The University of Trieste took part in the presentation of the new Manifesto for Public Engagement, promoted by APEnet – the Italian Network of Universities and Research Bodies for Public Engagement.

The Manifesto, the result of a collaborative and open process involving the network’s 57 members – universities, research institutions, polytechnics and high schools across Italy – updates the Association’s identity and, for the first time, outlines a shared direction.

It calls for:

• the integration of Public Engagement into the strategic plans of universities and research institutions;
• recognition of its value in career pathways and research evaluation systems;
• the promotion of a culture of participation and collaboration among all stakeholders;
• support for lifelong learning, open science, and the active involvement of new generations.

The document sets out a crucial vision for strengthening alliances between research and civil society, with the aim of bridging the gap between science and the public.

Inspired by the latest European recommendations on the social role of research, the Manifesto underlines the urgent need to enhance the public value of knowledge by promoting processes of listening, dialogue, collaboration and co-creation as key elements for generating cultural, social and economic impact.

“The APEnet Manifesto,” explained Giulia Carluccio, outgoing President of APEnet and Vice-Rector of the University of Turin, “is a key step in accelerating a paradigm shift within the research institutions of our country. Universities and research bodies are committed to producing and enhancing knowledge through listening, dialogue and collaboration in order to address current and future challenges together with society.”

New APEnet Board of Directors

Alongside the presentation of the Manifesto, APEnet elected its new board of directors, who will lead the Association for the next three years.

The board includes:

• Irene Baldriga (University of Rome La Sapienza)
• Pier Andrea Serra (University of Sassari)
• Giorgio Chiarelli (Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics - INFN)
• Elisa Ascani (University of Florence)
• Elisabetta Bani (University of Bergamo)
• Andrea Attanasio (University of Calabria)
• Valentina Lomi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
• Alessandro Zennaro (University of Turin)
• Monica Guerra (University of Milan Bicocca)

Pier Andrea Serra has been appointed President and will be supported by two Vice-Presidents: Irene Baldriga and Elisabetta Bani.

What is APEnet?

APEnet – the Italian Network of Universities and Research Bodies for Public Engagement – has been active since 2018 and was formally established as an Association in 2022 to consolidate and give visibility to the role of Public Engagement in Italy.

Public Engagement is a set of values and institutional actions undertaken by universities and research institutions to foster social, cultural and economic development in collaboration with all societal actors. It is a dynamic process of interaction aimed at progressively closing the gap between research and society, addressing new challenges that take local identities into account and recognising the contribution of all those involved, thereby amplifying the impact of their work.

APEnet serves as a space for dialogue, research and development of tools and actions, sharing and strengthening the knowledge and skills needed to drive the cultural transformation that sees universities and research bodies as key actors in promoting the country’s inclusive growth through listening, dialogue and collaboration with society.

Ensuring public funding for providing home care to older adults with limited self-sufficiency could prove not only to be a welfare measure, but also an effective strategy for improving seniors’ mental health, reducing psychiatric care costs, and easing the burden on families.

This is the conclusion of an international study published in the prestigious journal Health Economics, led by Ludovico Carrino, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Trieste, in collaboration with Erica Reinhard of King’s College London and Mauricio Avendano of the University of Lausanne.

The study, among the first in the scientific community to empirically examine the socio-economic impact of public home care for older adults, analysed data from four European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, and Spain), and highlighted the many potential benefits of publicly supported Long-Term Care (LTC) programmes.

The findings show that access to home care services:

• reduces the risk of clinical depression by 13 percentage points, compared to an observed average of 28% in the study population;
• lowers the risk of loneliness by 6.7%;
• improves perceived quality of life by 14%.

Ludovico Carrino, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Trieste, commented: ‘In addition to the health benefits for individuals, the study highlights the potential economic impact of such measures. Late-life depression has high healthcare costs: studies conducted over the past decades show an annual extra cost of $3,225 per person aged 65–74 in the UK, while in Germany the figure is $2,840 annually for those over 75. Reducing the incidence of mental health disorders through an efficient home care system therefore means not only improving the quality of life for older people, but also decreasing the need for medication, psychiatric care and hospitalisation, with positive effects on the sustainability of national healthcare systems.’

Another key finding of the research relates to the role of informal caregivers. Care provided by family members, such as children or relatives, is often the main source of support, with a significant impact on the work and personal lives of those providing care. Widening access to home care services could relieve caregivers from what is often an all-consuming role, returning human resources to the labour market with potentially positive outcomes for productivity and household income. In Italy, where the development of public Long-Term Care lags behind that of other European countries, the findings of the Health Economics study may offer concrete guidance for shaping public policy and updating welfare strategies. 

