STUDIO DUE – GONGO 2025 has been officially launched. This inter-university teaching project involves students and lecturers from the University of Trieste (UniTS), the Polytechnic University of Milan, Federico II University of Naples, and the University of Salerno.

On Saturday 15th March 2025, the Conference Centre at the UniTS Gorizia campus in Via Alviano will welcome over 200 students and around fifteen lecturers and teaching assistants for a study day dedicated to architectural design and the urban transformation of the cross-border areas of Gorizia and Nova Gorica. The event, open to the general public, forms part of the calendar of initiatives organised by the University in celebration of GO! 2025 – Nova Gorica and Gorizia European Capital of Culture.

Launched in 2023 by UniTS Architecture lecturers Thomas Bisiani and Adriano Venudo, Elvio Manganaro from the Polytechnic University of Milan, and Alberto Calderoni from Federico II University of Naples, the project has since grown to include additional ‘Composizione 2’ studios at the Polytechnic University of Milan, led by Giacomo Ortalli, Aleksa Korolija and Luca Cardani, as well as the University of Salerno with Felice De Silva.

Prof. Adriano Venudo explained the aim of the project: ‘Gorizia, together with Nova Gorica and the border, has unique characteristics that make it stand out. This seminar and exchange will allow us to gain an external perspective. We will also produce a publication to collect the outcomes.’

‘This is a project that connects urban planning with the university world, something we believe in strongly. Our university courses are an extraordinary asset, and we are committed to promoting them to the fullest,’ said Chiara Gatta, Deputy Mayor of Gorizia.

Patrizia Artico, Municipal Councillor for GO! 2025, added: ‘Our border, with its history and unique features, is of great urban interest. The fact that prestigious universities have chosen to study it confirms this.’

After working on the historic centre of Naples in the first year of the project, the students will now turn their attention to the Transalpina Station in Nova Gorica and the cross-border urban areas between Italy and Slovenia.

During the day, Prof. Paolo Nicoloso from the University of Trieste will give a lecture entitled ‘Gorizia: 1900–1950’, followed by architect Nejc Koradin’s talk on ‘Nova Gorica: The Birth of a City’. Participants will then take part in an exploratory walk to discover the sites under study.

Programme STUDIO DUE - GONGO 2025

UniTS x GO! 2025

A new phase of the outreach project ‘Mare Sopra – What is the Future of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Coasts?’ will begin on Friday, 7th March. The project, conceived and coordinated by the University of Trieste, is funded by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

The initiative aims to raise awareness of rising sea levels and their impact on coastal systems. As part of this effort, a series of outreach activities will involve students and citizens in measurement operations.

On Friday, for example, students from the ‘Galileo Galilei’ High School in Trieste will take part in observations and field measurements at the small harbour of Grignano. Throughout the spring, other groups of students and citizens will carry out sea level rise measurements in Muggia, Lignano, and Grado.

The project follows a citizen science model, where students, citizens, association representatives, and non-experts actively participate in research after receiving appropriate training.

‘In the coming decades,’ explains Stefano Furlani, Associate Professor of Geomorphology at the University of Trieste, ‘sea levels will rise dramatically, altering the geography of our coasts and damaging regional shoreline structures. Since 1880, the sea level has already risen by more than 20cm, and it is projected to reach 30cm by 2050.’

There have already been warnings of what this situation could bring. The most recent was the severe storm surge in November 2023, which struck the eastern shoreline of the Gulf of Trieste, from Muggia to Lignano, causing significant damage to coastal infrastructure.

‘With Mare Sopra,’ Furlani continues, ‘our goal is to raise awareness of sea level rise caused by climate change. We are organising expert-led discussions, documentary screenings, hands-on experiences with students and citizens, and the creation of a virtual tour—an engaging and accessible tool that allows users to explore places and environments in a highly realistic and detailed way, almost as if they were physically there.’

At the end of these activities, key coastal locations will be marked with two lines: a yellow line indicating where the sea will reach in 2050 and a red line showing its level in 2100.

The project is highly interdisciplinary, involving geomorphologists, sociologists, and biologists from three UniTS departments (Mathematics, Computer Science, and Geosciences; Political and Social Sciences; Life Sciences), as well as members of the public, schools, and associations.

