Professor Paolo Fornasiero, Full Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Trieste and Vice Rector for Research, has been appointed Fellow of the Italian Academy of Engineering and Technology (ITATEC) in recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements and his contributions to research in materials chemistry, catalysis and sustainable technologies.

Established in 2022 on the initiative and with the support of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, ITATEC brings together leading experts in engineering, technology and applied sciences to promote scientific and technological excellence and strengthen the links between research, innovation and society.

The Academy fosters the exchange of knowledge among universities, research organisations and industry, develops evidence-based recommendations on strategic technological issues, provides independent scientific advice to public institutions and private stakeholders, and promotes the international visibility of Italian engineering and technological research.

At the European level, ITATEC serves as the Italian reference academy within the European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering (Euro-CASE), the network of national academies from 23 European countries that provides independent scientific and technological advice to European institutions and other international bodies.

Professor Fornasiero's appointment represents an important recognition of both his scientific leadership and the excellence of research carried out at the University of Trieste, reaffirming the University's commitment to advancing scientific knowledge, technological innovation and knowledge transfer at the national and international levels.

The University of Trieste Graduation Day returned to the heart of the city to celebrate research, knowledge and new generations.

On Thursday 16 July, Piazza Verdi hosted the proclamation ceremony for the PhD graduates of the 38th cycle, which concluded with the distinctive and traditional mortarboard toss. Included in the Trieste Estate programme, the event transformed one of the most significant rituals of academic life into a public occasion for bringing the University and the city community together.

Following its debut last year, Graduation Day in the city has confirmed itself as an event through which UniTS shares with the local community the value of doctoral education and the contribution of research to the cultural, scientific, social and economic development of society.

Rector Donata Vianelli’s first Graduation Day

For Rector Donata Vianelli, this was the first Graduation Day since taking office.

“This year’s ceremony was the first I experienced as Rector of the University of Trieste and represented the consolidation of a new tradition for the University and the city. PhD graduates stand at the highest level of university education and mark the entry of new generations into the research community. Celebrating this milestone in Piazza Verdi means bringing knowledge beyond the places where it is produced and sharing it with society, because science is not only the advancement of knowledge: it is responsibility, confidence in the future and the ability to contribute to the common good.”

Graduation Day 2026 in numbers

The 2026 edition confirmed the growth of the University of Trieste’s PhD programmes. The 187 new PhD graduates proclaimed in Piazza Verdi represent a new record number for the University.

As Francesco Longo, UniTS professor and Rector’s Delegate for PhD Programmes, pointed out, “this figure is also linked to the impact of scholarships funded by the PNRR, Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan: the 38th cycle is in fact the first to reach proclamation after fully including the scholarships launched in the 2022/2023 academic year, alongside the University of Trieste’s decision to continue investing its own resources in doctoral education.”

The 2026 class of new PhD graduates is made up of 89 women, accounting for 47.6%, and 98 men, accounting for 52.4%. The international component represents 14.4% of the total, with PhD graduates from 14 countries: Austria, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ethiopia, the Philippines, France, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Rwanda and Tunisia. Overall, including Italy, 15 nationalities are represented, confirming a doctoral community open to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The 13 programmes: cross-disciplinary research

The 187 new PhD graduates come from 13 PhD programmes, reflecting the cross-disciplinary nature of research developed at the University of Trieste: from life sciences to physics, from chemistry to engineering, from artificial intelligence to nanotechnology, from sustainability to cognitive sciences, as well as history, architecture and territorial studies.

The programmes involved are: Environment and Life; Applied Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; Molecular Biomedicine; Chemistry; Circular Economy; Physics; Civil-Environmental Engineering and Architecture; Industrial and Information Engineering; Nanotechnology; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science; Reproduction and Developmental Sciences; Earth Science and Fluid Mechanics; History of Societies, Institutions and Thought. From the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age.

Guests, institutions and partners

The special guest of the evening was Alberto Di Minin, Professor of Innovation Management at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, researcher and science communicator, who delivered the keynote lecture “The Future Needs Teachers and Mentors. Reflections on Research, Open Innovation and Human Responsibility”.

