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.

The national target set by the NRRP for active guidance in the school-to-university transition has been reached and exceeded one month ahead of schedule: more than one million upper secondary school students have taken part in programmes promoted by Italian universities and obtained the final certificate.

The announcement was made in Trieste during the opening day of the national conference “Guiding the Guides. From Events to Participatory and Active Processes”, promoted by the University of Trieste in collaboration with Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Polytechnic University of Bari, University of Naples Federico II, University of Ferrara and University of Rome Tor Vergata.

The event, taking place on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June in the Reception Hall of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, brings together more than 100 delegates, professionals and practitioners in university guidance, with 31 universities represented. The aim is to take stock of the experience developed within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Mission 4 “Education and Research”, Component 1, Investment 1.6 “Active guidance in the school-to-university transition”, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

The conference comes on the eve of the formal conclusion of the NRRP measure and therefore represents an opportunity for a national assessment: not only to measure the results achieved, but also to discuss the legacy of an experimental initiative that has involved universities, schools, local communities and professional guidance structures on an unprecedented scale.

The significance of this achievement was underlined by Luisa De Paola, Director-General for the Right to Higher Education at the Ministry of University and Research, who highlighted how the target was reached thanks to the ability of universities to work as a network. The NRRP, she noted, has shown that universities are not only called upon to teach, but also to provide services, support and assistance to students as they build their educational, professional and life paths.

“The NRRP has taught us that we are capable of achieving results,” De Paola recalled, stressing the importance of preserving, even beyond the period of extraordinary funding, the good practices developed in recent years. The network created between universities and schools is in fact one of the main legacies of this experience, together with the awareness that guidance has now become a strategic function of the national university system.

The theme of continuity is also at the heart of the newly established Network of Italian University Guidance Professionals, which brings together and enhances the experience gained by university guidance professionals during the NRRP initiative. This new national network aims to promote the recognition of the role of university guidance professionals, encourage the sharing of tools and good practices, and contribute to the development of future guidance policies in higher education.

The conference opened with institutional greetings from Donata Vianelli, Rector of the University of Trieste; Pierpaolo Olla, Director-General of the Regional Agency for the Right to Higher Education; and Patrizia Pavatti, Director-General of the Regional School Office for Friuli Venezia Giulia.

In her speech, Rector Vianelli recalled the strategic value of guidance for the university system and for students’ well-being, inviting participants to move beyond the idea of guidance as a merely informative or promotional activity. Providing guidance, she stressed, means accompanying people as they understand their own inclinations, skills and choices most consistent with their life plans.

The Rector also highlighted how the NRRP experience made it possible to create a genuine network among Italian universities, strengthening the role of offices, technical-administrative staff and professionals who work every day in guidance services. According to the Rector, this heritage must not be lost, but should become a stable and recognised component of the university system.

Elisabetta Madriz, Delegate for Guidance Projects at the University of Trieste, introduced the meaning of the two-day conference by recalling the need to transform the actions launched in recent years into genuine pathways supporting students’ personal, educational and professional growth.

As Madriz pointed out, guidance does not end with the choice of a degree programme, but has a broader educational dimension: it helps people recognise their own resources, give meaning to their experiences, build visions for the future and face the transitions that characterise their entire life path.

The first day of the conference is dedicated to assessing the NRRP experience, discussing future prospects for university guidance and encouraging dialogue among institutions, universities and experts from different fields. The programme also includes a speech by Stefano Muroni, actor and creative entrepreneur, founder of the creative supply chain Ferrara La Città del Cinema, on the topic “What kind of guidance for the future?”

The second day, Friday 26 June, will focus in particular on the role of university guidance professionals and the skills needed to operate in a constantly evolving context. The aim is to consolidate the wealth of experience, relationships and good practices built through the NRRP and to support their development in the years ahead.

Antonios Varnavas, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Trieste, has passed away prematurely. 

After graduating in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology in 1987, during one of the first sessions of the degree programme, and later in Pharmacy in 1990, he joined the University of Trieste in 1992 as a researcher at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His research focused on the development of ligands for receptors of the peptidergic system. Since 2006, he had been Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Professor Antonios Varnavas supervised numerous degree theses by students of the Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology and Pharmacy programmes, both experimental and theoretical.

He taught continuously in the field of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, first within the degree programmes of the Faculty of Pharmacy and later within the Department, where for many years he was lecturer of Pharmaceutical Chemistry I and II in the Pharmacy degree programme.

