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PNRR-funded PRIN research projects

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Projects funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU — NRRP Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.1 ‘Fund for the National Research Programme and Projects of National Interest (NRP)’

P2022HYTTE — Climate Resilient Strategies by Archetype-based Urban Energy Modelling (CRiStAll)

P2022HYTTE — Climate Resilient Strategies by Archetype-based Urban Energy Modelling (CRiStAll)

The rising of ambient temperature consequent to global climate change has been identified as one of the main drivers of the building overheating, which determines higher energy demand and worsening of the environmental quality. To the warming induced by long-term climate change, population in urban areas also experiences local warming with temperature higher than that in the surrounding rural areas, due to the so called Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Though it has been widely acknowledged that the UHI has significant impact on building energy performance, only a limited number of studies succeeded to accurately quantify this variation, because of the challenges in acquiring climatic data at microscale and in modelling the drivers of UHI taking into account buildings and surroundings interactions.
The project aims to overcome the research gaps by creating high spatial resolution climatic datasets, in which future weather files – generated assuming the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) scenarios – coupled with typical urban context configurations of Italian building archetypes, will be used to assess the UHI effects in short, medium and long term.
Coordinator: Politecnico di Torino
Principal Investigator unibz: Giovanni Pernigotto - Faculty of Engineering 
Project Duration: 30/11/2023 – 29/11/2025

 

P20229EL9W — Cyber resilience: markets, investments and regulation (CYBERRISK)

P20229EL9W — Cyber resilience: markets, investments and regulation (CYBERRISK)

This project aims to investigate the factors influencing the exposure of firms and consumers to cyber risk, the economic incentives of firms to invest in cybersecurity, and their interplay with the environment in which firms operate (specifically, the market structure and the digital infrastructure). The focus is to understand the role of regulation, by designing the optimal policy tools that can spur investments in cyber security while avoiding potentially unintended effects, and by analyzing the effects of the privacy regulation currently in place.The project is structured in different sub-tasks and includes both theoretical and empirical analyses. On the theoretical side, the project will leverage on models on platform and data economics from the industrial organization literature. On the empirical side, the project will leverage on a unique dataset matching information on the availability of advanced digital infrastructure at the municipality level in Italy and firm-level data from the Bank of Italy survey on firms’ exposure to cyber risk and their investments in cybersecurity.
Coordinator: Politecnico di Torino
Principal Investigator unibz: Alessandro Fedele - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 30/11/2023 – 29/11/2025

 

P2022SRELF — Rice by-products valorization: from the recovery of bioactive compounds to the regeneration of used frying oils (RAINDROP)

P2022SRELF — Rice by-products valorization: from the recovery of bioactive compounds to the regeneration of used frying oils (RAINDROP)

In a circular economy approach, the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, minimizing waste generation. Briefly, the by-product of a process becomes the input of a new process where it acquires new value. In this regard, rice (Oryza sativa) by-products and the used frying oils are an excellent candidate to be valorized, for two main reasons: they contain great amounts of bioactive molecules, and they are produced in great amounts.
Within this context, the present project aims to develop innovative approaches for the valorization of rice by-products and the regeneration of used frying oils. To this purpose, bioactive compounds from rice by-products will be recovered using green extraction technologies. These products will undergo a thorough characterization, also evaluating the bioactivity properties. The spent material obtained at the end of the extractions will be then used as an absorbent bed through which the frying oil will move using as desorbent mobile phase carbon dioxide at supercritical conditions. Detailed, the absorbent capacity of the silica contained in rice by-products will be exploited for the absorption of frying oils’ low molecular weight compounds such as free fatty acids, mono and diglycerides.
The regenerated frying oils will be tested for their physico-chemical properties, including the assessment of the oxidative stability, so to evaluate their suitability to be reutilized in frying processes and estimate their shelf life. Specific frying tests will be carried out using a starchy product, such as French fries, as a reference.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Verona
Principal Investigator unibz: Maria Concetta Tenuta - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Project Duration: 30/11/2023 - 29/11/2025

 

P2022JS9HM — Dialoguing Species - Designing Common Worlds through Ethnographies (DSooE)

P2022JS9HM — Dialoguing Species - Designing Common Worlds through Ethnographies (DSooE)

Is it possible for us humans to keep inhabiting the world we share with other species and thriving as a species without harming other species and instead finding ways to thrive together?  Is it possible to do it without giving up what has always characterized our human species, namely the fact that we are a habitat changing and a technology equipped species?
This research project intends to identify possible answers to these questions by looking in depth at two specific Italian cases of expert practices mobilized in order to protect the biodiversity while allowing human activities and in comparing these practices with cutting edge designing projects around Europe (and beyond). As for the two in depth cases, they are: biodiversity in waterways and lacustrine habitats in Piedmont, on the one hand, alpine high pastures in Trentino Alto Adige, on the other.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Elisabeth Tauber  - Faculty of Design and Art
Project Duration: 30/11/2023 - 29/11/2025

 

P20227RKF9 — Consumer behavior, digital platforms and spatial spillover effects in a dual electricity market (SPEX)

P20227RKF9 — Consumer behavior, digital platforms and spatial spillover effects in a dual electricity market (SPEX)

Technological and social advancements occurred over the last decades, and even more so the upheavals we are currently experiencing, are still contributing to substantially reshape the way in which energy is produced and consumed worldwide. On the demand side, the preferences of various types of users are switching towards a more environmental-friendly form of consumption. On the supply side, in turn, a gradual shift is occurring from a centralized production system, mainly intended to take full advantage of the available scale economies, to a decentralized system in which innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are becoming the main actors, along with the users themselves. On top of that, policies both at global and local level are increasingly directed to promote of renewable energy sources and the exploitation of cross-border interconnections, in addition to guarantee adequate levels of competition in energy supply industries. While these processes appear transversal to the markets of the various sources of energy, they are unquestionably more evident and at more advanced stage, in the market for electricity, to which this research project will specifically focus on.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Bologna
Principal Investigator unibz: Carlo Gallier  - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 30/11/2023 - 29/11/2025

 

P2022C3XSS — A Remedy for the Demand of Bad Policies (REMEDIES)

P2022C3XSS — A Remedy for the Demand of Bad Policies (REMEDIES)

The project analyzes the citizens’ demand for bad policies and its remedies. Inefficient government policies are widespread and cause enormous losses in welfare. While a sizeable political economy literature has focused on the supply of bad policies through the interaction of low-quality politicians, inadequate institutions, and lobbying, there is little evidence of the demand for inefficient policies. An influential paper by Dal Bò, Dal Bò, and Eyster (2018) shows that, in an experimental setting, citizens vote for bad policies over welfare-enhancing ones, and provides compelling evidence that this unexpected choice can be due to the underestimation of equilibrium effects. Citizens think that, when moving from the status quo to a new policy, the general behavior of other individuals will remain constant. This bias makes them compare erroneous payoffs for the new policy, potentially leading them to demand (through voting) a bad policy. The project extends this simple yet insightful setup by exploring the mechanisms of the demand for bad policies, and testing remedies. Taking advantage of the underestimation of equilibrium effects, we first replicate the results by Dal Bò, Dal Bò, and Eyster, and then test, in a laboratory experiment, whether citizens can be induced to vote for a “priority” policy. A “priority” policy, while in equilibrium leading to a welfare enhancement with respect to the status quo, gives incentives (“a priority”) to voters who think that all other individuals will keep their behavior constant, and they will be the only ones optimizing. This behavioral consideration is ultimately wrong because all individuals will converge to equilibrium. Thus, priority policies can be used to restore the first best when citizens underestimate equilibrium effects. Priority policies are already employed and proposed in different real contexts, such as bike boxes in front of cars at traffic lights, or family priority in organ transplants when one signs up for organ donation. The design of the experimental setting will permit analyzing alternative mechanisms to the behavioral bias detected by Dal Bò, Dal Bò, and Eyster. The project thus will provide a complete analysis of the demand for bad policies and test realistic and practical solutions to this problem. 
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Paolo Roberti  - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 30/11/2023 - 29/11/2025