His lecture focused on the role of research in major technological and social transformations. Every age has imagined the future through the science and technology of its time, but revolutions are never produced by technologies alone. They require people capable of turning knowledge into possibility, building bridges between research, business and society, and giving innovation a human meaning.

Alongside science, music also played a central role in the evening, thanks to the performance by Pierpaolo Foti, violinist and composer.

The ceremony, hosted by journalist Marinella Chirico, was attended by Rector of the University of Trieste Donata Vianelli, Rector’s Delegate for PhD Programmes Francesco Longo, President of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia Massimiliano Fedriga and Mayor of Trieste Roberto Dipiazza. Alberta Gervasio, Chief Executive Officer of Bluenergy Group S.P.A., and Luca Cristoforetti, General Manager of CiviBank, also took part on behalf of the partners supporting the initiative.

The mortarboard toss

The evening culminated in the proclamation of the new PhD graduates through the ritual of the mortarboard toss. The gesture, one of the most recognisable images of graduation ceremonies, is commonly traced back to the U.S. Naval Academy: in 1912, new officers threw their old cadet caps into the air. Since then, the mortarboard toss has become an immediate symbol of transition and collective celebration.

The event was also made possible thanks to the support of CiviBank and Bluenergy Group S.P.A., local partners of the initiative.

Trieste Estate is organised and promoted by the Municipality of Trieste, with the support of PromoTurismoFVG and in collaboration with the Trieste Convention & Visitors Bureau.

A research team involving the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), the CNR National Institute of Optics in Sesto Fiorentino, and the Universities of Florence, Trieste and Trento has developed an innovative technique based on the propagation of sound waves to study matter under extreme conditions. The results have been published in Nature Physics.

The researchers developed an innovative technique to investigate the behaviour of quantum matter by exploiting a familiar phenomenon: the Doppler effect. When an ambulance passes us, its siren sounds higher-pitched as it approaches and lower-pitched as it moves away.

“In the same way, sound travelling through a rotating superfluid changes depending on whether it moves in the same direction as the superfluid or in the opposite direction. By detecting these minute variations, the team was able to reveal the internal structure of superfluid Fermi gases, systems made up of atoms cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero. Under these conditions, Fermi particles pair up, giving rise to superfluidity, a state of matter in which friction disappears,” explain Marcia Fròmeta Fernandez and Diego Hernandez-Rajkov, CNR-INO researchers and lead authors of the study.

“We created a ring-shaped Fermi superfluid in which sound waves travel simultaneously in opposite directions. When the superfluid is set in rotation, the two sound waves are affected differently by the flow and accumulate a tiny difference in frequency: the Doppler effect.”

By measuring this effect with extreme precision, “we demonstrated that the circulation of the superfluid around the ring cannot take arbitrary values, but only quantised, or discrete, values, determined by the ratio between Planck’s constant and the mass of the particles. In this case, these values are half those expected for individual particles,” explains Francesco Scazza, Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Trieste.

“Our observation shows that the superfluid consists of fermions that pair up, forming composite quantum units with twice the mass, known as Cooper pairs, similarly to what occurs in superconductors. The result confirms that, even in these ultracold gaseous systems, superfluidity originates from the formation of fermion pairs,” concludes Giacomo Roati, Research Director at CNR-INO and head of the experimental group.

The study confirms the potential of atom interferometry, a technique that exploits the wave-like properties of atoms to perform extremely precise measurements. In this study, the technique was implemented using sound waves in the superfluid, proving to be an effective tool for investigating strongly correlated quantum systems.

One of the first results obtained was the observation that superfluidity progressively decreases as temperature rises. The work opens up a new avenue for studying the collective behaviour of particles and gaining a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying superfluidity and superconductivity, as well as other still-mysterious dynamics of quantum matter that are of fundamental importance for modern quantum technologies,” conclude Massimo Inguscio of LENS and Sandro Stringari of the Pitaevskii BEC Center at the University of Trento.

Their contributions to the development of atomic physics and their scientific collaboration laid the foundations for the work carried out at the LENS laboratory. The study comes in the year marking the centenary of the statistics formulated by Enrico Fermi in 1926 on the Arcetri hills, at the University of Florence, to describe the behaviour of particles such as electrons, protons and neutrons.