He always carried out his teaching activity with great passion, earning the appreciation of students, who valued the liveliness of his lectures and the clarity of his explanations. The illness that had affected him, although it had greatly weakened him, did not prevent him from continuing to teach, showing an admirable dedication to his work and remarkable strength of will.

His passing deeply affects the academic community and leaves both an educational and human void for his students, who will surely remember him for his availability and for his passion for music, which often brightened the breaks during his lectures.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has presented the largest and most detailed image ever produced of the centre of the Milky Way, the so-called Galactic Bulge: an extremely bright region densely populated with stars. This extraordinary “photograph” opens up new possibilities for scientists, who will be able to confirm the possible existence of exoplanets in this region and measure their mass through the tiny variations in starlight over time.

The Euclid Space Telescope acquired this enormous image in around 26 hours. It is a mosaic made up of nine pointings of its visible-light camera, each covering a portion of the sky larger than the full Moon.

In this image, Euclid captured more than 60 million stars, together with nebulae and star clusters. This extremely populated region of our galaxy is an ideal environment for the search for exoplanets through microlensing.

The news from Euclid is extraordinary: mapping the Galactic Bulge with such precision opens up unique prospects,” commented Gabriele Cescutti, UniTS Professor of Stellar Astrophysics. “Although this specific observing campaign was designed to exploit microlensing and search for exoplanets, such a density of stellar data is also extremely valuable for our research lines at UniTS. In our Department of Physics, we have been working for years on chemical evolution and ‘galactic archaeology’. We use spectroscopic and chemical data from stars to reconstruct, through theoretical models, the early history, formation timescales and origin of the elements in the bulge and nucleus of the Milky Way. High-resolution mosaics, such as the one produced by Euclid, are fundamental to understanding the precise distribution and nature of these stellar populations.

The University of Trieste is responsible for the operations of the two scientific instruments at the heart of the Euclid mission: VIS (Visible Instrument) and NISP (Near Infrared Spectrometer Photometer). In detail, UniTS researchers hold responsibility and coordination roles in several Key Projects dedicated to the scientific exploitation of Data Release 1 (DR1), expected around mid-2027, which concerns the study of cosmology through the statistical properties of the distribution and evolution of galaxies. UniTS also contributes to the production of cosmological numerical simulations based on High Performance Computing methodologies.

Image credits: European Space Agency - ESA.

The Audace Sailing Team of the University of Trieste has once again established itself as one of the leading teams at the SuMoth Challenge, the international competition held in Malcesine, on Lake Garda, bringing together university teams engaged in the design, construction and sailing of high-performance, low-environmental-impact foiling boats.

The UniTS team completed the event with outstanding results: first place in the S1 Design category, ahead of UNICA Sailing Team from the University of Cagliari and Impetus from the Technical University of Munich; third place in the S2 Manufacturing category, behind Politecnico di Milano and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; and first place in the S3 Regatta category, with a lead of more than 20 points over the runner-up.

On the water, Audace Sailing Team successfully combined sailing expertise with the work carried out over months of preparation. After a cautious start, the crew gradually strengthened its position, securing seven first-place finishes in 17 races. The contribution of the two helmsmen proved decisive: Centuori in the regattas and Mutti in the speed tests, both able to make the most of the boat’s characteristics in stronger winds as well as in lighter conditions, when the boat was among the first to lift out of the water.

The result confirms the value of a project that brings together university education, technological innovation, sustainability and nautical culture, showcasing in an international setting the skills developed within the University and Trieste’s sailing tradition.

The SuMoth Challenge 2026 therefore ends with a highly positive outcome for the team, which is already looking ahead to the next edition with the aim of continuing to develop increasingly efficient, sustainable and competitive solutions.

Ten million cells analysed in less than two hours, with memory usage approximately three times lower than the best existing tools and speeds up to forty times faster on the largest datasets compared with the best existing tools. This is the remarkable result achieved by a group of researchers from the University of Trieste, Area Science Park, SISSA and Human Technopole, who developed DEVIL (Differential Expression with Variational Inference Learning), a new high-performance computational tool. The work has been published in Nature Communications.

Understanding which genes are active in cells is one of the keys to understanding diseases and developing new therapies. Today, the most advanced technologies make it possible to measure gene activity in millions of cells from dozens or hundreds of patients, generating an unprecedented amount of data for biomedical research. This revolution, however, brings with it two major challenges: on the one hand, the risk of errors in data interpretation; on the other, the difficulty of analysing such large volumes of information.