 

P2022E22CX — Deep mapping crisis and transformation in non-metropolitan areas: Representations, society and territorial policies (Deepmap)

P2022E22CX — Deep mapping crisis and transformation in non-metropolitan areas: Representations, society and territorial policies (Deepmap)

While non-urban areas have been much investigated, they are often scrutinized standing from a mainly urban point of view. The voices of non-urban territories struggle to be heard because they lack strength and mass and much artistic and literary production also often contributes to the same biased narrative.
The pandemic crisis highlighted some relevant aspects. It was precisely during the period of confinement that the urban gaze turned to the villages, in which a possible better quality of life in isolation was perceived. But those who have long observed (and criticized) the adoption of tourism as an homogeneous solution to the critical issues of places in transition have not been surprised by the brief popularity of the non-urban in pandemic. It has indeed been consistent with so many trends related to the marketing and attractiveness of small towns: places to be preserved or beautified for the use of urban populations. 
It is necessary to stop looking at non-urban territories from afar, using categories that once again reveal an urban-centric vision. Instead, it might be useful to represent the non-urban territories in their present time and read residents' ambitions for what they are, without having to relate them back to what is part of the imagination of those who observe us from the city. This is the gap where this project intends to contribute: representing non-metropolitan territories with interdisciplinary tools that depict territories and communities dialogically and creatively. A research group composed of academics and artists, works together with concerned citizens and local authorities, using the methodology of deep mapping, a dialogic research method that uses a diverse set of tools, including documentary, collaborative ethnography, and cartographic representations to give voice to "unrepresented" places or those that are usually represented by others. Deep mapping is well suited to make understandable the drivers of change such as globalization, demographic transformations, mobility and migration, as well as the local impacts of the global crisis, using democratic modes of knowledge production and policy formulation.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Daniele Ietri  - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 30/11/2023 - 29/11/2025

 

P2022EC749 — Digital technolgies for social inclusion? The experience of service users and social workers in social and health care settings (Dig.It.In)

P2022EC749 — Digital technolgies for social inclusion? The experience of service users and social workers in social and health care settings (Dig.It.In)

Social work, as a profession and a discipline pursuing social justice, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed people, is uniquely positioned to promote the use of digital technologies for social inclusion, at the micro and the macro level, fostering equal access to digitized services, as well as digital well-being. In social and health care services, digital technologies have helped to tackle processes of exclusion during the pandemic, fostering organizational and professional innovation, while showing the potentials of these media. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical studies analyzing the use of digital technologies in health and social care settings, as well as of systematic concepts for the evaluation of the impact of digital technologies on service users, professionals and welfare organizations.
This research project aims to fill in these gaps, focusing on service users and social workers’ experiences of digitally mediated services and practices, with the aim of promoting a process of collective learning in digital innovation in social and health care settings. The overall goal is to understand how health social workers can ensure an effective, inclusive, secure and ethical development and delivery of digital technologies in integrated care settings, valuing the perspectives of both professionals and service users, while involving them in a process of co-construction of knowledge, necessary to foster inclusive and human-centric innovation.
The research findings will provide new evidence to inform health social work practice and education, as well as the development of digital policies within integrated care settings.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
Principal Investigator unibz: Urban Nothdurfter  - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 30/11/2023 - 29/11/2025

 

2022372A7R — Assessment and valorization of biochar amendment for promoting soil health, carbon storage and sustainable viticulture (BIO-C-VITE)

2022372A7R — Assessment and valorization of biochar amendment for promoting soil health, carbon storage and sustainable viticulture (BIO-C-VITE)

Biochar, a fraction of the biomass pyrolization process, incorporated into agricultural soils can increase the plant productivity, maintain or enhance the soil fertility, allows carbon (C) sequestration, with no adverse effects on soil biota. This project aims to elucidate the effects of biochar amendment of vineyard soils as long-term sustainable and regenerative practice in the crucial sector of viticulture, by bridging a unique set of field trials conducted in collaboration between Academia and Research Institutes, and vine Companies, with a duration spanning from 4 to > 12 years, located in important vine production districts, representative of vine production in Central and North of Italy.
In particular, the project will study the influence of biochar on soil health, stabilization of soil C by carbon modeling, vine productivity, and will estimate the sustainability of biochar use in agriculture by life cycle analysis and circular economy approaches, to set out a credible pathway towards a more efficient, profitable and sustainable Italian viticulture.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Padova
Principal Investigator unibz: Carlo Andreotti - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Project Duration: 12/10/2023 – 11/11/2025

 

20225TN2R9 — Italian borderscapes after 2020. Mapping, unfolding, and re-framing border territories in response to the Covid-19 pandemic

20225TN2R9 — Italian borderscapes after 2020. Mapping, unfolding, and re-framing border territories in response to the Covid-19 pandemic (BORD – ATLAS 19)

The project focuses on the ongoing transcalar territorial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on “inner areas” located at Italy’s national borders. By shifting the perspective on these marginal territories from “peripheries” of intermediate or metropolitan urban systems, to “contact zones” between transnational territorial systems and communities and “new frontiers” in a post-Covid-19 recovery, the project proposes an interdisciplinary study of the cross-border constellations of spaces, relations and practices that have emerged as forms of resilience to the pandemic, situating them into larger geographies and territorial systems across the border. 
The aim is to understand, map and envision the complex entanglement between novel forms of re-bordering and de-bordering pushed by the sanitary situation, as well as considering the new opportunities of (in)formal trans-boundary collaborations between local communities and actors. 
Coordinator: Politecnico di Milano
Principal Investigator unibz: Ingrid Kofler - Faculty of Design and Art
Project Duration: 18/10/2023 – 17/11/2025

 

2022LP4ASR - An Artificial Intelligence approach for Forestry Robotics in Environment Survey and Inspection (AI4FOREST)

2022LP4ASR - An Artificial Intelligence approach for Forestry Robotics in Environment Survey and Inspection (AI4FOREST)

The aim of the project is to design and implement an autonomous robotic system capable of navigating into a forest to create a Digital Twin (DT) of the environment under the canopy to monitor its environment for ecosystem conservation and climate change mitigation. The proposed system is based on a sensorized mobile robot with an artificial intelligence (AI)-based controller.
The proposed DT is a map of the environment that includes information about forest elements: each tree is recognized and tagged with a unique ID, its location, diameter, tree type, vitality, etc. is determined. This model is the basis for a forest census, which is essential in the context of climate change, plant conservation, disaster prevention, and planning of forestry operations.
The key elements of this project are: the development of a robotic system capable of monitoring a forest environment by means of sensors, the implementation of a navigation controller for the unstructured forest environment, based on an AI decision model and simultaneous localization and mapping data (SLAM), the creation of a virtual model of the forest, to simulate the robot during the development of the controller, the application of the robotic system to the mapping and census of a real forest scenario.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Trieste
Principal Investigator unibz: Giovanni Carabin - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 - 27/09/2025

 

20223BACPK - Auctions: Theory and Applications (ATA)

20223BACPK - Auctions: Theory and Applications (ATA)

The project consists of three parts.
In the first part, we will inquire if and how the seller in an auction with endogenous and costly entry can release information about the object on sale to influence each bidder’s beliefs about the distribution of the own valuation, in order to affect the bidder’s entry decision. We plan to apply the techniques of information design to model information transmission from the seller to bidders, and we aim at determining the optimal mechanism of information transmission.
In the second part, we focus on procurement contracts, which are endemically affected by several frictions arising at the execution stage, when contractual clauses need to be enforced. We focus on the frictions caused by unverifiable quality.
In the third part, we look at generators' behavior in electricity auctions. We look at whether privately and government-owned companies behave differently, and we draw implications on three domains:  efficiency of the current environmental policy based on cap-and-trade; differential behavior of government-owned generators when they operate at home and when they operate abroad; differential behavior of government-owned generators in proximity of elections.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Firenze
Principal Investigator unibz: Federico Boffa - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 - 27/09/2025