The University of Trieste has confirmed its position among Italy’s most competitive universities. According to the new Censis Ranking of Italian Universities, UniTS ranks fourth among medium-sized state universities, with between 10,000 and 20,000 enrolled students. The result recognises the overall quality of the University’s academic offering and services.

The ranking is based on six indicators: scholarships, communication and digital services, internationalisation, student services, facilities and graduate employability.

More specifically, UniTS ranks second for communication and digital services, jointly with the University of Sassari and with an increase of 13 points compared with the previous edition. It ranks fifth for student services, together with Sassari and Udine, and for graduate employability, jointly with Bergamo; sixth for facilities; and seventh for scholarships, up seven points, and for internationalisation, which gained two points.

“Almost all the indicators have improved compared with the previous edition,” said Rector Donata Vianelli. “We have made particularly strong progress in scholarships and communication, while also achieving an excellent fifth place nationally for student services and employability. According to the latest AlmaLaurea Report, 86.5% of our graduates from two-year and single-cycle Master’s degree programmes are employed one year after graduation, almost six percentage points above the national average. This result recognises the quality of our education and the work carried out to build increasingly effective links with the local community and the business sector.”

The degree programme rankings, based on students’ academic progress and international relations, also highlight consistently strong performance across a range of disciplinary areas.

Among Bachelor’s degree programmes, the University of Trieste ranks first nationally among state universities in the language group, which includes the degree classes in Modern Languages and Cultures and Language Mediation, and second in Computer Science and ICT Technologies. UniTS also achieved strong results in the scientific group, where it ranks fourth, and in the political, social and communication group, where it ranks fifth. The economics group, in seventh place, psychology, in eighth, and literature and humanities, in tenth, also rank among the national top ten.

Among two-year Master’s degree programmes, the education and training group entered the national top ten with a score of 92.5. In the rankings for single-cycle Master’s degree programmes, UniTS ranks third in Pharmacy and Industrial Pharmacy, while Law and Medicine and Surgery both place among the national top ten.

Now in its twenty-sixth edition, the Censis Ranking of Italian Universities is based on more than 960 variables and includes 70 separate rankings. The overall assessment divides universities into comparable categories according to size, while the degree programme rankings compare the different groupings of degree classes at national level.

Which mammals live within the municipal territory of Trieste? Where are they concentrated? How numerous are they? For the first time, these questions can now be answered thanks to research coordinated by Alessio Mortelliti, Professor of Ecology at the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste.

The study represents the first systematic survey ever conducted in the Municipality of Trieste on the presence, distribution and abundance of medium- and large-sized mammals. It fills a significant gap in knowledge about the city’s natural heritage and provides essential data for biodiversity conservation and land-use planning.

The research was carried out between November 2025 and February 2026 using a fully non-invasive methodology based on camera trapping. A total of 156 camera traps were installed across 78 monitoring sites distributed throughout the Municipality’s natural and peri-urban habitats, amounting to more than 2,300 observation nights. The cameras, automatically triggered by the passage of animals, made it possible to document wildlife presence without interfering with animal behaviour.

Overall, 18 mammal species were recorded, confirming the high naturalistic value of the Trieste area. Among the most widespread species were roe deer, wild boar and golden jackal. Of particular interest were the detections of the wildcat and European polecat, species of conservation relevance whose presence in an area so close to the city represents a finding of considerable scientific value.

In addition to compiling a checklist of the species present, the researchers used advanced statistical models to produce the first maps showing the probability of occurrence and abundance of the different species across the various environments of the municipal area, from forests and karst landscapes to agricultural and peri-urban zones. This information will make it possible to better understand the relationship between wildlife and habitat and to identify the areas where certain species are most concentrated.

“The results show that Trieste hosts a particularly rich and diverse mammal community,” explains Alessio Mortelliti. “This is not a phenomenon linked to climate change, but rather to the distinctive position of the Trieste area, which is closely connected from an ecological point of view with the Karst and the natural areas of Slovenia. This environmental continuity, together with the expansion of woodland across the Karst in recent decades, has favoured the presence of numerous wild species even close to the city.”

The data collected provide a valuable tool for updating knowledge of the fauna within the municipal territory and may support future activities related to biodiversity conservation, wildlife management, and urban and environmental planning by the Municipality of Trieste.

