The offer of degree programmes at the University of Trieste is about to be enriched. Starting from the 2024-2025 academic year, two new master's degrees will be opened, characterised by a markedly international and professionalising perspective, entirely in English: Engineering for the energy transition and European Policies for digital, ecological and social transitions, both aimed at training tomorrow's professionals in the field of digital, ecological, social and energy transition.

‘Both master's degrees deal with transition processes for which new models and professions need to be developed,’ explains Rector Roberto Di Lenarda. ‘They are also multidisciplinary, because the ecological, energy and digital transition also requires legal and political preparation. They train professional figures with innovative specialisations in demand in the world of work and are complementary, focusing respectively on the energy transition and its integrated governance at EU level.’

Engineering for energy

An international novelty in the form of an interclass course with two curriculums: Sustainable: building design and technology and Sustainable industrial systems, it intends to offer advanced preparation in the field of energy transition in both the building and industrial fields.

Students will acquire design skills that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable and will know how to choose the most suitable technologies, materials, sources and energy vectors. They will be able to integrate building and energy systems with electricity grids, storage systems and sustainable mobility.

The fields in which the new figure will be able to move are diverse: freelance professionals and design offices operating in the fields of construction, thermal engineering, energy efficiency, production systems and use of energy carriers and renewable energy sources, companies and private public bodies in the process of adapting building systems and plants, industries for the production and management of energy components, plants and systems, industries operating in the production of building envelopes, companies that design, install and manage systems using energy carriers in the industrial, commercial and residential sectors, companies that provide services in the energy field, companies and public or private bodies that are obliged to appoint an energy manager and research bodies that develop projects related to energy transition.

Energy storage devices represent one of the enabling technologies for the transition to renewable energy sources. ELISA, an ad-hoc laboratory serving a multidisciplinary group of engineers, chemists, computer scientists, economists and social scientists, also enriches the Engineering for the energy transition degree course. ELISA complements two existing laboratories at the University of Trieste, dedicated to ‘Photovoltaics’ and ‘Smart Grid and Electric Mobility’, strategically increasing the university's ability to position itself among the most active research institutions in the field of renewable energy sources and sustainable mobility. ELISA has innovative instrumentation and offers platforms for rapid prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations. 

To access the Engineering for the energy transition course at the Department of Engineering and Architecture, students must hold one of the following qualifications: a three-year degree in the industrial or civil and environmental engineering classes; alternatively, they must have gained at least 18 credits (CFU) in the mathematics area, 9 credits in the physics area, 6 credits in the chemistry area, 6 credits in the electrical area, 6 credits in the energy area, 6 credits in the civil area or in architecture - 15 if the student intends to enrol in the Sustainable building design and technology curriculum. The student must also show a graduation mark of 95/110 or higher, otherwise they will have to undergo a cognitive interview. The course also requires knowledge of the English language at a level of at least B2 in the Common European Framework of Reference.

European Policies for digital, ecological and social transitions

Running from next September, the course aims to provide future generations with a multidisciplinary background in the governance of digital, ecological and social transitions.

Students, future civil servants in public administrations, project managers and consultants, will acquire advanced knowledge and skills in analysis, management and evaluation of European policies, programmes and projects, together with in-depth thematic knowledge on political, social and legal tools and mechanisms to govern, in an integrated way, aspects related to environmental sustainability, digital impacts, social cohesion (e.g. comparative law of the environment and digital technologies, analysis of open data and big data, participatory design techniques for sustainable and inclusive innovation). This combination of skills will make graduates of the course capable of using the tools and resources of the European Union in the most effective way to govern digital, ecological and social transitions.

There are also specific entry requirements for the course in European Policies for digital, ecological and social transitions at the Department of Political and Social Sciences. Students must hold one of the following degrees: a bachelor's degree in the classes of Political Science and International Relations, Administrative and Organisational Sciences, Economics, Social Sciences for Cooperation, Development and Peace; alternatively, they must have completed a total of 24 credits in Law, Economics and Statistics (at least 6 credits of the total 24), Political Science and Sociology. The course also requires knowledge of the English language at a level of at least B2 in the Common European Framework of Reference.

A research team led by the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) has once again harnessed very distant and energetic relativistic winds generated by a distant but definitely active quasar (one of the brightest discovered so far). A study published in The Astrophysical Journal reports the first observation at different wavelengths of the interaction between a black hole and its host galaxy quasar during the early stages of the Universe, some 13 billion years ago. In addition to the evidence of a gas storm generated by the black hole, the experts discovered for the first time a halo of gas extending far beyond the galaxy, suggesting the presence of material ejected from the galaxy itself through winds generated by the black hole.