 

2022TEPX4R - Behavior-enabled IoT (BeT)

2022TEPX4R - Behavior-enabled IoT (BeT)

IoB stands for Internet of Behaviors, and it is an extension of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoB gathers data that offers important information on human behaviors and uses methods of analyzing such data from a behavioral psychology perspective, in order to influence (human) behaviors. So far, the human and the digital world in the IoB are connected through a very simplistic scenario: the digital world collects information; psychologists interact with information technology experts to realize behavioral psychology-driven algorithms; the digital world influences humans’ decisions for helping them achieve the desired goals.
In BeT a bi-causal connection between humans and software systems is instead envisaged: on the one hand, humans’ behaviors may be collected and analyzed in order to influence people’s behaviors that may maximize their Quality of Experience (QoE); on the other hand, software behavior itself may be adapted to follow human behaviors, so to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS). The interrelation between QoE and QoS used by BET.
To achieve its objectives, BeT builds on the integrated expertise of the research units, cross-fertilizing the areas of Behavioral modeling, Performance modeling and prediction, software architecture, Probabilistic and statistic modeling.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
Principal Investigator unibz: Barbara Russo - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 - 27/09/2025

 

2022L4YZS4 - Biodegradable thin film electronics for massively deployable and sustainable Internet of Things applications (BIOEL)

2022L4YZS4 - Biodegradable thin film electronics for massively deployable and sustainable Internet of Things applications (BIOEL)

Thin film transistor (TFTs) technology is one prominent candidate for sustainable, multifunctional, and versatile IoT electronics. TFTs based on amorphous oxide semiconductors (a-IGZO), which have gained commercial interest for applications in active matrix displays have been recently proposed for the realization of sustainable Radiofrequency (RF) circuits. Its simplified manufacturing process requires a 100x lower energy and water consumption and results into a 1000x lower CO2 equivalent footprint with respect to silicon CMOS technology.
Such improvements in the manufacturing, however, have not been paired by progress in revising the constituent materials, that remain non-biodegradable. The overarching goal of this project is to set the foundations of a next technology leap in thin film electronics by developing high-performance circuital building blocks that are fully sustainable and biodegradable. The proposed research targets three main objectives: provide a more comprehensive study on the biocompatibility and biodegradation of the TFT materials with emphasis on a-IGZO, other 2D semiconductors and on biofilms derived from the upcycling of fish waste; develop material/device/circuit models and simulation tools to support material selection, device optimization, and circuit performance prediction for biodegradable circuits; fabricate fully biodegradable components (TFTs and diodes) and basic circuital blocks (logic gates).
Coordinator: Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Principal Investigator unibz: Luisa Petti - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 - 27/09/2025

 

2022ABLYY7 - deCarbonized And ciRcular hydrogeN prOduction Through biomass and waste gasification (CARNOT)

2022ABLYY7 - deCarbonized And ciRcular hydrogeN prOduction Through biomass and waste gasification (CARNOT)

The decarbonization of the European and global energy systems requires the development of effective energy carriers that can complement electrification in specific high energy density applications. In this space, renewable hydrogen is attributed a crucial role, although the replacement of the current global annual demand requires a major effort in the development of a spectrum of technologies. Gasification represents a pathway to hydrogen with great potential, as it can couple the production of a renewable vector with the conversion of large flows of waste, in a circular approach. In this project, we propose the design and demonstration of an integrated process for hydrogen production from textile waste and biomass through pyrolysis-gasification, where biochar as a by-product finds an application as an adsorbent in the purification of hydrogen itself. In specific, we will upgrade and validate a 0.8 MWth spouted bed oxygen-steam gasifier fed with biomass and textile waste and optimize its operation for hydrogen production through an extensive experimental campaign based on detailed process modelling activities. Moreover, we will recover the biochar produced during gasification and treat it in a fixed bed reactor to activate it for use as an adsorbent in substitution to commercial activated carbon in a pressure swing adsorption unit. The adsorption unit’s efficiency in separating hydrogen will be tested on an artificial syngas stream replicating the average gas composition obtained in the spouted bed to determine the hydrogen purity and recovery rates attainable in comparison with a commercial product.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Genova
Principal Investigator unibz: Marco Baratieri - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 - 27/09/2025

 

20225BZY5J - Children's interactional competence at school: conversational social norms, participation forms and language structures (Chic-As)

20225BZY5J - Children's interactional competence at school: conversational social norms, participation forms and language structures (Chic-As)

Through the use of qualitative approaches and, primarily, conversation analysis, the project investigates the pragmatic and interactional competence of boys and girls (8-9 years old) in the classroom in two contexts: whole class and group.
The project aims to map the different organizations of classroom and group interactions, to identify children's participatory forms in the classroom (plenary) and in the group, also associated with aspects of gender, to provide a grid of the linguistic and multimodal indicators of such pragmatic and interactional competence, to identify communicative strategies implemented by children with migrant backgrounds, and to produce a collection of transcripts of meaningful sequences, accompanied by anonymized video materials.
The results will contribute to the expansion of knowledge in the field, and can be used in the development of more pupil-centered and more consciously evidence-based teaching and educational approaches.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Principal Investigator unibz: Daniela Veronesi - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 05/10/2023 – 04/10/2025

 

2022NPXYHH - Corpus of Italian language for Preschoolers. Lexicon directed to Italian preschool children from 3 to 6 years collected from heterogeneous sources in Italian and Italian Sign Language (CIP)

2022NPXYHH - Corpus of Italian language for Preschoolers. Lexicon directed to Italian preschool children from 3 to 6 years collected from heterogeneous sources in Italian and Italian Sign Language (CIP)

The project aims to build linguistic resources for the lexical investigation of the language directed to preschool children aged 3-6 years. These resources will include a corpus, the tools necessary to access and extract the information it contains, and a sample dictionary. The data will be collected from a diversified array of contexts and situations, including adult-child interactions, children's books, cartoons and media. These resources will include data from both Italian and Italian Sign Language (LIS).
Coordinator: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Principal Investigator unibz: Lorenzo Spreafico -  Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 05/10/2023 – 04/10/2025

 

2022AAATEA - Circular economy and sustainable agriculture: hydroxyapatite from biowastes as smart nanofertilizer (CLEOPATRA)

2022AAATEA - Circular economy and sustainable agriculture: hydroxyapatite from biowastes as smart nanofertilizer (CLEOPATRA)

The nano-enabled agriculture could play important roles in increasing crop yield and nutrient use efficiency (NUE), lowering environmental impacts and improving agroecosystem resilience. So far, most of studies analyzed the properties of the nanofertilizers and assessed plant responses mainly at greenhouse scale without any measure of NUE, which is a fundamental aspect concerning plant nutrition/fertilization. The main goal of CLEOPATRA project is to develop a systematic investigation on nano-hydroxyapatite (nHAP) of natural origin and its derived nanohybrids in order to develop efficient and environmentally friendly nanofertilizers.
CLEOPATRA includes activities at different scales, i.e. preparation of nHAP from waste (bones and scales); their functionalization with P solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as well as urea; different strategies of nHAP application to plants; evaluation of their allocation within plants; fine assessment of nutrient releases and effectiveness in terms of NUE, and finally evaluation of the impact on soil microbes. Experiments at greenhouse and outdoor lysimeter scales will be set-up for testing nHAP on maize (Zea mays) as model plant. CLEOPATRA will lead to a comprehensive knowledge on natural nHAPs as P source and/or N carrier, functionalized or not with P solubilizing microorganisms. Along with this, focused results will be: design and synthesis of efficient nHAP-based nanofertilizers; soil microbial diversity and functionality nHAP impact modeling; definition of crop physiological and molecular responses; increased crop yield and quality and enhanced NUE; reduction of N/P leaching and development of a circular economy chain.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Udine
Principal Investigator unibz: Stefano Cesco - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Project Duration: 12/10/2023 – 11/10/2025