The first edition of Tenebris vitae, a course in applied biospeleology, has come to a close. The initiative was organised by the Adriatic Speleological Society in collaboration with the University of Trieste and the Trieste Civic Museum of Natural History, with the patronage of the Italian Speleological Society and the Municipality of Duino Aurisina – Občina Devin Nabrežina.

The course was fully booked, with all available places filled within the maximum number set to ensure the quality of the field activities and the safe management of the group during the descent into the Trebiciano Cave, at a depth of more than 300 metres. This result confirms the growing interest in a discipline that brings together speleological exploration, scientific research and the protection of underground environments.

The course proposed an innovative format, creating a direct link between university research and the speleological community. Alongside the traditional approaches to collecting, observing and identifying cave-dwelling organisms, the programme introduced specific training in sampling techniques for molecular research, with a particular focus on environmental DNA, or eDNA.

This was one of the course’s most distinctive features: participants were trained not only to recognise and document underground fauna, but also to collect samples for genetic analysis, following the procedures needed to avoid contamination, including contamination with their own DNA. This is a crucial step in ensuring that fieldwork can support increasingly advanced studies on the biodiversity of underground environments.

The contribution of the University of Trieste focused in particular on the most innovative aspects of biospeleological research. Chiara Manfrin, researcher in Zoology at the Department of Life Sciences and scientific coordinator of the course, spoke about biodiversity monitoring and molecular identification methods based on eDNA. Marco Gerdol, professor of Genetics at the Department of Life Sciences, explored the adaptations of organisms to life underground, including at genomic level. PhD student Raffaele Bruschi addressed emerging issues linked to the pollution of underground environments, with a focus on hydrocarbons and microplastics.

The programme therefore integrated taxonomic and systematic approaches with tools that are becoming increasingly important for the study of biodiversity, such as DNA barcoding, metabarcoding and eDNA. Considerable attention was also devoted to the regulatory aspects concerning the protection of underground fauna in Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Slovenia, underlining the need to view underground ecosystems not only as places of exploration, but as fragile, complex and scientifically valuable environments.

The course brought together speleologists and speleo-researchers from several Italian regions, with a wide range of profiles: university researchers, students, UniTS speleology students and experienced speleologists interested in placing their skills at the service of scientific projects. This participation confirmed how the relationship between speleological expertise and academic research can open up new perspectives for data collection and the monitoring of underground environments.

The practical activities were led by Chiara Manfrin and Marco Restaino, president of the Adriatic Speleological Society, in the Trebiciano Cave and in the Isonzo area. Participants were able to apply directly the main sampling techniques used in biospeleological research, gaining practical skills in the collection, preservation and documentation of biological samples according to scientific protocols.

One day of the course was dedicated to fieldwork in the cave, with the descent into the Trebiciano Abyss, where a section of the Timavo River flows at the bottom. One of the most significant moments was the encounter with the olm (Proteus anguinus), the only troglobitic vertebrate found in Italy. For many participants, this was their first opportunity to observe this remarkable amphibian live in its natural environment: a symbol of the biodiversity of underground waters and of the need to preserve subterranean ecosystems.

The success of Tenebris vitae confirms the value of collaboration between speleologists and researchers: an increasingly strategic relationship for studying environments that are difficult to access, collecting scientific data in complex settings and contributing to the protection of a natural heritage that still remains largely unexplored.

Three PhD candidates from the University of Trieste, Ruben Viduli, Davide Zennaro and Edoardo Insaghi, have won the “Overall” award at the ninth edition of Stats Under the Stars – SUS 2026, the scientific hackathon promoted as part of the SIS-FENStatS 2026 Joint Meeting, which brought together in Rome the 53rd Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society and the first Conference of the Federation of European National Statistical Societies.

The competition, held at Sapienza University of Rome with the support of Anas as partner and data provider, challenged young researchers to apply statistical analysis to a real-world problem. Participating teams were given access to a dataset covering reports recorded on the road network between 2016 and 2023, including accidents, potholes, critical issues and other anomalies reported by road users.

The goal was to build a model capable of predicting, for each road and each month, the number of reports expected in 2024 and 2025. Anas already had access to the data for those two years, but these figures were withheld from the participants: once the teams submitted their forecasts, the organisers compared them with the actual values to assess the accuracy of each model.