The galaxy J0923+0402 is featured in the study, a galaxy far from earth with a quasar at its centre. To be precise, it has a redshift of z = 6.632, meaning the radiation we can observe on earth was emitted when the Universe was less than a billion years old. Quasar light (or quasi-stellar radio source) is produced when the galactic material surrounding the supermassive black hole gathers in an accretion disk. As the matter approaches the black hole and is then swallowed up by it, it heats up, emitting large amounts of bright radiation in both visible and ultraviolet light.

“The combined use of multi-band observations has allowed us to study the most distant quasar with a measurement of nuclear wind and the most extensive gas halo detected in remote epochs (about 50 thousand light years). This was done over a very wide range of spatial scales and from the most nuclear regions down to the circumgalactic medium,” explains Manuela Bischetti, first author of the study and researcher at INAF and the University of Trieste. 

The data described in the article is the result of the collaboration of research groups studying different frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. First and foremost, the X-Shooter spectrograph, installed on the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), has captured bursts of matter known as BAL winds (broad absorption lines winds) capable of reaching relativistic speeds of up to tens of thousands of kilometres per second, measuring and calculating their characteristics. The powerful Chilean antennas of ALMA (ESO's Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimetre Array) were activated to search for the counterpart in the cold gas of the BAL winds and to see if it extended beyond the scale of the galaxy, receiving frequencies from 242 to 257 GHz from the dawn of the Cosmos. 

The researcher points out: 'BALs are winds that are observed in the ultraviolet spectrum of the quasar, which, given their long distance from earth, we observe at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. We used the Very Large Telescope's X-Shooter spectrograph to make these observations. We had already discovered the BAL of this quasar two years ago, but the problem was that we could not quantify how energetic it was. This BAL wind is a hot gas wind (tens of thousands of degrees) moving at tens of thousands of km/s. At the same time, ALMA's millimetre-band observations allowed us to understand what is happening in and around the galaxy by observing what happens to the cold gas (a few hundred degrees). We found that the wind also extends to the scale of the galaxy, but expectedly has lower velocities of 500 km/s, since the wind decelerates as it expands. This helped us to theorise that this mega halo of gas was created by the material that the winds ejected from the galaxy'.

The position of the energy source was then 'immortalised' first by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), a giant camera installed on the Subaru telescope and developed by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and, more accurately, by the NIRCam, an infrared camera installed on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST of NASA, ESA and CSA space agencies). “This quasar will be observed again by the JWST in the future to better study both the wind and the halo,” Bischetti announced.

The researcher goes on to explain the reason for this survey: 'We wondered whether black hole activity could have an impact on the early stages of galaxy evolution, and through which mechanisms this might occur. The combination of multiband data ranging from optical and near-infrared to millimetre-band observations was highly successful, the former having been used to measure the properties of the black hole and what happens in the core of the galaxy and the latter to study what happens in and around the galaxy.” The measurements carried out “are routine in the local Universe, but these results have never been obtained before at redshift z>6,” he adds.

“Our study helps us understand how gas is ejected or captured by galaxies in the Young Universe and how black holes grow and can impact galaxy evolution. We know that the fate of galaxies such as the Milky Way is closely linked to that of black holes, as these can generate galactic storms that can extinguish the formation of new stars. Studying primordial epochs allows us to understand the initial conditions of the Universe we see today,' Bischetti concludes. 

The article ‘Multi-phase black-hole feedback and a bright [CII] halo in a Lo-BAL quasar at z∼6.6’, by Manuela Bischetti, Hyunseop Choi, Fabrizio Fiore, Chiara Feruglio, Stefano Carniani, Valentina D'Odorico, Eduardo Bañados, Huanqing Chen, Roberto Decarli, Simona Gallerani, Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo, Samuel Lai, Karen M. Leighly, Chiara Mazzucchelli, Laurence Perreault-Levasseur, Roberta Tripodi, Fabian Walter, Feige Wang, Jinyi Yang, Maria Vittoria Zanchettin, Yongda Zhu, was published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The study Self-assembling dendrimer nanosystems for specific fluorine MRI and effective theranostic treatment of tumours has been published in the scientific journal PNAS. Among the researchers is Sabrina Pricl, associate professor of Chemical Engineering, scientific director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Nanotechnology at the University of Trieste and head of the international collaboration COST Cancer Nanomedicine - from the bench to the bedside. Erik Laurini, associate professor at UniTS, co-authored the study. 