‘Legislative initiatives in recent years have sparked reflection on the need to strengthen funding and broaden access to home care services, drawing attention to a highly relevant issue in a country where an ageing population will inevitably lead to a rise in the number of people requiring care,’ concluded Ludovico Carrino.

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Full study published in Health Economics
There Is No Place Like Home: The Impact of Public Home‐Based Care on the Mental Health and Well‐Being of Older People

From 29th May to 1st June, Trieste University Press (EUT) will take part in èStoria, the 21st International Festival of History, to be held in Gorizia and Nova Gorica, European Capital(s) of Culture 2025.

The theme of the 2025 edition will be ‘Cities’, intended as symbolic, historical and cultural spaces. The aim is to offer a space to reflect on the role of cities in the history of humanity, intertwining the past and present of Gorizia with those of a hundred others, from Uruk to Gaza, from Athens to New York.

EUT will host three public events:

Thursday 29 May – 11:30– 12:30
Dora Bassi Hall – Gorizia
Il corpo della città / Telo mesta. Studies and research in the form of snapshots of Gorizia – Nova Gorica European Capital of Culture

Presentation of the book Il corpo della città / Telo mesta (The body of the city), EUT, 2024), edited by Thomas Bisiani and Adriano Venudo. The work, created within the RRR Lab of the University of Trieste in collaboration with EUT, offers an urban and cultural interpretation of Gorizia and Nova Gorica through the photographic gaze of the COLGO Collective. A talk on the city as a place, its status and what it means to be a citizen there.

Speakers: Thomas Bisiani, Alessio Bortot, Giovanni Fraziano, Sonia Prestamburgo, Adriano Venudo.

Admission is free and subject to limited seating capacity.

Saturday 31 May at 15:00 – 16:00
Ridotto F. Macedonio – Verdi Theatre, Gorizia
L’affaire Prezioso. Aprile 1915. La missione segreta del direttore politico de ‘Il Piccolo’ by Marina Silvestri

Journalist and author Marina Silvestri presents the book L’affaire Prezioso. April 1915. La missione segreta del direttore politico de ‘Il Piccolo’ (Prezioso’s case. The secret mission of the political director of ‘Il Piccolo’, EUT 2024). It was a mild April in Trieste in 1915, when delicate discussions took place between Roberto Prezioso, director of Il Piccolo, and Leopold von Chlumecký, his Habsburg counterpart. The two men, maneuvering ambiguities and complex political dynamics, each try to support the cause of their own government, while Italy’s neutrality is becoming increasingly fragile and the shadow of war is approaching.

Speakers: Marina Silvestri, Federico Vidic
Chair: Georg Meyr

Admission is free and subject to limited seating capacity.

Sunday 1 June, 6.30 p.m. – 7.30 p.m.
Main Hall – Santa Chiara Campus, Gorizia
Working on the border in the Upper Adriatic area

During this talk, integration and labour mobility in Europe will be discussed, with a particular focus on the historical events of the Upper Adriatic area. Professor Maria Dolores Ferrara will present her recent book Lavorare oltre confine (Working Beyond Borders, EUT 2024).

Speakers: Maria Dolores Ferrara, Luigi Menghini, Fabio Spitaleri, Davide Rossi

Admission is free and subject to limited seating capacity.

 

For up-to-date information on the programme: www.estoria.it 

A persistent inflammation affecting blood vessels and potentially leading to serious thrombotic complications, even in young individuals with no known risk factors – this is the reality of systemic vasculitis, a group of rare autoimmune diseases which, if not promptly recognised and treated, can compromise vital organs such as the heart, kidneys, lungs and brain.

These conditions are the focus of a study published in Nature Reviews Rheumatology, one of the world’s most prestigious journals in the fields of immunology and rheumatology. The study is coordinated by Professor Giacomo Emmi, immunologist, lecturer in Internal Medicine at the University of Trieste, Head of the Department of Clinical Medicine and Scientific Coordinator of ASUGI (local health authority).

The article, the result of a coordinated review effort involving leading research centres in Italy, Sweden, Russia, Turkey and Australia, provides an overview of the thrombotic and cardiovascular manifestations associated with vasculitis. It also proposes new treatment strategies based on an anti-inflammatory approach.