The UniTS team received the “Overall” award, assigned to the group achieving the best balance between forecasting accuracy and quality of technical analysis. The competition also included awards for the best prediction and the best report.

The challenge took place over the course of one night: participants worked from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m., before returning to Sapienza for the presentation of the results and the award ceremony, held before the official opening of the conference.

From a methodological point of view, the task involved predicting count data, namely the expected number of events. The UniTS team chose a probability distribution suitable for modelling this type of data and introduced an extension to make it more flexible and better able to capture the characteristics of the dataset.

Alongside this approach, the PhD candidates also tested more complex machine learning and deep learning models. During the evaluation phase, however, the simpler statistical model proved to be the most effective. The result highlights how, in some applications, the decisive factor is not the complexity of the algorithm, but the ability to choose the model that best fits the problem.

“It was an intense challenge, completed in just a few hours and based on real data,” the three PhD candidates commented. “The most interesting outcome was seeing how a well-chosen statistical model could compete with much more complex approaches. The differences between the top teams were extremely small, down to the fourth or fifth decimal place, which made the recognition even more meaningful.”

The team brought together skills developed through different academic backgrounds, spanning statistics, mathematics and data science. This combination of perspectives enabled them to integrate methodological insight and applied expertise, producing a forecast that was particularly close to the real data according to the statistical metric defined by the organisers.

Applications of this kind can have very concrete implications for infrastructure management. In the case of the road network, being able to predict in advance where reports are likely to increase could help plan inspections and maintenance more effectively, improving service management and helping to prevent critical situations. More broadly, data-driven predictive models can support strategic decision-making in many other areas, from public services to industrial applications.

The award assigned to the UniTS team has a value of 1,000 euros.

Identifying rare genetic diseases in the first days of life, before symptoms appear, and enabling more timely access to targeted care and clinical pathways: this is the perspective at the heart of the study conducted by the Medical Genetics group at the University of Trieste, led by Paolo Gasparini, Professor of Medical Genetics at UniTS and Director of the Medical Genetics Unit at the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo.

The work, carried out in collaboration with Stefania Zampieri, senior biologist in Medical Genetics at the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, assessed the clinical and economic impact of integrating genomics into newborn screening programmes. The study takes Friuli Venezia Giulia as a model and compares the traditional approach with a “genomic-first” scenario based on whole-exome sequencing (WES) as the first-line investigation.

Newborn screening is now one of the most effective tools for prevention: it enables the early identification of a number of treatable conditions and allows interventions to take place before they can lead to severe complications, disability or irreversible damage. The traditional model, however, is largely based on the analysis of biochemical markers and can therefore detect only those diseases for which known and measurable signals are already available.

“Newborn screening is highly effective today, but it can identify only conditions associated with specific biomarkers,” explains Paolo Gasparini. “With a genomic approach, we can detect genetic diseases at their root, even in the absence of clear early signals.”

The difference concerns not only the technology used, but the entire diagnostic pathway. In the traditional model, screening begins with a biochemical test, followed, in the event of a positive result, by further genetic investigations where appropriate. In the genomic model, by contrast, whole-exome sequencing becomes the first step of the investigation, followed where necessary by targeted biochemical tests or additional diagnostic confirmation. In this way, genomics broadens the scope of screening to include conditions that are not currently covered by traditional panels.

The study examined the 2023 newborn cohort in Friuli Venezia Giulia, comprising 7,543 children. In that year, screening identified one case of spinal muscular atrophy, one case of cystic fibrosis and eleven cases of metabolic diseases. Applying the comparison between the two models to this cohort, the analysis estimates a direct cost of €131 per newborn for traditional screening and €183 per newborn for genomic screening, an increase of €51 per newborn.

Against this initial increase, however, the genomic model shows a positive cost-effectiveness profile. According to the estimates, in Friuli Venezia Giulia the “genomic-first” approach could generate overall savings of around €2.2 million, taking into account the economic benefits associated with earlier diagnosis, fewer complications and the reduction of longer and more complex care pathways. Genomic screening could also make it possible to identify a further 7–8 cases of rare diseases each year that cannot be diagnosed through traditional biochemical tests.