In a world first, the research group have analysed and developed a new imaging system based on the use of fluorinated contrast agents. The system, aimed at early diagnosis and treatment of oncological diseases (even in their most invasive and aggressive forms), outperforms traditional hydrogen-based nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. Since water, and therefore hydrogen, constitute more than 70 per cent our body weight, classic MRI often has limitations in identifying differences between diseased tissue and surrounding tissue, especially for very small tumours. On the other hand, the use of fluorine-based contrast agents, which are not naturally present in human tissue, appears very promising. Precisely because of the absence of fluorine in most biological systems, it has the potential to provide clearer, more specific and resolute images compared to traditional techniques.

The use of fluorine MRI has so far been limited due to the lack of safe imaging agents, which are often characterised by limitations such as low signal-to-noise ratio, low fluorine content or instability or insolubility in water. Researchers, for the first time, have been able to create effective, efficient and non-toxic fluorine-based contrast agents.

Among the distinguishing features of the molecules designed by the researchers (nanosystems of self-assembled dendrimers) is their ability to perform multiple functions. More specifically, they belong to the category of teragnostics, since they are able to perform the function of diagnosis and therapy at the same time. Once the tumour has been detected, the molecules can be used to monitor its progress and release the appropriate therapy drug on site.

‘Interest in the use of fluorine MRI with fluorinated imaging agents is growing. Such nanosystems of teragnostic dendrimers represent the future in the field of personalised medicine. Being able to record and monitor the progress or regression of a tumour and at the same time continue to treat the disease is a real accomplishment in terms of therapeutic outcome and treatment endurance, which as a consequence are less invasive, toxic or harmful, while fully respecting patients,' explains Prof. Pricl.

The University of Trieste took part in the following phases: molecular design and engineering, performance computing, analysis and experimentation.

Among the funders were also AIRC, Cinema and ICSC, National Research Centre in HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing.

Almost 5.5 million euros of cascade funding was announced today at the University of Trieste. The funding is promoted by the iNEST programme, financed by the European Union - Next Generation EU from NRRP funds. 

Recipients of this initiative are micro, small, medium and large enterprises.

Following on from the first round in August 2023, this year, the calls for proposals issued by the 9 Spokes of the iNEST ecosystem targeting the North-East and the South of Italy are once again aimed at stimulating research, development and technology transfer initiatives, and at developing innovative procedures or increasing their maturity for full exploitation by enterprises.

Project proposals must be received by midnight on 8 July 2024. The calls for proposals in Spokes 8 and 9 of iNEST located in the Trieste area have two project themes: Maritime, marine and inland water technologies: towards the Digital Twin of the Upper Adriatic, and Models, Methods, Computing Technologies for Digital Twin. These themes are represented, respectively, by the University of Trieste and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA).

As in the first round of funding, in this second round, both Spokes envisage a budget of €1,732,090 for the Triveneto (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Trentino-alto Adige regions) call for applications and €979,141 for the Mezzogiorno (southern regions of Italy) call for applications. Over the two-year period 2023-24, a total of 5,422,462 euros will be allocated by each Spoke to companies.

The calls for tenders offer a great opportunity, in particular for the development of technology and materials that will benefit hi-tech and digital economy companies. The component and sensor sectors could equally benefit from the creation of digital 3D models or augmented reality applications which require data monitoring, collection, storage and analysis.

‘The regional university system,’ says Pierluigi Barbieri, Professor at UniTS and Coordinator of Spoke 8, ‘is working in synergy to create opportunities for collaboration between the public and private sectors that can guarantee and improve the attractiveness and competitiveness of our region.’

‘The project follows an innovation model which aims to use research as a base to modernise and grow the production system. This model thrives thanks to the partnership of the nine universities in the Triveneto area and thanks to the institutions of excellence in Trieste.’

‘There are, therefore, all the conditions,’ Barbieri concludes, ‘for the iNEST project to reach its potential and become a real activator of economic wellbeing and improved quality of life.’

‘Our main objective is to bring together expertise and trade associations. This is a great opportunity to boost and enhance the projects within enterprises. We hope that as many companies as possible will pay attention to this opportunity,' says René Buttò, head of SISSA's Enhancement and Innovation Office.

Franco Scolari, Director of the Polo Tecnologico Alto Adriatico, emphasised the Polo's role in translating research expertise into results for companies. Stefano Querin (OGS), representative for Spoke 8, also spoke at the press conference. 

The calls for cascade funding are available on the iNEST website  

Camilla Venturini, PhD student studying a joint programme in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture at the University of Trieste and University of Udine, has received one of the 'Best paper under 40' awards. The award is in recognition of her contribution 'Towards a laboratory of territorial ecologies: the Trieste Karst', and was awarded during the XXVI Conference of the Italian Society of City Planners SIU which has just ended in Naples.