‘Mare Sopra’ is the first outreach project funded by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in 2024. It benefits from the collaboration of the Miramare Marine Protected Area, the Municipality of Muggia, the Marevivo Association – FVG Section, the Marco Polo School Cluster of Grado, the ‘Galileo Galilei’ High School of Trieste, and other local institutions.

International Women's Day is an important occasion to take stock of the situation regarding women's conditions, assess progress, and renew efforts on gender issues, equal opportunities, and anti-discrimination initiatives.

‘The data published in recent weeks by ISTAT (https://www.istat.it/tag/donna/) paint a mixed picture of the situation in Italy,’ says Dolores Ferrara, President of the CUG (Equal Opportunities and Staff Welfare Committee) at UniTS. ‘While female employment is increasing, it is growing at a slower rate than male employment. A significant gender gap persists in terms of wages and women's participation in the country’s economic and social life. We need new solutions that place these issues at the centre of the conversation, ensuring that women’s presence is actively promoted in both academic and professional settings.’

The University of Trieste and its CUG are committed to this goal, implementing support measures and anti-discrimination tools. They recognize that a deep understanding of the most insidious and exclusionary forms of discrimination is essential to fostering a true culture of equal opportunities.

With this in mind, and to assess the state of gender equality in scientific research, the CUG has organised a conference titled ‘In Search of Equality: Women in Science’, which will take place on 1st April at 10:00 in the Bachelet Hall, Piazzale Europa Campus.

The Psychology Festival returns to Friuli Venezia Giulia: the fifth edition of the event, organized by Psicoattività APS with the partnership of the University of Trieste, will take place from March 7 to April 11, 2025. The festival will feature a traveling program, with six free-entry meetings across the region.

The 2025 edition, titled “Intelligences. From Natural Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence”, will explore, through expert presentations, new research and application areas in psychology that are central to current reflections, particularly those related to the study of the human mind and intelligence.

Topics will include natural intelligence and artificial intelligence; creative thinking and the relationship between creativity and science, and between music and AI; the latest developments in robotics and the ethical implications of its use; as well as an in-depth look at modern artificial intelligence tools, including the widely used Chat-GPT, to better understand their risks and opportunities. The festival will also conclude with a look at animal intelligence.

This year, the festival's scientific direction is entrusted to Claudio Tonzar, Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Urbino and President of Psicoattività, with the support of Tiziano Agostini, Professor of General Psychology at the University of Trieste.

The festival's traveling format is confirmed, with stops in Gradisca d’Isonzo, Tavagnacco, Palmanova, Cormons, and, in particular, the UniTS campuses in Trieste and Gorizia.

Notable international guests will participate, including Dario Floreano, full professor and director of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland), a pioneer in evolutionary robotics, aerial robotics, and soft robotics, who will speak on Friday, March 28, at the Aula Magna (Building A) of the University of Trieste.

At the end of this event, the ceremony for the Third Prize for Innovative Research in Psychology will take place, awarded by Psicoattività APS to psychologists and researchers under 36. The competition aims to reward published research, master's theses, or doctoral dissertations to promote the psychological culture in Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Credits will be awarded to students of the University of Trieste's Psychology Degree Program attending the events (further details on the festival website).

SCHEDULE

Friday, March 7, 6:00 PM, Gradisca d’Isonzo, Sala Bergamas (via Bergamas, 3) – “Teaching to Think: Is Artificial Intelligence an Enemy or an Ally?” with Alessandro Antonietti, Professor of General Psychology and Dean of the Faculty of Psychology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan).

Friday, March 14, 6:00 PM, Gorizia, Aula Magna of the Department of Political and Social Sciences (via d’Alviano, 18) – “Creativity and Science: A Brief Journey into the Study of Creative Thinking” with Sergio Agnoli, Associate Professor of General Psychology and Director of the Creativity Dynamics Laboratory at the Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste.

Friday, March 21, 6:00 PM, Tavagnacco, Teatro Immersivo “P. Maurensig” (Via Mazzini 1, loc. Feletto Umberto) – “Music and Artificial Intelligence: New Tools for Tomorrow’s Music” with Walter Coppola, Psychologist and Lecturer at the University of Trieste, in collaboration with Davide Coppola, Composer, Conductor, Pianist.