The first challenge is computational: analysing millions of cells requires enormous computing power. Traditional methods are too slow and consume too much memory to handle these volumes: a bottleneck that risks undermining the advantages offered by new data collection technologies. The second challenge is statistical. Cells collected from the same patient resemble one another more than they resemble cells from different patients, because they share the same individual biology, the same environment and the same personal characteristics. Ignoring this fact — as many currently used tools do — can lead to distorted statistical conclusions, with the risk of identifying as “significant” cellular changes that are not actually significant, or, conversely, of missing real ones.

To address these two issues, the researchers, thanks to DEVIL, succeeded in combining statistical rigour and computational speed in an innovative way. From a computational perspective, DEVIL, which was also developed with the support of Fondazione AIRC, was designed to make efficient use of the most advanced parallel computing architectures typical of artificial intelligence. Moreover, DEVIL is not only faster, but also uses less memory — a far from secondary detail. This means that analyses previously reserved for major computing centres can now become accessible to smaller research infrastructures and laboratories. From a statistical perspective, DEVIL addresses the problem through a Bayesian approach that correctly accounts for the structure of the data, treating cells from the same patient as correlated and therefore separating differences between patients from genuine differences in cellular activity.

“This work would not have been possible without ORFEO, the Area Science Park data centre, recently upgraded thanks to funding from Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan,” says Stefano Cozzini, Director of Area Science Park’s Research and Technological Innovation Institute. “The availability of latest-generation GPUs, characterised by extremely high computing performance, together with careful optimisation of the algorithms for this architecture, developed by our team, now makes it possible to use DEVIL to address and solve problems on a significantly larger scale. We are very satisfied: it is not often that one can rely on a team with such high-level expertise, capable of making the most of the resources acquired.”

“Differential expression, that is, the statistical analysis that identifies which genes are significantly more or less active across two or more different biological conditions,” explains Giulio Caravagna of the University of Trieste, “is a mature technology. However, the transition to single-cell analysis has introduced statistical and computational issues that make the integrated analysis of large patient cohorts complex. Our work was developed precisely to overcome this bottleneck, combining methodological innovation and high-performance computing in order to scale up to the analysis of millions of cells from hundreds of patients.”

“In the development of DEVIL, the synergy between classical and Bayesian statistical tools represents a key strength within the reference oncological literature,” says Leonardo Egidi of the University of Trieste, “and makes DEVIL an efficient computational protocol with a strong methodological characterisation. Future developments could involve spatio-temporal models for multiple patients and introduce further computational approximations based on theoretical properties that are currently under study: a valuable combination of statistical, computational and biological expertise.”

DEVIL was tested on two concrete biological case studies. In the first, focused on the identification of immune system cells, the tool proved more precise and specific in recognising relevant biological functions. In the second, concerning the ageing of human muscle tissue, it identified age-related transcriptional changes in a more stable and biologically grounded way, reducing noise and highlighting key processes for subsequent analyses.

DEVIL has been released as free and open-source software, available to laboratories and hospitals around the world, paving the way for a new generation of large-scale genomic analyses for the study of tumours, degenerative diseases and the development of personalised medicine.

Andrea Pappalardo, a student in the Master’s Degree Programme in Diplomacy and International Cooperation at the University of Trieste, has been appointed Italy’s Youth Delegate to the United Nations for the 2026/2027 mandate.

The appointment was announced by SIOI – the Italian Society for International Organization, which has implemented the United Nations Youth Delegate Programme – UNYD in Italy since 2017, in agreement with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The 2026/27 edition of the Programme is held under the patronage of the Italian Youth Agency and with the support of Reale Foundation.

Born in 2003, Pappalardo is originally from south-eastern Sicily and lives in Gorizia, where he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in International and Diplomatic Sciences and where he is continuing his Master’s studies in the fields of diplomacy, cooperation and international relations.

His appointment follows a national selection process that assessed over 300 applications. Together with Sofia Gioria, a student at Roma Tre University, Pappalardo will represent the views, ideas and priorities of younger Italian generations at the 81st United Nations General Assembly and in the main national and international institutional contexts.