Camilla Venturini is currently doing a thesis in Urban Planning on 'FOODSCAPING. Rethinking territories through their food systems', tutored by Prof. Sara Basso of UniTS and Prof. Alessandra Marin of UniFE. It aims to identify how urban planning tools can contribute to regenerating local territories starting from food spaces, enhancing their identifying characteristics and mediating conflicts. The thesis examines Friuli Venezia Giulia as a context, focusing on case studies such as the city of Trieste.

The book ‘Prehistoric Caves of Friuli Venezia Giulia’ maps, describes and places in a precise but explanatory scientific context the caverns from which artefacts and animal remains exhibited in the museums of our territory originate.

Readers of the free downloadable publication, will also find some easily accessible itineraries for total immersion in one of the most fascinating and mysterious treasures of our natural heritage.

The book is the final act of a collaboration between the Central Directorate for Environmental Protection, Energy and Sustainable Development, the Geological Service and the Interdepartmental Centre for Science and Technology Applied to Cultural Heritage SCICC of UniTS for the implementation of the Regional Cave Database (CSR) with data on caves of archaeological interest related to the CRIGA (Computerised Annotated Database of Archaeological Caves) project, developed in the past for the Karst caves by UniTS. In the realisation of the project and the drafting of the publication, coordinated by UniTS, it was essential to collaborate with the Scientific and Archaeological Museums of Trieste and Udine, the Speleological Groups and Associations, as well as scholars from different scientific fields, who made it possible to extend the database to the entire region.

In animals, as in humans, each individual has its own personality. The personality of small mammals – i.e. the boldness, curiosity and aggressiveness of an individual – influences all stages of seed dispersal. This has been shown by numerous studies conducted by Alessio Mortelliti, Associate Professor of Ecology at the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Trieste and former Associate Professor in Wildlife Habitat Conservation at the University of Maine.

The relationship between rodents and plants is ambivalent. In some circumstances mice are antagonistic as they prey on acorns, in other circumstances both mice and trees benefit and then the relationship is termed mutualistic. Past studies have shown that certain individuals, the more daring or curious ones, are more likely to disperse seeds, meaning that these individuals are particularly important for the functioning of an ecosystem. Understanding which characteristics are crucial to ecosystems and how to conserve them is of primary importance for the adaptation of species to global changes. 

The aim of the research project is to study this relationship between the individual personality of small mammals and seed dispersal. The project is entitled ‘Predicting the range-shifts of woody plant species by incorporating the critical role of small mammal scatter-hoarders’ and is financed by a PRIN (Research Projects of National Interest) – NRRP. Research is currently underway in the Alba Valley, but will be conducted for the first time in Europe by the research group from the University of Trieste, under the leadership of Professor Alessio Mortelliti and in collaboration with the Sapienza University of Rome and the Julian Pre-Alps Park.

The hypothesis is grounded on numerous studies that Professor Alessio Mortelliti's research group has conducted over the past decade in Maine (USA). In particular, the researchers have discovered that courageous individuals are those who travel greater distances with their seeds and hide them in optimal sites for germination. Within a species and an ecosystem, therefore, some individuals are particularly important for seed dispersal and, consequently, also for a plant's adaptation to climate change. It is these individuals, in fact, that will allow plants such as oaks and beeches to adapt to climate change by migrating in latitude and altitude.

The researchers will conduct two field experiments, also helped by scholars from the University of Maine, who are visiting Italy in early June. In the first phase they will measure the personality of rodents and expose them to new seeds. The chosen seeds belong to a woody species not yet present in the ecosystems under investigation, but which may arrive in the future precisely as a response to climate change. The hypothesis is that the boldest individuals will be the ones to interact the most with these new, unfamiliar seeds. By tracking the seeds with a fluorescent powder and measuring germination rates, the researchers will associate each individual rodent with the final arrival point of the seeds. In addition to assessing whether certain personality traits increase the likelihood of dispersal, the researchers will also identify seed traits (e.g. mass, shape) that increase the likelihood of seeds being preyed upon or dispersed. Finally, by conducting a series of simulations, they will evaluate the potential effects of personality on the composition of forest communities and the adaptability of species to global changes.

The project will also lead to the creation of a guide on how to exploit the role of rodents to improve assisted migration, (i.e. the human-assisted movement of plants to more climatically suitable habitats) and a checklist of traits and plant species with a high probability of successful expansion.

Alessio Mortelliti has cultivated 20 years' experience in studying the ecology and behaviour of mammals and how this knowledge can facilitate their conservation. In the past, he has carried out numerous field projects in Italy, Austria, the United States, Indonesia, Kenya, Tunisia and Mauritania.