“Investing in early diagnosis means making the system more sustainable in the medium to long term,” adds Gasparini. “It is an approach to healthcare that is oriented towards prevention.”

The value of genomics applied to newborn screening is therefore measured not only by the number of conditions that can be identified, but also by its potential to reduce the so-called “diagnostic odyssey” that many families face before receiving a diagnosis. Earlier diagnosis can support timely access to more effective therapies, improve clinical and functional outcomes, reduce the care burden and contain the social impact of disability.

The study also underlines the need to define carefully which conditions should be included in any newborn genomic screening programme. The main criteria include the availability of a therapeutic intervention, the clinical validity of the test, age of disease onset, severity of the clinical presentation, penetrance and the technical feasibility of genetic analysis. The perspective, therefore, is not the indiscriminate use of genomics, but an application guided by clinical, scientific and ethical criteria.

Another central issue is the relationship between genomic screening and metabolic screening. The two approaches should not be regarded as alternatives, but as complementary. Genomics makes it possible to identify genetic variants associated with disease; metabolic screening can help validate their functional effect, distinguishing between pathogenic variants, findings of uncertain significance and different clinical forms, including late-onset forms.

The decreasing cost of sequencing, the growth of gene and cell therapies and the identification of new therapeutic targets are making genomics an increasingly important tool for preventive and personalised medicine. Key issues remain open, from the management of variants of uncertain significance to the protection of newborns’ genomic data, as well as the need for adequate bioinformatics infrastructure and pilot studies shared across laboratories and health systems.

The students, managers and staff of CUS Trieste and the Audace Sailing Team gathered today at the Rectorate to celebrate three particularly significant achievements for university sport in Trieste. They were welcomed by Rector Donata Vianelli.

The meeting brought together the CUS Trieste women’s volleyball team, which secured promotion to the regional Serie D; the CUS sailors who achieved outstanding results at the international regattas in Livorno and Dubrovnik; and the members of the Audace Sailing Team, returning from a highly successful edition of the SuMoth Challenge 2026. Three different paths, all highlighting talent, teamwork and a strong sense of belonging to the university community.

The women’s volleyball section of CUS Trieste earned promotion at the end of a season marked by great consistency, bringing the team back to Serie D after two years. The result was achieved by the group led by coach Federico Vivona and supported by manager Filipp Dassoni, confirming the growth of the university volleyball movement.

In sailing, CUS Trieste achieved important results in two international events: at the Naval Academies Regatta in Livorno, with first place in the Regata Nazionale Tridente and in the Under 23 category; and at the Elafiti Slalom Regatta in Dubrovnik, where the university crew took first place among the Italian crews and second place in the university ranking.

Completing the picture, the Audace Sailing Team of the University of Trieste once again confirmed its place among the leading teams at the SuMoth Challenge 2026, the international competition dedicated to high-performance, low-impact foil boats. The team achieved first place in the S1 Design category, third place in the S2 Manufacturing category and first place in the S3 Regatta category.

Alongside the traditional exchange of gifts, smiles and group photos marking the occasion, the meeting also provided an opportunity to underline once again the value of university sport for personal growth, the development of transferable skills and the creation of relationships among students, faculty and the University. It also reaffirmed UniTS’ support for student-athletes and their sporting careers.

Rector Vianelli met with the CUS volleyball players, the sailors who competed in Livorno and Dubrovnik, and the university team returning from the SuMoth Challenge

The students, managers and staff of CUS Trieste and the Audace Sailing Team gathered today at the Rectorate to celebrate three particularly significant achievements for university sport in Trieste. They were welcomed by Rector Donata Vianelli.

The meeting brought together the CUS Trieste women’s volleyball team, which secured promotion to the regional Serie D; the CUS sailors who achieved outstanding results at the international regattas in Livorno and Dubrovnik; and the members of the Audace Sailing Team, returning from a highly successful edition of the SuMoth Challenge 2026. Three different paths, all highlighting talent, teamwork and a strong sense of belonging to the university community.

The women’s volleyball section of CUS Trieste earned promotion at the end of a season marked by great consistency, bringing the team back to Serie D after two years. The result was achieved by the group led by coach Federico Vivona and supported by manager Filipp Dassoni, confirming the growth of the university volleyball movement.