Friday, March 28, 6:00 PM, Trieste, Aula Magna, University of Trieste (Building A, Rectorate - Piazza Europa Unita, 1) – “Intelligences: The Role of Psychology in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Ethics” with Dario Floreano, Full Professor and Director of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland); and Giuseppe Riva, Full Professor of Communication Psychology at the Università Cattolica di Milano and Director of the Humane Technology Lab.

Following at 7:30 PM: Ceremony for the Third Prize for Innovative Research in Psychology and presentation of the winning research.

Friday, April 4, 6:00 PM, Palmanova, Teatro Gustavo Modena (via Dante, 16) – “Human Cognitive Abilities and Generative Artificial Intelligence: Limits and Opportunities” with Giuseppe Sartori, Emeritus Professor of Forensic Neuropsychology and Forensic Neurosciences at the University of Padua.

Friday, April 11, 6:00 PM, Cormons, Teatro Comunale (via Nazario Sauro, 17) – “Animal Intelligences: Genius and Ingenuity in the Natural World” with Cinzia Chiandetti, Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste.

The festival is supported by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region and made possible thanks to the collaboration of the municipalities of Gorizia, Cormons, Gradisca d’Isonzo, Palmanova, and Tavagnacco, with the partnership of the University of Trieste and the SASS of Nova Gorica.

Preparations are already underway for Trieste Next – Festival of Scientific Research, whose fourteenth edition will take place from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th September.

The 2025 edition of the Festival will be dedicated to ‘Life Within: Dialogues Between Science and Technology.’

Since its first edition, Trieste Next has tackled key topics in scientific and cultural debate, from food and water to energy and the relationship between humans and technology, as well as the theme of sustainability. The 2025 edition will offer an opportunity to explore the scientific agenda for the coming years and to reflect on the new frontiers of research and innovation, along with their limitations, including ethical ones.

Trieste Next will feature three days of conferences, seminars and workshops, with over 100 events on the programme, 300 speakers and a distinguished lineup of guests. There will also be exhibition spaces in Piazza Unità d’Italia and activities dedicated to schools.

For the third consecutive year, the ‘Trieste Next Prize: Science Book of the Year’ will be awarded, celebrating the masters of scientific communication. Last year's winner was Piero Martin with ‘Storie di errori memorabili’ (Laterza).

https://www.triestenext.it/

The Open Innovation Day of the iNEST Consortium took place at the University of Padua, with the participation of the University of Trieste, leader of Spoke 8, featuring an address by Rector Roberto Di Lenarda and the presence of board members Maria Cristina Pedicchio and Pierluigi Barbieri from the Scientific Council.

The event held fundamental strategic importance, strengthening the ties between businesses and the nine universities and research institutes participating in the Consortium.

Among the most significant moments was the awarding of 40 companies from the Triveneto area  that excelled in their capacity to innovate processes and products. The central aim was to nurture the local innovation ecosystem by learning from business experiences and fostering the development of impactful projects in line with the Open Innovation paradigm.

Open Innovation is a model that encourages collaboration among businesses, universities, and other institutions, transcending traditional corporate boundaries to promote the exchange of knowledge and ideas. This paradigm represents an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate technology transfer and generate value for companies in Northeast Italy.

iNEST aims to build a strong bridge between academia and industry, pooling expertise and resources to tackle future challenges.

Friuli Venezia Giulia maintains the positive trend of post-pandemic recovery as regards the flow of foreign researchers and lecturers from institutions and incoming ones: this is what emerges from the annual survey ‘Mobility of Knowledge’ carried out by Area Science Park, which has been collecting the main data on students, researchers and lecturers of SiS FVG partner research institutions since 2005.

The survey reveals that there were a total of 36,925 students enrolled in the academic year 2022/2023, 7% of whom were foreign nationals (in the academic year 2021/2022, there were 36,459 students enrolled, of whom 6% were foreigners). Female students account for 56% of those enrolled (a 1% increase over the last survey) and mainly attend degree courses in the Humanities or Social Sciences.