 

2022ETAB7T- Unravelling seasonal to decadal CLImate influence on the Carbon cycle in FORest. A multidisciplinary analysis across contrasting climates (CliCFor)

2022ETAB7T- Unravelling seasonal to decadal CLImate influence on the Carbon cycle in FORest. A multidisciplinary analysis across contrasting climates (CliCFor)

The CliCFor project aims to gain insights on how climate influences forest C uptake and C biomass growth.
We propose to merge different techniques widely used to study C sequestration in forests but scarcely or never used jointly so far. Specifically, we will use eddy covariance data to assess the short and long-term variability of C fluxes in forests. At the same sites, quantitative wood anatomy in tree rings will be used to innovatively assess the biomass of xylem cells, the fundamental element of wood, to get long-term information on biomass growth at higher time resolution (intra-annual scale) compared to previous studies. Besides, stable C isotope analysis inferred from earlywood and latewood tree-ring will elucidate the use of recently and formerly assimilated C for xylem formation coupled with the temporal variations in plant water-use efficiency. The key information retrieved from these analyses will be used to parameterize a carbon cycle model (3D-CMCC-FEM) to evaluate the causal relationships between climate, forest ecosystem productivity and wood biomass under different environmental conditions.
The analyses will be carried out at three conifer stands monitored with eddy covariance towers. The selected sites are under continental (OBS, Canada), temperate (Renon, Italy) and dry (Yatir, Israel) climates, to get a broad view of how climate affects the C cycle under different environmental conditions. The sites are pure conifer stands, reducing uncertainty related to species-specific contribution to C fluxes occurring in mixed forest, and include some of the longest eddy covariance time series (> 20 years) on forest stands worldwide.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Padova
Principal Investigator unibz: Massimo Tagliavini - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Project Duration: 12/10/2023 – 11/10/2025

 

2022K4HBFA - Clinical trial data between privatization of knowledge and Open Science (CLIPKOS)

2022K4HBFA - Clinical trial data between privatization of knowledge and Open Science (CLIPKOS)

Clinical trials bear several moral hazards in terms of freedom and responsibility, which exacerbate long-standing critical tendencies in scientific research. Open access to trial data, and transparency of related processes, is seen as a response to these hazards, and a means for restoring key warranties of the respect of human dignity which characterize sound scientific practice. The ultimate reference for the definition of social usefulness is the upholding of human dignity. Only free research carried out within a community of peers safeguards the responsiveness to the regulative ideas of human dignity, hence scientific responsibility.  A privatized, closed, untransparent research environment involves moral hazards to the freedom of responsibility, as well as structural impediments to the control mechanisms. In addition, closed research environments facilitate the exoneration of policy makers from responsibility for their decisions. In the field of clinical trials, scientific responsibility is largely a matter of responsible data-collection and data-interpretation. The more the latter is withdrawn from public scientific discourse and scrutiny, the more both levels of scientific responsibility are exposed to moral hazards. At the conceptual level, research practice risks to be eradicated from a dignity-based notion of health. At the practical level, privatization of data involves social risks and costs, i.a., in terms of unnecessarily high levels of medical reversals and the danger that unsuitable treatments remain undetected; of potential alternative treatment options remaining undiscovered; of the impossibility of reuse of identical data sets in unanticipated contexts. Finally, open access should be complemented by transparency of the entire process leading to published results, so as to counteract practices of “epistemic corruption”.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Trento
Principal Investigator unibz: Ivo De Gennaro - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022H2STF2 - Climate Risk Uncertainty (CRUT)

2022H2STF2 - Climate Risk Uncertainty (CRUT)

How do economic operators (e.g. households, entrepreneurs, investors) respond to climate risk uncertainty, knowing that economic activities bring negative consequences for the climate, and at the same time climate change might severely impair economic opportunities in the future? Identifying the channels of perception of climate risk among economic agents is of key importance to understanding the behavioural responses to climate risk and to designing socio-economic policies and mitigation measures. We argue that internet search volumes can be used to construct an indicator of "climate risk uncertainty" to gauge the degree of confidence of agents in their knowledge of the feedback loop between human activity and the environment.  To gauge the feeling of uncertainty and its propagation among human beings, the identification of appropriate search terms that individuals usually ask search engines (e.g. Google) when in need of up-to-date information is of paramount importance.
The main goals of the project are: providing novel measures of climate risk uncertainty; developing multivariate frameworks with spatial and time-varying dimensions, for the empirical analysis of climate change and economic forecasting at country/regional level; enriching our knowledge of the two-way relationship between human activities and climate change dynamics; and of the effects of socio-economic policies on this relationship; constructing general equilibrium models of economic behaviour encompassing climate risk uncertainty; ultimately, offering evidence-based policy advice for government agencies, think-tanks and supranational institutions, on the management of the impact of climate change on human welfare, towards developing strategies for sustainable societies.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Bologna
Principal Investigator unibz: Jan Ditzen - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022F5EZ43 - Design Accessibility Network to Enjoy University. Design and Implementation of UDL-based university teachers Training online Platform (D.A.N.T.E.-U.)

2022F5EZ43 - Design Accessibility Network to Enjoy University. Design and Implementation of UDL-based university teachers Training online Platform
(D.A.N.T.E.-U.)

The project aims to promote inclusive university teaching that ensures equal opportunities for all students (traditional and non-traditional) through the application of the UDL model.
According to the guiding hypothesis through the modification of the didactic and communicative structure of the lessons, the phenomena of student dispersion are reduced increase, more critical study is promoted and the perception of self-efficacy of both the teacher and the student is increased.
Through the UDL principles and criteriology, to which are added the control indicators of the Index for an inclusive and quality learning system, the project aims to develop a prototype online platform aimed at accompanying university teachers in the design of accessible and inclusive lessons: a structured web-based e-learning platform that will support teachers in direct dialogue with the UDL perspective through digital, audiovisual, video or podcast content. The platform will also become a repository itself to share UDL based models and educational content.
In addition, to responding to a process of improving the quality of university teaching, the platform would thus constitute an opportunity for in-service training for the university teacher.
University teachers are expected to improve in the didactic management of ICTs in an inclusive key and to be able to provide useful information to students on tools for managing their organizational activities and for their learning, respecting the specific training needs of each student. An impact is also expected in the organization and management of accessible and inclusive courses on LMS platforms, following the characteristics of universal design and INDEX indicators.
Coordinator: Università del Salento
Principal Investigator unibz: Silvia Dell’ Anna - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 15/10/2023 – 14/10/2025

 

2022WY5Z7P - Social Work and Sustainable Local Development In Italy: Towards Ecosocial Work? (ECOSOW)

2022WY5Z7P - Social Work and Sustainable Local Development In Italy: Towards Ecosocial Work? (ECOSOW)