The topic will be the subject of a presentation by Professor Emmi during the European Vasculitis Society (EUVAS) congress, being held for the first time in Trieste from 21st to 24th May, and bringing together over 400 specialists from across Europe. The congress is a key event for clinicians and researchers working in this area and is noted for its strongly multidisciplinary approach. Emmi is a member of the society’s board and part of the organising committee for the event.

"Our work," explains Emmi, "shows that in many forms of vasculitis, thrombosis is not an isolated event, but a direct consequence of vascular inflammation. In such cases, anticoagulants alone may be insufficient and must be combined with immunological therapy. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying these findings changes the therapeutic approach and may open new avenues for other chronic inflammatory and non-inflammatory diseases as well."

Among the types of vasculitis examined in the review are:

• Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis – a disease primarily affecting the respiratory tract, heart and peripheral nervous system;
• Behçet’s syndrome, which involves blood vessels of varying calibre and is characterised, among other things, by inflammatory thrombotic events.

The publication focuses on:

• the differences between arterial and venous thrombotic events;
• therapeutic management at different stages of the disease;
• and the various pathogenetic mechanisms that can inform clinical decision-making.

The study, available online via the Nature platform, represents a significant contribution to the international discourse on systemic autoimmune diseases, a constantly evolving field of medicine.

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Full Study Published in Nature Reviews Rheumatology         
Arterial and venous thrombosis in systemic and monogenic vasculitis
Federica Bello¹˒¹⁵, Filippo Fagni²˒³˒¹⁵, Giacomo Bagni⁴, Catherine L. Hill⁵˒⁶, Aladdin J. Mohammad⁷˒⁸, Sergey Moiseev⁹, Iacopo Olivotto¹˒¹⁰, Emire Seyahi¹¹ & Giacomo Emmi¹²˒¹³˒¹⁴

1. Cardiomyopathy Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy
2. Department of Rheumatology, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden
3. Department of Clinical Sciences, Rheumatology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
4. Department of Rheumatology and Inflammatory Diseases, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
5. Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
6. Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Central Adelaide Local Health Network, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
7. Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
8. Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
9. Department of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
10. IRCCS Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, Florence, Italy
11. Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
12. Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
13. Department of Internal Medicine, Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Giuliano Isontina (ASUGI), Trieste, Italy
14. European Reference Network ReCONNET, Trieste, Italy
These authors contributed equally: Federica Bello, Filippo Fagni

The Urology Department of the Cattinara Hospital has also received the bollino rosa (pink stamp) from Fondazione Onda – the national observatory on women’s and gender health – which recognises healthcare facilities committed to promoting women’s health and integrating gender-specific medicine.

Founded in 2005, Fondazione Onda awards the stamps based on clinical requirements, the quality of care and welcome, attention to gender differences, and training and communication activities.

This is the third accreditation awarded to the facility of ASUGI and the University of Trieste: following the bollino arancione (orange stamp) for excellence in the treatment of kidney diseases, and the bollino azzurro (blue stamp) for pathways dedicated to male and prostate health, the Urology Department in Trieste is the first in the region to earn the full trio of Onda certifications.

This recognition also extends to the educational aspect: specialist trainees begin working in a clinical environment that adopts a gender-sensitive and non-discriminatory approach to care from the outset.

‘Gender-specific medicine is not a separate field,’ says Prof. Giovanni Liguori, Head of the Urology Department of ASUGI and Professor of Urology and Andrology at the University of Trieste, ‘but an integral part of an approach to treatment that considers each person in their full complexity.’

‘Accreditations such as this confirm the value of the path we have taken together with Prof. Paolo Umari, Professor and Head of the Robotic Surgery Unit, Dr. Gianluca D’Aloia, Head of the Prostate Unit, and Dr. Francesca Vedovo, Head of Functional Urology.’

Educate, connect, inspire. With these words, the first edition of the Innovators Community Lab (ICLab) was launched—the renewed program of the University of Trieste that guides students through the discovery of innovation and entrepreneurial culture.

An evolution of the Contamination Lab, which over more than ten editions provided entrepreneurial background to around 300 UniTS students, the ICLab is designed to equip students with tools to develop business projects in emerging sectors.

The program will once again take place in the renovated spaces of the former Military Hospital, now transformed into an environment open to education, co-working, and collaboration between university, industry, and the local community. The 2025 edition kicked off with an official event attended by institutions, companies, and the 29 selected participants from bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs.