In sailing, CUS Trieste achieved important results in two international events: at the Naval Academies Regatta in Livorno, with first place in the Regata Nazionale Tridente and in the Under 23 category; and at the Elafiti Slalom Regatta in Dubrovnik, where the university crew took first place among the Italian crews and second place in the university ranking.

Completing the picture, the Audace Sailing Team of the University of Trieste once again confirmed its place among the leading teams at the SuMoth Challenge 2026, the international competition dedicated to high-performance, low-impact foil boats. The team achieved first place in the S1 Design category, third place in the S2 Manufacturing category and first place in the S3 Regatta category.

Alongside the traditional exchange of gifts, smiles and group photos marking the occasion, the meeting also provided an opportunity to underline once again the value of university sport for personal growth, the development of transferable skills and the creation of relationships among students, faculty and the University. It also reaffirmed UniTS’ support for student-athletes and their sporting careers.

VIPoP – The Visual Politics of Populism, an ambitious research project funded under PRIN 2022 with a grant of €217,940, has recently come to a close. Over the course of twenty-nine months, the project investigated, from a comparative perspective, the visual communication strategies adopted by political parties in Europe. The project was led as Principal Investigator by Professor Mattia Zulianello, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Trieste. He coordinated a consortium of three research units, which also included the University of Milan and the University of Milano-Bicocca.

VIPoP represents the first systematic comparative analysis of visual populism in Europe and stands out for its deeply innovative approach, opening a new frontier in the field. For the first time, the ideational approach to populism was systematically extended to the visual dimension, which has so far remained largely marginal in the international literature. The project looks at political parties as genuine political brands, and at their symbols — logos, colour palettes and recurring visual codes — as identity markers governed by marketing logics not unlike those shaping competition among companies in the marketplace. From this perspective, VIPoP adopted a multi-platform research design, integrating thousands of data points from Facebook and Instagram and an advanced methodology combining computer vision, automated text analysis, qualitative interviews with party elites and randomised conjoint experiments.

“What struck us while working in the field was the level of awareness with which party communication teams manage every visual detail, much like a marketing department would handle its own brand identity. The interviews clearly showed that the choice of a colour, the framing of an image or the position of a logo are never random, but the result of a precise strategy. Reconstructing this visual grammar from a comparative European perspective was one of the most revealing aspects of the project,” Zulianello explains.

The relevance of VIPoP lies on a distinctly European scale. At a historical moment in which the populist challenge raises crucial questions about the resilience of the continent’s liberal democracies, the project provides essential analytical and interpretative tools for understanding how these political actors build consensus through images.

“Today, images are the primary vector of digital political communication: understanding their populist mechanisms is not an academic exercise, but a prerequisite for democratic citizenship. VIPoP therefore responds to Goal 16 of the 2030 Agenda — peace, justice and strong institutions — by providing tools to defend the quality of public debate and the resilience of European democracies,” Zulianello underlines.

Professor Zulianello’s scientific output within VIPoP has been particularly extensive and has appeared in top-tier international journals. Among the project’s most significant results is PopulisTree, a systematic mapping of European populist parties from 1979 to the present day, accompanied by openly accessible datasets covering national and European elections. Developed by Professor Zulianello and presented in an article published in European Union Politics, PopulisTree forms the classificatory backbone of the entire project and is intended as a reference tool for the international scientific community, as well as an open resource for anyone wishing to study the phenomenon with methodological rigour.

Other publications by Professor Zulianello connected to the project include a state-of-the-art review of populist visual communication in Political Studies Review, co-authored with Francesco Melito, a research fellow recruited within the framework of VIPoP; a study on the logos of populist radical right parties as elements of brand identity in The International Journal of Press/Politics, co-authored with Luigi Curini and Benjamin Moffitt; an analysis of perceptions of the mainstreaming of the populist radical right in South European Society and Politics, co-authored with Antonella Seddone; and the article “Show, Don’t Tell”, published in Political Studies in 2026 and also co-authored with Melito, which emerged directly from fieldwork interviews with the communication teams of Italy’s main political parties.

These contributions are accompanied by two books co-authored with Petra Guasti: Capire il Populismo, published by UTET in 2024, and Understanding Populism, forthcoming with Karolinum Press / University of Chicago Press.