The central aim of the project is to empirically investigate the involvement and the role of social work in practices of sustainable local development in the Italian context in order to understand how social work can contribute to promoting eco-social innovation and connecting social, economic and ecological sustainability on the local scale.
The Italian context increasingly shows innovative experiences and community-based bottom up approaches to sustainable local development in which social and community workers are involved as actors, network partners and promoters of eco-social innovations connecting social, economic and ecological sustainability in local communities and contexts.
Based on the explorative analysis of innovative practices, the project aims at elaborating conceptual frameworks and empirical accounts of emerging transformative eco-social social work practices in the Italian context and tradition.
The research project will be based on a multiple case study approach suitable to study innovative practices from below and in real life contexts. Selected cases will be studied focusing on different analytical dimensions (actors and networks, community involvement and participation, spaces and effective strategies, professional competence) in order to understand the role and contribution of social work in sustainable local development and to identify emerging patterns of eco-social work in the Italian context. The case studies will gather qualitative data using different methods such as the analysis of primary and secondary document sources, qualitative interviews, focus groups and participant observations.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Urban Nothdurfter - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 15/10/2023 – 14/10/2025

 

2022SCAN2Z - From farm to glass: use of a winEMaking wastE-derived compost as feRtilizer for GrapEvine plants. Elucidation of the interaction between vine molecular response and microbial community for wine production – (EMERGE)

2022SCAN2Z - From farm to glass: use of a winEMaking wastE-derived compost as feRtilizer for GrapEvine plants. Elucidation of the interaction between vine molecular response and microbial community for wine production – (EMERGE)

Grapevine is one of the most economically important crops worldwide and viticulture has evolved towards intensive production systems, exploiting chemical inputs to manage soil fertility and plant protection. However, the overuse of agrochemicals in the long term could seriously affect the environment, thus jeopardising the sustainability of viticulture. In recent years, the use of compost has been suggested as an alternative to traditional fertilisers, while recycling wastes; in this vision, the use of vineyard and cellar by-products (compost from winery sludges - WSC) may contribute to fulfil the circular economy paradigm in wine production. Currently, research efforts have demonstrated that compost application can bring undeniable advantages to cultivations and soil from an agronomic standpoint; nevertheless, the understanding of plant molecular responses to compost application, and the influence of compost on soil and plant-associated microbiota, is still elusive.  In this context, EMERGE aims at fostering the knowledge concerning the use of WSC for the sustainable management of vineyards. In detail, vines not fertilised and subjected to traditional chemical fertilisation will be compared with vines treated with WSC. The experimental plan will be based on two levels of complexity, i.e., short-term experiments carried out on potted vines and in a long-term-field trial. Each phase of EMERGE is characterised by specific objectives, aimed at dissecting of the effects of WSC treatments on: the molecular response of vine plants; the microbial community on plants and soil; the autochthonous berry microbiome and its effect on spontaneous fermentation; soil biological fertility parameters and the ecosystem services provided by the soil microbial community; enhancing soil carbon sequestration in the context of climate change and circular economy.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Bologna
Principal Investigator unibz: Youry Pii - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Project Duration: 12/10/2023 – 11/10/2025

 

20225J7H4K - Econometric and Macro-Financial Models of Climate Change: Transition, Policies and Extreme Events (EMMCC)

20225J7H4K - Econometric and Macro-Financial Models of Climate Change: Transition, Policies and Extreme Events (EMMCC)

Energy markets are experience a drastic change in the last period. Concerns about pollution, scarcity of resources, geopolitical (in)stability are pushing all actors to switch from a fossil dominated energy production to a greener alternative. The transition has started, but the final result is not yet clear and execution and timing of the transition is still uncertain such as its cost. Hence, it is crucial to build models to understand how new energy policy will affect the functioning of the economic environment, and how to design policy interventions to limit the social costs of the transition and at the same time to support it.
The aims of the project are: improving the theoretical modelling of energy-producing sectors, energy markets, and the related economic data; enhancing the techniques for economic policy design and evaluation; providing more robust methods for economic forecasting when data is scarce and models highly nonlinear; enriching our understanding of the relationship and interplay of fiscal and monetary policies as well as sovereign and corporate credit risk or geopolitical risk in a scenario never experienced before by modern economies; offering a number of empirical analyses related to various aspects of an energy transition and its short and long-term impacts on the economy; ultimately, providing policy advice based on scientifically sound investigations on how to optimally manage the impact of an energy transition on a country's economy.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Francesco Ravazzolo - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022PMBM8K - Decoupling a long-term relationship between the olive fly and its symbiont for pest control (EndOFsymb)

2022PMBM8K - Decoupling a long-term relationship between the olive fly and its symbiont for pest control (EndOFsymb)

The application of pesticides is associated to negative impacts in the environment and human health. Reducing the use of chemical pesticides to control agricultural pests and identifying sustainable practices are therefore among the priorities established by European Union directives. The olive fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera, Tephritidae) is the most destructive pest of olives in the whole Mediterranean basin and represents the major threat to olive production worldwide. Strategies to control this pest species rely mainly on the use of conventional chemical pesticides whereas sustainable approaches are currently inefficient. Bactrocera oleae is living in close relationship with a microbial symbiont which is required for the larval development. Here we propose an innovative control strategy focusing on the elimination of obligate bacterial symbionts of these pest species. Symbionts of the olive fly undergo an environmental phase, on the egg surfaces, prior to the acquisition by the newborns, becoming a good target for the application of the anti-symbiotic agents. The objective of the present project is to assess the microbial community of B. oleae and characterize the functional properties of primary symbionts using a whole genome approach. Our results will provide novel insights into the diversity on role of microorganisms in B. oleae and to implement a novel control strategy based on symbiosis disruption. Our project will be therefore an important step towards an efficient control of these pest species and potentially other pests which rely on vertically transmitted obligate symbionts.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Hannes Schuler  - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Project Duration: 05/10/2023 – 04/10/2025

 

2022X8T57X - An interdisciplinary approach to study sediment Flushing operations from alpine reservoirs: Ecological, hydro-Morphological and Management Aspects (FluEMMA)

2022X8T57X - An interdisciplinary approach to study sediment Flushing operations from alpine reservoirs: Ecological, hydro-Morphological and Management Aspects (FluEMMA)

Under current climate change scenario, the number of reservoirs in mountain areas is expected to increase over the next decades because of the urgent need of alternative energy sources rather than fossil fuels. However, one of the major unresolved aspects associated with reservoirs is the management of the accumulated sediments. To date, the most common and cost-effective strategy to remove them is their evacuation through excavation, dredging, or drawdown flushing. Thus, sediment flushing operations are expected to increase in frequency in alpine rivers in the next future, with incalculable effects on the biodiversity and ecosystem services of rivers. There is therefore an urgent demand for sustainable practices and science-based management criteria to make sediment flushing operations sustainable in order to fulfil the human demand of water without impairing the biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by rivers. Yet, our ability to quantify and mitigate the negative effects of these operations is still limited by the lack of uniformity in normative and technical guidelines as well as specific eco-hydraulics and biomonitoring tools.
The aim of this project is to fill the knowledge and methodological gap associated with the sustainable management of sediment flushing operations from reservoirs in alpine areas, through the identification and validation of the best biomonitoring metrics based on macroinvertebrate communities (i.e. the most used bioindicators for rivers at national and international scale) to correctly assess the impacts of these operations, and the investigation of management alternatives for reducing the impacts associated with sediment flushing operations and promoting the post-flushing recovery (i.e. resilience) of both physical habitat and benthic macroinvertebrate communities.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale
Principal Investigator unibz: Massimiliano Renzi - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 05/10/2023 – 04/10/2025

 

2022T3S9BC - The italian endemic forest plants: diversity and functional traits of a biological heritage under pressure (Forendemics)

2022T3S9BC - The italian endemic forest plants: diversity and functional traits of a biological heritage under pressure (Forendemics)