The number of incoming students, 707 in total, is finally approaching pre-pandemic figures. Of this target group, 75% have European citizenship, 53% are women and 47% belong to the areas of Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Engineering, Earth and Universe Sciences. On the other hand, there are 1,104 students enrolled in outgoing mobility: EU countries are the destination of 93% of this target group, 53% of whom are students enrolled on courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

As far as researchers and lecturers working in scientific institutions that are part of the Scientific and Innovation System - SiS FVG are concerned, in 2023 their presence reached 3,641. Although up by about 280 compared to 2022, the overall number nevertheless remains far from the numbers recorded before the pandemic (they were 6,960 in 2019). As for the foreign component in force at SiS FVG institutions, 2023 saw the largest increase in the last four years, rising from 636 to 804, although the numbers still remain far from pre-pandemic levels.

In contrast, incoming mobility of researchers and lecturers increased by almost 4,000 to 7,854. Outgoing mobility also saw an increase in 2023, with 75 trips abroad, mainly to EU European countries (43%) but also to Asian countries (20%, excluding India and China).

Adding up all the foreigners present in the institutions of the FVG Science and Innovation System, there is a further strong increase compared to the previous year, from 7,597 to 11,934 presences, a figure that is close to that recorded before the pandemic (about 14,000).

See the complete survey, available in Italian and English. https://www.areasciencepark.it/pubblicato-il-report-mobilita-della-conoscenza-2024/

On the night of 27th January, UniTS will light up its façade in red as a poignant reminder that International Holocaust Remembrance Day, dedicated to honouring the victims of the Holocaust, is commemorated worldwide.

The date was established by the United Nations General Assembly because on 27th January 1945 Soviet Red Army troops, engaged in Operation Vistula-Oder towards Germany, liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp, revealing the horrors of the Nazi regime to the international community.

In order to deepen the knowledge of the Shoah and deportations, on Monday 27th January 2025, starting at 16:00, at the Miela Theatre, there will be the 11th edition of the multidisciplinary conference ‘Living with Auschwitz. The atrocity’. 

PROGRAMME: https://portale.units.it/en/events/multidisciplinary-conference-living-auschwitz-atrocity

The initiative, born from the collaboration between the University of Trieste and the cultural association Stazione Ernesto Nathan Rogers, is part of the Rogers' Forum event, financed by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

The complete calendar of commemorations in Trieste can be consulted here: https://www.comune.trieste.it/it/novita-227102/comunicati-227104/27-gennaio-2025-giorno-della-memoria-cerimonia-commemorativa-alla-risiera-di-san-sabba-e-programma-attvita-culturali-291581

Moreover, from 26th February to 3rd March 2025, about forty students will take part in a trip to the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, part of the project ‘Promemoria_Auschwitz’ promoted by the association Deina APS. Information can be found here: https://www.deina.it/promemoria-auschwitz

The University of Trieste presented at the Urban Center the five winning projects of ‘Call4Ideas’, which, in addition to allocating 75,000 euros in funding, aims to build a bridge between university research and the world of production in order to increase the technological readiness of local businesses.

‘Call4Ideas’, promoted by the University of Trieste in cooperation with the Polo Tecnologico dell'Alto Adriatico, is an initiative financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NNRP) through NextGenerationEU that is being implemented as part of the North-Eastern Innovation Ecosystem iNEST - Spoke 8 (coordinated by UniTS), specifically in the cross-sector activity CC2 ‘Lab Villages’.

In the first phase, the call for proposals saw local companies propose research trajectories, identified as priorities for the development of their activities consistent with the strategic areas of iNEST: blue economy, life sciences, digital, sustainability and material sciences.

Subsequently, the research teams of the University of Trieste proposed projects aimed at verifying the application potential of the research trajectories identified by the companies, in order to foster an increase in the level of technological readiness (TRL) and accelerate their transfer to the market.

The winning projects

After a rigorous selection process, five projects were chosen for funding, confirming their strategic relevance and high innovation potential:

Development of innovative biomedical systems to restore the functions of the masticatory apparatus. Gianluca Turco collaborated with Advan srl to develop a project to characterise the mechanical resistance to fatigue and the maintenance of the connection between the components of dental implants.