During the event, Salvatore Dore, Head of ICLab and Head of the Technology Transfer and Business Relations Office, also presented the main novelties of the 2025 edition: the recognition of curricular academic credits, individual mentoring programs, training and networking events with entrepreneurs and managers, and a visit to the Marcegaglia Group’s industrial plants, where students will meet the company’s top management. At the end of the program, the five best projects will be awarded scholarships of 5,000 euros each, funded by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The renewed program will also feature an international dimension, which will be presented in the coming weeks.

In his opening remarks, Professor Rodolfo Taccani, Rector’s Delegate for Technology Transfer and Business Relations, reflected on the value of the work done over his six-year term, now nearing its conclusion:
“The Contamination Lab has for years been a living lab of ideas, but also of people. We have seen skills, relationships, and initiatives grow, capable of going beyond the boundaries of the university. This path has accompanied six years of work in which we focused on the connection between education, youth, and business. The future also starts here.”

A central moment of the event was the keynote speech by Gianluca Bisol, President of the winery Bisol 1542. His talk, “Innovating within tradition,” recounted the story of a family business able to combine territorial identity and transformation across generations.

The 29 students selected for the new ICLab training program—18 enrolled in bachelor's degrees, 10 in master's or single-cycle master’s degrees, and 1 in a doctoral program—concluded the meeting with a brief individual presentation, sharing their motivations, goals, and expectations for the journey ahead.

Women account for more than a third of the group. Reflecting the program’s ability to attract diverse skills and interests, this year’s cohort also includes students from humanities programs, such as Philosophy, Psychology, and Law.

With the ICLab, the University of Trieste reinforces and structures its commitment to innovation training, creating real spaces for dialogue between academia and the production system and promoting, within the university path, a vision of business as a tool for growth, connection, and impact.

Prof. Pierangelo Gobbo’s research group from the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Trieste has taken an exciting step forward in the creation of artificial tissues that respond to light, which they have called ‘photonastic prototissues.’

Synthetic biology is a discipline which straddles the border between engineering and biology, and was created in order to build artificial biological systems by combining chemistry, biotechnology and engineering. The work of Prof. Pierangelo Gobbo’s research group addresses a key challenge in the field: to create artificial tissues that not only mimic the structure of living systems, but also integrate movement and biochemical functions. The UniTS research group has created a powerful platform for designing materials that do not merely exist passively, but react and actively adapt to their environment.

The potential applications will have a significant impact on scheduled drug delivery techniques, the field of bioinspired materials and the field of soft robotics, a discipline which uses soft and flexible materials to create robots that can bend, deform and adapt to their environment.

The researchers, inspired by how real tissues convert energy into movement and function, have designed synthetic tissue-like materials that can contract and switch off their internal reactivity when exposed to light.

The secret of these dynamic proto-tissues lies in the combination of two elements: gold nanoparticles that convert light into heat and a polymer ‘proto-cortex’ that is sensitive to thermal changes. Similar to the cortex of living cells, this is nothing more than a polymer layer that covers the inside of the protocell membrane and gives the protocell greater mechanical strength. When exposed to light, the gold nanoparticles generate heat and trigger the contraction of the proto-cortex. This causes the individual proto-cells that make up the material to contract just like a small muscle. When the light is switched off, the structure promptly relaxes.

In addition to movement, they have shown that these contractions can regulate the enzymatic metabolism of the tissue, blocking or allowing access to small substrate molecules. In other words, light intensity can be used to induce reversible contractions that can modulate a biochemical process housed within the material.

The work, now published in Advanced Materials, https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202502830 was developed in collaboration with Professors Piero Pavan and Silvia Todros (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padua; Tissue Engineering Lab, Fondazione Istituto di Ricerca Pediatrica Città della Speranza).

The research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant PROTOMAT, 101039578), the Next Generation EU (PRIN project NRRP 3D-L- INKED, P2022BLNCS; PRIN project SAMBA 2022285HC5_002; PNRR project ‘Metabolic and cardiovascular diseases’ CN000041) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship ‘SAPTiMeC’ (101023978).

Addressing pediatric emergencies such as arrhythmias and cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, severe abdominal and spinal trauma, as well as effectively managing healthcare teams—these are the central themes of a high-level scientific training activity with an international scope. The initiative is promoted by the University of Trieste and the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, focusing on advanced management of pediatric emergencies. Approximately 60 residents from the University's Pediatric Specialization School and about 15 healthcare professionals from the Institute participated.