The overarching goal of FORENDEMICS is to advance knowledge about the diversity of the Italian endemic forest plants and their functional traits in the face of global and local drivers of habitat changes. Forests are complex ecosystems that harbor the largest part of terrestrial biodiversity and provide essential benefits to humankind.  The largest part of plant diversity in temperate forests is found in the understorey. Despite the key role of this layer also for ecosystem functioning, current forest management programs and policies largely ignore it. Italian woodlands harbor remarkable understorey endemics, about which we still know very little. A complete and updated inventory of these taxa is not yet available, and data on population distribution, size and habitat preferences are still largely incomplete. Moreover, the morpho-functional traits that allow persistence and adaptation to site conditions are unknown, as well as traits that influence ecosystem functioning. Because of this, the impacts of environmental changes are unpredictable and may pose serious threats to the future of these unique species. Our project will flow through two integrated WPs that will use complementary approaches at the habitat, species and population level. 1) Critical inventory of the Italian forest endemics and implementation of a database gathering the available information, to be made freely accessible to a wide public. 2) Population assessments and plant sampling for the analysis of key traits that influence species performance, dispersal and persistence in “target” taxa. Paleoendemics in family Apiaceae in southern Italy and additional taxa in other families and regions will be selected. An innovative approach based on a comparative trait analysis in the endemic species and its taxonomically closest non-endemic relative will allow to identify the magnitude and patterns of functional divergence of the endemics.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Firenze
Principal Investigator unibz: Camilla Wellstein - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Project Duration: 05/10/2023 – 04/10/2025

 

2022HZBCEM - Tradition-driven Innovation: Historical and cultural heritage as a source of innovation for Italian firms (Hinnovitage)

2022HZBCEM - Tradition-driven Innovation: Historical and cultural heritage as a source of innovation for Italian firms (Hinnovitage)

This project advances the growing body of research on how historical and cultural heritage provides business organizations with valuable but seldom exploited sources of innovation. It focuses on Italian private firms, specifically family-owned businesses recognized for the ability to leverage history and culture for innovation, despite otherwise limited economic prowess or technological advance. The project aims at documenting and understanding those firms’ distinctive ability to make historical and cultural heritage conducive to successful innovation. It focuses on disclosing the organizational processes and capabilities that explain the successful use of historical and cultural heritage for innovation, as well as assessing the contingencies that influence the successful use of historical and cultural heritage for innovation. The project builds a sample of 2,500 Italian firms belonging to a selected group of traditions-rich industries, ranked by innovation and firm performance measures, and relying on an extensive systematic collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. We rely on the research team’s diverse research assets and complementary research methods to collect and analyze the data. The project will characterize a typology of innovation strategies through which firms can use historical and cultural heritage to develop successful new products, as well as a wealth of insights into the organizational and inter-firm conditions that enable what we name “tradition-driven innovation”. The new theoretical insights generated through this project will have significant implications for research on family business, as well as for broader research streams such as innovation management, corporate governance and strategic management.
Coordinator: Politecnico di Milano
Principal Investigator unibz: Alfredo De Massis - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022N3CEYY - Industry 4.0 and Sustainability: opportunities and challenges for Italian firms (I4.0SUST)

2022N3CEYY - Industry 4.0 and Sustainability: opportunities and challenges for Italian firms (I4.0SUST)

In recent years, a set of technologies – such as internet of things (IoT), cyber-physical systems (CPS), big data analytics, autonomous robots and augmented reality – have been simultaneously applied in manufacturing, leading to a new paradigm labelled as Industry 4.0 (I4.0). The interest for the topic by scholars, managers and policy makers has raised in the last few years and many countries – including Italy – have developed national plans to foster I4.0 adoption.
I4.0 offers opportunities to address one of the key challenges that our society and economic system is currently facing, i.e., improving its sustainability.
Furthermore, research is called to support industry in understanding how I4.0 can help answer the growing demand for sustainability coming from institutions and society at large.
Considering the research gaps and the needs of the Italian manufacturing industry, our project has two main objectives: to develop and empirically validate a comprehensive framework on the impacts of I4.0 on sustainability performance using the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) conceptualization of sustainability; to identify industry sustainability best practices relying on the adoption of I4.0 in the metal products and machinery industry, and to translate them into a set of critical paths for improving the sustainability performance of Italian firms.
To achieve these goals, a multi-method approach will be adopted, encompassing a systematic review of the relevant literature; the identification and investigation of a focused set of best practices through multiple case studies; and the validation and generalization of the case study findings against a wider set of firms by means of a survey.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Guido Orzes - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022X7M7XN - Italian Cold War Borders. A new Research Framework on Transformation during Détente (ICoWTrans)

2022X7M7XN - Italian Cold War Borders. A new Research Framework on Transformation during Détente (ICoWTrans)

The period of Détente has shaped European Cold War history dramatically through the process leading to the transformation of the divided continent in terms of diplomatic, political, economic and security interactions. Italian Cold War Borders is the first research project, which will address this period of European history in the context of Italian border regions, aiming at the establishment of a new comprehensive research framework for the multidisciplinary history of border regions during the Cold War.
Italy shared multiple borders facing the frontier of the Western hemisphere. On the one hand, it controlled areas adjacent to neutral Austria and non-aligned, but socialist Yugoslavia, which were deemed an easy entry point for a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Moreover, these areas were of crucial importance in a national context, encompassing autonomous regions (Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia) with a strong multiethnic character. Linguistic and identity issues, especially in areas populated by substantial Slavic and German national minorities, had to be tackled in a unique scenario that involved repercussions on an interregional and international scale. On the other hand, Italy’s exposure to the Mediterranean resulted in specific challenges during the Cold War. In particular, a process of maritime territorialization and increased military presence of Soviet Union and the activism of southern shore states influenced the redefinition and the developing practices for controlling the new Italian maritime frontiers emerged during the détente era. The redefinition of maritime frontiers was accompanied by changes in the nature of maritime security, now influenced by rising terrorism and new criminal networks, using the sea for their illicit activities. 
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Siena
Principal Investigator unibz: Norbert Parschalk - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022NMAPEL - Improving soil-plant-insect interactions to promote pollinators (IMPLICIT)

2022NMAPEL - Improving soil-plant-insect interactions to promote pollinators (IMPLICIT)

The ecosystem health relies on the circular interaction between soil, plants, micro and macro-organisms as pollinators. the restoration of soil functionalities is essential to maintain all ecological functions with a circular benefit. It is known that existing microorganisms, such as plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) and rhizobacteria (PGPR), are able to influence the ability of biological nitrogen fixation and the plant growth, thus providing a sustainable alternative to the use of synthetic fertilizer. Agriculture should consider maximizing the co-adaption between plants, microbes and pollinators in an effort to promote a more sustainable agriculture. In recent decades, monocultures, pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers have contributed into the degradation of several agro-ecosystems. In particular the decrease of soil fertility is evident and is mainly due to the depletion of organic matter, the decrease of micro- and macro-organisms (e.g. insects) diversity and abundance. Moreover, diseased or stressed plants might deprive bees and other pollinators of an appropriate daily diet, consequently affecting their health. In fact, it is known that honeybees through nectar and pollen, do not only obtain carbohydrates, lipids and proteins that are essential for their nutrition, but also get many molecules capable to elicit their immune system for a better individual and colony health. In this project several bacterial strains will be added to the soil where model crop species will be planted. The effects of these bacteria on plant growth, nectar production, pollen quality, flower volatiles and pollinator attraction will be characterized.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Sergio Angeli - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences  
Project Duration: 05/10/2023 – 04/10/2025

 

20222BP7K3 - Learning informatics (Lin 2022)

20222BP7K3 - Learning Informatics (Lin 2022)

In order to bring informatics and its real educational value to the wider audience of non-vocational schools, several international efforts are ongoing, as part of a general strategy for exposing everyone to core ideas of informatics. 
While the body of knowledge on how to teach informatics in higher education programs is now rather large, much more research is still needed to understand exactly the needs and constraints at earlier instruction levels. Thus, the project will focus on the empirical assessment of PINI deployment in schools in two ways:

  • The PINI curriculum will be tested in order to understand better how it fits in the current school scenario and how teachers can interpret and actually implement it. To this end, proper instructional material, appropriate for the teachers, will be produced and assessed.
  • We will test if and in what conditions transfer of high-level thinking skills can occur, or is fostered, by designing specific tasks where computational thinking skills are applied in cross-disciplinary contexts.