Development of a Sustainable Predictive Model for Fishing Through the Integration of Artificial Intelligence Data. Luca Bortolussi, together with Doz Guido - Cooperativa Fra Pescatori of Monfalcone, proposed FishAI, a predictive artificial intelligence system for sustainable fishing in the Gulf of Trieste.

Digital Twin and BI for the Advanced Digitisation of Port Processes in the Port of Trieste. Giuseppe Borruso in partnership with Prodigys Technology srl, developed a Digital Twin and business intelligence project for the advanced digitisation of port processes in the Port of Trieste.

Analysis and feasibility study for the Intermodal Terminal of the Gorizia Freight Village. Giuseppe Borruso, in collaboration with Adriafer Rail Services srl, conducted a feasibility study for the Intermodal Terminal of the Gorizia Freight Village.

Application of Generative Artificial Intelligence for the Analysis of Treatment Protocols of Cardiovascular Diseases. Luca Bortolussi, with Beantech srl, developed ChatMED, an innovative chatbot based on generative artificial intelligence to support the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

On this occasion, the Polo Tecnologico dell'Alto Adriatico presented the development actions of Lab Village, which will be located in the spaces of the Urban Center, to enable the meeting and collaboration between business and research. 

In the future of innovation and lab villages – which include some active experiments in Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto – it is expected that there will be an increasing number of market entry, brokerage and life-long learning services for researchers, entrepreneurs and human resources involved in shared technology transfer processes, where the public sector and business will operate in synergy.

Giuseppe Grimaldi, a research assistant in Cultural Anthropology at the Department of Humanities of the University of Trieste, has been awarded the 2024 prize of the Italian Society of Applied Anthropology (SIAA) for the best collaborative and applied research with the project O.S.A.RE. - Osservatorio Sfruttamento Agricolo e Resistenze (Observatory on Agricultural Exploitation and Resistance).

The objectives achieved by O.S.A.RE. contribute to combating the exploitation and illegal brokerage of workers, providing data on the spread of the phenomenon and best practices for systemic projects that support the fight against these social scourges. According to the SIAA judging committee, the project, which focused on sensitive areas in Campania, stood out for ‘its significant social impact and multi-level interaction, as well as the high degree of visibility and recognition of the anthropological contribution.’

The project presented by the UniTS research assistant demonstrates, according to the SIAA, ‘how the production of ethnographic knowledge can contribute to generating concrete impacts on public and institutional culture, fostering virtuous local policies that are more respectful of fundamental human rights.’

This motivation aligns with the core mission of the Italian Society of Applied Anthropology, active since 2013 with the aim of promoting the social use of anthropological knowledge and practices in the public sphere, the world of work, decision-making processes, and participatory democracy in Italy and abroad.

‘O.S.A.RE – explains Dr Giuseppe Grimaldi – was made possible thanks to the support and synergy between public institutions, such as the Campania Region and the University of Salerno, activist groups in Campania – particularly the Ex Canapificio social centre, which was the lead organisation of the project – and a diverse group of residents from the area where the intervention took place, who contributed decisively to its realisation.’

O.S.A.RE involved territories such as the Piana del Sele and the Volturno Castle area, which face challenges related to the fragility of their economic fabric, exacerbated by the presence of criminal organisations that cause poverty and social distress.

The project sought to shed light – through a combination of quantitative analysis and ethnography – on the systemic nature of exploitation in the agricultural sector. Throughout its implementation, it was grounded in co-research (a collaborative method where creating knowledge also builds organisation and autonomy), demonstrating how the experience of those subjected to exploitation is crucial for defining effective countermeasures, both in specific territories and in interactions with institutions.

Over the course of the project, more than 500 people were interviewed. Of these, based on the exploitation indicators outlined in the law against the illegal brokerage of workers, nearly 70% were found to be in conditions of ‘severe worker exploitation.’ The data was presented to institutional forums addressing the illegal brokerage of workers, and the methodology underlying O.S.A.RE was recognised as a best practice used in systemic initiatives to tackle worker exploitation.

‘O.S.A.RE – concludes Grimaldi – highlighted, in particular, how ineffective any approach to combating worker exploitation is if it does not address the legal, economic, and social systems upon which it is founded. A phenomenon that, albeit in different forms depending on the degree of vulnerability, affects all agricultural labourers, regardless of nationality.’