salerno, Area Science Park and CNR-INM. The opening lecture was delivered by climatologist Filippo Giorgi, one of the authors recognised with the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The speakers also included internationally renowned experts Paul Ekins of UCL and Carlo Bottasso of TUM.

Six participants received scholarships covering their registration fees thanks to the support of Edilgroup, a holding company committed to developing sustainable solutions for the construction sector, a strategic industry for reducing CO₂ emissions and achieving the objectives of the energy transition.

Named after Trieste-born chemist Giacomo Ciamician, one of the first scientists to recognise the potential of solar energy, the Summer School was established in 2010 and co-founded by Maurizio Fermeglia, Rector Emeritus of the University of Trieste, who recently passed away. This year’s edition was dedicated to his memory.

The University of Trieste has inaugurated its first Study&Share classroom, a new learning environment designed to meet the evolving needs of its student community, where individual study is complemented by collaboration, social interaction and knowledge sharing.

Located in Building C9 on the Piazzale Europa Campus, the new classroom has been conceived as a flexible, informal and adaptable space that can accommodate different activities throughout the day. Students will be able to study individually or in groups, work on collaborative projects, meet with classmates, have lunch and enjoy breaks in a welcoming environment featuring modular furniture and up-to-date technology that can be easily reconfigured to suit different needs.

"This new type of classroom was created by listening to our students' needs, and we are delighted to provide them with this flexible space," said Rector Donata Vianelli. "Once the 'UniTS Renewed' redevelopment project is completed, our students will have access to numerous environments that encourage social interaction and the exchange of ideas, fully aligned with the needs of contemporary higher education."

The inauguration of the classroom marks the first milestone of "UniTS Renewed", the University's redevelopment programme aimed at modernising learning spaces and enhancing campus life.

By spring 2027, additional Study&Share classrooms of varying sizes and layouts will be created, all sharing the same vision: to provide spaces that foster not only learning, but also interaction, dialogue and a strong sense of belonging to the University community.

The overall plan includes the refurbishment of 25 classrooms, providing a total of 2,256 student seats across four University campuses, as well as the renovation of 30 study, reading and break areas, for a total of 894 upgraded seats.

Fabrizio Sors, tenure-track Assistant Professor of General Psychology at the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste, has been elected to the Managing Council of the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC).

FEPSAC brings together researchers, practitioners and institutions active in research, education and the application of sport psychology to physical activity and human performance. Through conferences, working groups, publications and educational initiatives, it supports scientific exchange and collaboration across the field.

During his term, Sors will take part in the work of the Managing Council and in the Federation’s initiatives, contributing in particular to collaboration between researchers and practitioners, interdisciplinary exchange and the dissemination of scientific knowledge.

The appointment builds on Sors’s previous involvement in the European scientific community. At the time of his election, he was serving a second term as coordinator of the Research Department of the European Network of Young Specialists in Sport Psychology (ENYSSP), a European network of early-career researchers and practitioners that works with FEPSAC on research and education. The new role may also strengthen links between the Federation’s activities and the sport psychology research developed in Trieste.