The research outcome of the project will be a pedagogical and educational methodology for bringing informatics in Italian schools, to be used beyond the completion of the project.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Trento
Principal Investigator unibz: Ilenia Fronza - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022ZEATEY - Multimedial Italian CHant ArchivE of Liturgical melodies and texts (14th-18th centuries) (MICHAEL)

2022ZEATEY - Multimedial Italian CHant ArchivE of Liturgical melodies and texts (14th-18th centuries) (MICHAEL)

One of the less known components of the italian cultural heritage is the tradition of liturgical books. This heritage – both material and immaterial – can be studied, understood and spread through the use of new technologies.
During the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, when the language of art music in the West was being shaped, the basis or reference of this language was the so-called ‘Gregorian chant’. It modeled the ‘soundscape’ in which the compositions were conceived and provided the melodic cues on which to elaborate new polyphonic pieces. The identification of these materials generators of new artistic works is a challenge that any scientific work in the field of music is always faced with, due to its multiple implications both on the technical and on the aesthetic side: the research concerns in fact the very “genetic heritage” of our musical culture.
Identifying the melodies from which the composers of the past drew inspiration is a tough issue because these melodies, although belonging to a repertoire of great diffusion in Europe, have been subject to additions and transformations, sometimes induced by oral transmission, sometimes by re-workings functional to certain local uses. These ‘variants’ are currently preserved in the surviving manuscript or printed testimonies since the fourteenth up to the nineteenth century. The detailed knowledge of these sources is therefore an essential requirement for any musicological research on the tradition of our art music.
The project aims at the construction of a computerized chant database of the liturgical repertoire (‘Gregorian chant’) of the centuries from the Italian “Trecento” to the nineteenth century and its networking with the images of some privileged sources, in order to make information accessible to everyone.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Giulia Gabrielli - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 08/10/2023 – 07/10/2025

 

2022A33AT3 - How Incentives Shape Decision-Making, Investments and Outcomes for Immigrants (MigrantIncentive)

2022A33AT3 - How Incentives Shape Decision-Making, Investments and Outcomes for Immigrants (MigrantIncentive)

Migrant assimilation is a major challenge for European countries both because of the large inflows of refugees in recent years and their population aging. While a large literature examines the economic assimilation of migrants, few of these papers examine how incentives shape both the initial migration decision and future investments made by migrants, and how these incentives influence outcomes for migrants and their children. However, ultimately, it is the decisions made by migrants in conjunction with the environment of the receiving countries that determine whether the integration process is successful from both the migrant and receiving country perspective.
The project has three complementary components: the first examines the impact of incentives on the migration decisions of undocumented migrants to Europe. Importantly, there is an equilibrium relationship between potential migrants, smugglers and source country policies, which means that policies that are designed with one goal in mind, for example to protect undocumented migrants, might end up actually encouraging more dangerous migration. Hence, one must carefully model the interplay of these incentives.
The second examines the impact of incentives on fertility decisions and human capital investments. Part of this research will examine the impact of citizenship rights on migrant behaviors, which is a policy that has changed in recent times, especially with the enlargement of the European Union.
The third part of the project looks at the impact of incentives on outcomes for migrants, in particular political participation and voting behaviors, social and civic capital, and innovation.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Steven Stillman - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022HBK4NP - Supporting minority languages in educational contexts (MinEdu)

2022HBK4NP - Supporting minority languages in educational contexts (MinEdu)

Historical linguistic minorities (MLs) in the Italian context are still characterized by a strong identity link with the territory which they belong to. In the case of three of the minorities recognized by the law 482/1999 - i.e. the Friulians, the Ladins and the Sardinians - this relationship also results into a significant cultural and social cohesion.
Although the national law is not immune from structural limits, as far as these three speech communities are concerned, in the last two decades the synergy with regional regulations allowed to start or consolidate teaching activities within the concepts of a wider multilingualism, both at Italian and European level.
However, in the twenty years since the approval of the law 482/1999, a number of problems as well as specific needs have emerged: difficulties in setting up curricula and managing vertical continuity, training gaps in teaching staff and the lack of university courses of specific preparation, the need to share experiences and good practices, but also to assert the effective linguistic, methodological and cultural skills of teachers.
Based on this background, the MinEdu project aims at contributing to the enhancement of historical minority languages in Italy through the setting-up of a collaboration network between those located in autonomous regions (Dolomitic Ladin, Friulian, Sardinian), with the objective of providing support and promoting teaching in multilingual contexts. We will focus our research on three macro-areas: data collection and documentation in the three investigated areas of the subjects involved (teaching staff and students), of the teaching tools available in schools and in training contexts and theoretical and descriptive contribution on relevant issues that concerns teaching of minority languages within a broader perspective of language education ; digitalization of results, sharing good practices and the research carried out through an open access platform.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Pavia
Principal Investigator unibz: Ruth Videsott - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 05/10/2023 – 04/10/2025

 

20223CEZSR - Modelling Non-standard data and Extremes in Multivariate Environmental Time series (MNEMET)

20223CEZSR - Modelling Non-standard data and Extremes in Multivariate Environmental Time series (MNEMET)

Multivariate statistical modelling can provide a fundamental contribution to the environmental research, by allowing the description of complex interactions between the involved variables, where a major focus is on the occurrence of (multivariate) extremes.
MNEMET considers three methodological issues in the multivariate time series framework, which will be addressed in three workpackages. First, the project will investigate how to model asymmetry and heavy tails in high-dimensional problems, going beyond the usual assumption of Gaussian structural shocks. Advances along this direction allow the description of complex relationships between different weather variables, the price of energy commodities and price of permits. Second, the dependence between time series, i.e. the cross-dependence, will be investigated as it represents a relevant open issue, especially in a multivariate setting where much of the research focused on serial dependence and flexible measures that account for non linear and, complex, multivariate non Gaussian dependence have not developed yet. The proposed methods will be exploited to analyse possibly highly cross-sectionally correlated climate time series concerning Italian Regions with the aim of understand the recent evolution of environmental phenomena. Finally, our proposal will also investigate spatial-temporal dependence that naturally arises in environmental research, especially when the interest is modelling extreme events. Alternative approaches will be considered, namely, flexible dynamic panel regression models that account for cross-sectional dependence in the panel, and a copula-based approach to describe possible complex tail behaviours. The project will investigate the impact of pollutants on precipitation extremes, by using both areal and high-frequency point data. Methodological findings will be exploited to derive reliable forecasts of extreme events and investigate air quality evolution.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Trieste
Principal Investigator unibz: Francesca Marta Lilja Di Lascio - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 18/10/2023 – 17/10/2025

 

2022MZTN82 - Nationalist networks in Europe 1919-1933 (NatiNets)

2022MZTN82 - Nationalist networks in Europe 1919-1933 (NatiNets)