Leading the initiative were two world-renowned experts visiting Trieste for the first time: Professor Marc Berg from Stanford University, a specialist in pediatric simulations and a prominent member of the American Heart Association, and Professor Brent Barber from the University of Arizona, an expert in pediatric and neonatal cardiology. Both have extensive clinical experience in emergencies and are among the authors of international guidelines for pediatric resuscitation.

The event, conceived and coordinated by Dr. Stefania Norbedo, an emergency pediatrician at Burlo and a simulation instructor at the University of Trieste's Specialization School, began on Wednesday, 7 May, with an introductory seminar at Burlo. During the seminar, the two American professors presented and discussed critical clinical scenarios.

Participants engaged in high-fidelity scenarios, managing complex clinical situations in real-time, such as cardiogenic shock, major trauma, poisonings, and respiratory failure. This was made possible through the use of mannequins capable of realistically reproducing the physiological and clinical conditions of pediatric patients.

The 14th edition of Roses, Books, Music, Wine gets underway, the cultural festival organised by the social cooperative Agricola Monte San Pantaleone and the University of Trieste. From 9th May and on each Friday of the month, the rose garden in San Giovanni Park (awarded the Certificate of Excellence by the World Federation of Rose Societies in 2015) will host meetings, walks, conversations around books, wine tastings, and musical performances.

At the heart of this fourteenth edition, the festival invites reflection on the theme What kind of power?, exploring how to recognise and promote forms of power that differ from those based on oppression, violence, and domination. This reflection is guided by the legacy of Franco Basaglia, who in 1979 observed that real change lies not in winning, but in persuading: The moment we persuade, we win, that is, we bring about a transformation that is difficult to reverse. Nearly fifty years later, this vision continues to inspire the spirit of the festival, which offers a space to nurture the belief that the impossible can become possible, that walls can be dismantled, gates opened, utopias imagined, and even realised, and that the most valuable capital a community holds is its people.

Alongside this vision comes a bitter awareness: new walls are being erected, new forms of exclusion are emerging, rights seem to be in retreat, and collective memories are fading. The power on the rise is not the one evoked by Martin Luther King, the kind that changes reality, but rather a power that subjugates, deceives, bullies, annihilates. And yet, as Italo Calvino reminded us, there is an antidote: To seek and know how to recognise who and what, in the midst of hell, is not hell, and to make it endure, and give it space.

During GO!2025 - European Capital of Culture, the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) will present ‘Between skin and heart: the emotions of science in the fight against cancer’, a cycle of five theatre performances scheduled between May and October 2025 in Trieste, Udine, Gorizia and Nova Gorica. The initiative is financed by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

The University of Trieste is also a partner in the project, with participation from Serena Zacchigna, professor of Molecular Biology at UniTS and head of the ICGEB Cardiovascular Biology Laboratory. Together with Prof. Domenico Prattichizzo (University of Siena and IIT Genoa), Zacchigna brings a story which is both scientific and personal to the stage, inspired by an innovative challenge in research: to develop new anti-cancer therapies inspired by the heart, an organ rarely affected by cancer, using wearable robots that mimic a heartbeat.

The project interweaves science, storytelling and theatre to bring the public closer to the world of biomedical research, through an accessible, emotional and engaging language. On stage, researchers retrace each phase of their scientific adventure: hypotheses, obstacles, eureka moments, failures and progress, told in the first person and without the aid of slides. The show will be performed in Italian, with Slovenian subtitles and translation into sign language, making it accessibile to all.

The texts and script are by Alessandra Cotoloni and Sarita Massai, with participation from Davide Costabile, Giuseppe Di Mauro, Maryen Vasanthakumar and Alberto Villani.

Calendar of events

• 10th maggio 2025 at 15:00 – Trieste
  Scienza e Virgola Festival (SISSA) – Miela Theatre
  (event for schools)
• 11th May 2025 at 16:00 – Udine
  Vicino/Lontano Festival – Chiesa di San Francesco
  (with sign-language interpreters)
• 27th September 2025 – Trieste
  Trieste Next – Miela Theatre
  (with sign-language interpreters)
• 24th October 2025 at 18:00 – Nova Gorica
  University of Nova Gorica – Palazzo Lanthieri
  (in Italian with English subtitles)
• 25th October 2025 at 11:00 – Gorizia
  University of Trieste – Gorizia Campus – Main Hall
  (event for schools)