Inclusive and accessible tourism to meet the needs of people with disabilities and elderly people with limitations due to age and health problems: this is the aim of the new project ‘DATIS: Digital Frontiers for Inclusive Tourism’, involving the Department of Political and Social Sciences (DiSPeS) at UniTS.

The kick-off meeting of the two-year project, financed with over one million euros from the Italy-Slovenia Interreg Programme 2021-2027, was held on 28th May in Ljubljana, at the Beletrina publishing house.

The actions planned aim to improve digital accessibility and social inclusion in tourism in the cross-border region through an innovative, multidisciplinary and participatory approach, including the definition of guidelines and shared strategies.

Other matters planned include organising training workshops for tour operators, setting up a web portal on the accessibility of tourist services and implementing two pilot actions at the museums of San Michele sul Carso and the industrial heritage of Aidussina to test innovative solutions for users with different types of disabilities.

The project is led by Beletrina, a leading Slovenian organisation in the field of publishing and digital innovation, and sees as partners, in addition to DiSPeS, the regional agency PromoTurismoFVG, the consortium of social cooperatives Il Mosaico, the Tourist board of Nova Gorica and the Vipava Valley, and the Union of the Blind and Partially Blind of Slovenia. They are joined by the Municipality of Sagrado and Aidussina.

The DiSPeS, under the scientific direction of Prof. Moreno Zago, professor of Tourism Analysis and Planning and of Cross-border Relations and Local Development, will contribute to the administration of quantitative and qualitative questionnaires on travel experiences, the identification of best practices, and the analysis of the potential of the tourism sector.

He will also be responsible for the development of guidelines and a multilingual handbook on digital accessibility for tourist and institutional operators and for communication and dissemination activities of the results.

The project aims to reach a wide catchment area and to raise awareness among institutions and operators on the importance of digital accessibility and social inclusion.

Federico Rosei, full professor of Industrial Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Trieste, has received two important international awards.

Rosei has been appointed Materials Research Society (MRS) Fellow 2024 for ‘his leadership in the nanomaterials synthesis and characterization, in particular multifunctional materials and their integration in optoelectronic devices, and for his sustained international efforts in service, mentoring and outreach in the field.’

The UniTS lecturer was also presented with the 2024 Fellowship Awards by the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) ‘in recognition of his remarkable achievements in materials physics, particularly multiferroic materials and quantum dots, coupled with outstanding mentorship of trainees, and for international leadership which promotes the excellence of Canadian physics on a global scale’.

Fetenech Meskele Ganebo, Dean of the School of Computer Science at Wolaita Sodo University - Ethiopia was a guest of UniTS for three months as part of a TWAS-SISSA-Lincei Research Cooperation Visits Programme grant. At UniTS, Ganebo worked with Sylvio Barbon Junior, a professor at the Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA), harnessing the power of machine learning approaches to develop algorithms capable of predicting the spread of malaria.

According to the WHO World Malaria Report 2023, there are an estimated 249 million cases in 85 endemic countries in 2022, with 608,000 deaths. And Ethiopia, as WHO reports, is one of the three African countries that have suffered the most, along with Nigeria and Uganda.

In the high malaria transmission region of Wolaita, a densely populated rural area in southern Ethiopia, data on the spread of the disease is still collected manually. The first task for Ganebo and the Trieste team was therefore to digitise the available data.

‘The three months at UniTS were enough to achieve good results,’ said Ganebo, ‘The collaboration with Prof. Barbon Junior is promising. We have an ambitious plan to automate the collection of health data in the town of Wolaita Sodo and, at a later stage, throughout Ethiopia’. Automation would increase efficiency, accuracy and breadth of useful data, ensuring better patient care.

Once perfected, the algorithms will be used to study the combined effect of risk factors such as temperature, altitude, malaria vectors and population health status to provide health workers and policy makers with more effective predictive tools.

The technique will be used to create a regional surveillance protocol in Ethiopia to support health systems in managing mosquito control and resource allocation.

Ganebo is also the winner of the Spiga di Grano prize, awarded by the Cinzia Vitale non-profit association.

The TWAS-SISSA-Lincei research cooperation visit programme supports early-career researchers in UN-identified least developed countries on projects that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It offers training and collaboration opportunities at the scientific institutions of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia System of Scientific Innovation (Sis FVG) in Italy. It is supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAECI) and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).

Photo: Prof. Eric Medvet, Prof.ssa Fetenech Meskele Ganebo e Prof. Sylvio Barbon Junior