“I take on this role with a great sense of responsibility and gratitude,” said Andrea Pappalardo. “My aim will be to help give voice to young Italians, promoting the values of dialogue, cooperation and participation. I strongly believe in a culture of peace, capable of countering hatred and intolerance, and in the role that younger generations can play in shaping the present and the future.”

Pappalardo’s path combines academic education, civic engagement and student participation. He has been a volunteer with the Italian Red Cross for over six years, an experience that has strengthened his commitment to service, solidarity and the building of relationships based on trust. For the past three years, he has also been part of MSOI Gorizia, the local section of the Student Movement for International Organization, where he served as Deputy Secretary and was later elected Secretary for two consecutive terms.

The mandate of the Youth Delegates to the United Nations will begin in September with the handover from the 2025/2026 Delegates and will include, in addition to the mission to New York, the organisation of events and meetings at universities, schools, institutions, bodies and associations.

Rector Donata Vianelli described the appointment as “a source of great satisfaction and pride for me and for the entire academic community of the University of Trieste. This achievement not only rewards the talent and dedication of students such as Mr Pappalardo, but also confirms the excellence of the educational path offered by our University in the field of international relations.”

A project dedicated to Kawasaki disease, coordinated by the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo maternal and child health institute with the scientific contribution of the University of Trieste, has been awarded funding under the 2025 AIFA independent research call on rare diseases.

The study, funded with 983,000 euros, is one of 19 projects selected nationwide by the Italian Medicines Agency. Burlo will act as lead institution, with Prof. Andrea Taddio, Director of the Institute’s Paediatric Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology Unit and Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Trieste.

The project aims to assess the use of anakinra, a biological drug targeting an inflammatory protein called IL-1, as a possible first-line treatment for Kawasaki disease. The approach is also innovative from a methodological point of view: the study will use control groups built from pre-existing clinical data, which will also be analysed through artificial intelligence tools.

Kawasaki disease is a rare inflammatory condition in children that affects blood vessels, particularly the coronary arteries, and can lead to cardiac complications. The standard treatment is intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, but a significant proportion of patients — around 20–25% — do not respond adequately, increasing the risk of severe clinical outcomes.

The aim of the study is therefore to generate new evidence on the efficacy of anakinra, while also assessing its safety, tolerability, impact on hospital stay and overall clinical outcomes.

“Receiving almost one million euros in funding is an important recognition of the scientific quality of the project and of the ability of the centres involved to work together on complex clinical challenges. The aim is to generate new scientific evidence that can translate into better treatment opportunities for children affected by this rare disease,” says Prof. Andrea Taddio, scientific coordinator of the project.

“Being included in the national AIFA ranking attests to the value of the clinical research developed by the network of professionals at our IRCCS and by the institutions collaborating within the Incipit Consortium. This result confirms the effectiveness of participatory research in generating innovation and new opportunities for patients,” says Anna Arbo, Director of the Hospital Pharmacy at Burlo.

The study was developed with the contribution of Prof. Gabriele Simonini, Director of the Paediatric Rheumatology Unit at the Meyer University Hospital IRCCS in Florence, and Prof. Marco Cattalini, Head of Paediatric Rheumatology at the ASST Spedali Civili di Brescia.

The Final Report of the Research Quality Assessment 2020–2024 (VQR4) by ANVUR — the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes — ranks the University of Trieste first among Italian universities in the following scientific disciplinary sectors:

- Architectural and urban design
- General and inorganic chemistry
- Medical genetics
- Physics applied to life sciences, the environment and cultural heritage
- Social psychology

UniTS also ranks second in the following sectors:

- Physical chemistry
- Stratigraphic and sedimentological geology
- Pathological anatomy
- Cardiovascular diseases

“The result of the latest ANVUR assessment reflects a University whose overall evaluation of publications is above the national average, one that promotes deserving researchers and, above all, acts as a hub for research with a strong impact on society,” comments Paolo Fornasiero, Vice-Rector for Research. “The latest data presented may also be underestimated, as disciplines involving only a small number of researchers, or those that did not submit at least 10 scientific works, are not included in the report for privacy reasons.”

The Final Report confirms the data released by ANVUR on 16 April: not only is the average evaluation of the 1,789 publications submitted for assessment higher than the national average, but in terms of knowledge valorisation — namely the impact of research on the local area and society — the University ranks sixth.

VQR4 assesses the results of scientific production, knowledge valorisation activities, the ability to attract competitive international projects and, for the first time on an experimental basis and limited to research bodies and voluntary institutions, research infrastructures.