The aim of this project is to analyse the forms taken by nationalism in interwar Europe by examining the web of relations between European nationalist movements, with special reference to southern and central-eastern Europe; the ideological and cultural axes and political objectives which gave rise to convergences between different nationalist groups; and the relations between nationalist and Fascist milieus. These investigations aim to provide an understanding of nationalism’s development that goes beyond national history so as to promote a more confident adoption of the perspectives of transnational history and histoire croisée enabling to fully grasp the complex dynamics of interwar nationalism.
The project thus seeks to study the “nationalist field” which emerged in Europe between 1919 and 1933. One of the aim is to verify up to which point in this year Italy stood as a centre of gravity and a source of ideas. We will also consider how this field changed with the crisis that began in 1929 and with Hitler’s rise to power.  While carefully considering the various intersections and overlaps between nationalism and Fascist totalitarianism, the project seeks to reconstruct the independent profile of the former, which had its own distinct cultural and ideological profile, and in part also political, so as to offer an original perspective on the political, cultural, and ideological dynamics of the period and a more in-depth understanding of the nationalist phenomenon during a crucial historical period for its development.
The study of this “nationalist field” will revolve around two geopolitical areas: south-western and central/south-eastern Europe, envisaged as political and cultural spaces in which the networks of relations and ideas connected to nationalism found a point of reference in Italy in the 1920s and until 1933.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi Roma Tre
Principal Investigator unibz: Andrea Di Michele - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022WS8AJY - Political Persuasion (Pop)

2022WS8AJY - Political Persuasion (Pop)

In this research project we aim at studying political persuasion, the factors that enable it, and its implications on the ability of voters to hold politicians accountable and to limit their extractive behavior. Our project will develop along three complementary research lines.
The first research line will focus on electoral campaigns and will study how politicians can use political advertisement to persuade voters into supporting them.
The second research line will study how the ideological slant of information providers affects the credibility of political messages and the ability of constituency to hold politicians accountable and to make effective choices.
The third research line will drop the paradigm of a rational electorate and will account for behavioral biases that make voters more vulnerable to politicians’ persuasion techniques.
Our project will deliver several policy implications. We will propose interventions to regulate electoral campaigns and campaign donations in order to reduce persuasion attempts, while preserving the information acquisition by voters. We will identify settings in which market competition among information providers limits the inefficiencies or distributional asymmetries caused by political persuasion, and conditions under which regulatory intervention is needed. Finally, we will suggest ways to design institutions that are protect voters from persuasion attempts and can thus strengthen economic growth.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Padova
Principal Investigator unibz: Paolo Roberti - Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022C88239 - Innovative Worker-Centric Assessment Method for Cognitive Workload in Human-Robot Collaborative Systems in Manufacturing (ProMentoHR)

2022C88239 - Innovative Worker-Centric Assessment Method for Cognitive Workload in Human-Robot Collaborative Systems in Manufacturing (ProMentoHR)

The current research focuses on Human Factors in the industrial human-robot interaction (iHRI) and, in particular, proposes the development and validation of a new cognitive workload assessment method based on improvements of the Cognitive Load Assessment for Manufacturing model (CLAM). The new method would allow limiting the subjective factors when designing CASs and, most importantly, to adequately address the cognitive workload of operators and how design elements could influence it. Furthermore, a tool to be used by CASs designers will be developed based on the improved CLAM methodology. The tool will be useful for assessing cognitive workload in manual assembly systems and will be inspired by NASA-TLX and usability appraisal methods. This practical tool is intended to be used by non-experts in the field of Human Factors but by experts in assembly systems, who are the intended primary users. Experimental validation of the new model and the related tool will be part of the project activities, ultimately providing practical solutions for integrating cognitive requirements in human-centred CASs. 
On the one hand, the improved CLAM method will enhance the operators’ work conditions, safety and wellbeing when interacting with industrial robots. On the other hand, it simultaneously provides the possibility to improve production performances.
The project will achieve these objectives by applying qualitative and quantitative methodologies and ensuring a user-centred approach in the development of its outputs.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Bologna
Principal Investigator unibz: Luca Gualtieri - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022SKLZAY - Self-optimizing Networked Edge Control for Cooperative Vehicle Autonomy (SELF4COOP)

2022SKLZAY - Self-optimizing Networked Edge Control for Cooperative Vehicle Autonomy (SELF4COOP)

As the Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) take up the market and become pervasive, they will change mobility as we perceive it today. Being connected with roadside infrastructure and to the Internet, CAVs will enable traffic optimization and safety through densely populated areas, while sensing and preserving environmental quality factors. Not only will CAVs change mobility, but they will also enable new applications, such as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), that rely on globally connected transportation actors.
In our vision, stand-alone CAV solutions will become an integrated system, realizing what we define as Cooperative Driving-as-a-Service (CDaaS). In a CDaaS paradigm, the system will provide users with next-generation mobility services such as Cooperative Autonomous Taxis (CATs), optimizing and minimizing the traffic flow by sharing users’ source-destination pairs, long term trips, and short-term maneuvers. This will be made possible via heterogeneous communication and networking technologies as well as advanced control and optimization techniques, while accounting for security and privacy issues.
COOP4SELF is organized along the following pillars: flexible networking, optimization of MEC location placement, advance distributed and remote control.
Our research will be supported by a realistic, twofold performance evaluation process that will exploit a fleet of model CAVs and a 5G communication testbed available in our labs, as well as a State-of-the-Art framework that federates multiple simulation tools encompassing realistic mobility and communication models. Driven by an Open Science approach, we will publicly release all the details and the source code of our evaluation tools and solutions, to foster future research on the topic.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Trento
Principal Investigator unibz: Antonio Liotta - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022RYY2A7 - Digital learning: socio-cognitive and emotional-motivational factors involved in studying supported by digital materials (STUDYOL)

2022RYY2A7 - Digital learning: socio-cognitive and emotional-motivational factors involved in studying supported by digital materials (STUDYOL)

The recent emergency education following the lockdown has drawn media and research attention to the learning processes underlying the use of audio-visual and digital materials and the individual and contextual factors affecting knowledge acquisition. The urgency of this issue will remain even after the pandemic emergency has passed.  The task of research is to understand how to turn the experiences of this period into educational opportunities. This project aims to explore the risks and resources of new technologies in education, emphasising that it is not the tools themselves that are positive or negative, but that it is necessary to explore the psychological processes related to their use in order to discriminate between effective and improper use.  To this end, the project aims to investigate the socio-cognitive and emotional-motivational processes underlying study activities when using digitally presented learning materials and how technological devices can enhance or hinder students' learning experience. Specifically, we will analyse study activities, selecting students engaged in various study paths, in order to verify also the differences between students of different ages. At the same time, it will be possible to examine how parents' relationship with technology represents a model for their own children and whether parents' involvement in school activities is a promoting factor or an element of intrusion in learning processes.  In addition, a specific focus will be given to pupils with SLD. To this end, the teaching model adopted by teachers will also be investigated, exploring their attitudes, knowledge and choices regarding the platforms and digital content provided. This will be the starting point for the development of psychometric tools for students and teachers and the implementation and testing of evidence-based programmes aimed at parents, in order to maximise parental skills in managing technologies within the family context.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Bari
Principal Investigator unibz: Antonella Brighi - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 05/10/2023 – 04/10/2025

 

2022AL7WKC - Ecohydrological and environmental significance of subsurface ice in alpine catchments (SUBSURFICE)

2022AL7WKC - Ecohydrological and environmental significance of subsurface ice in alpine catchments (SUBSURFICE)

The management of water resources and ecosystems in mountain areas has to deal with rapid environmental changes, which put under risk water availability and quality. Perennial and seasonal water stores in glaciers and rock glaciers ensure regular water supply that compensate for precipitation variability and drought periods. In addition, glaciers and rock glaciers systems preserve cold conditions that act as ‘refugia’ for cold-adapted species facing atmospheric warming. However, the knowledge of these systems is still incomplete, in particular for subsurface ice inside rock glaciers. This component of the alpine cryosphere, and related ecohydrological processes, have a long response time and are expected to prevail over surface ice (glaciers without debris cover) within few decades. For this reason, there is the need for a better assessment of the amount, spatial distribution and eco-hydrological significance of subsurface ice at the regional and global scale.
The main objective of the SUBSURFICE project is to improve the knowledge of ice stored inside periglacial landforms, and of related eco-hydrological effects. By means of an interdisciplinary and holistic approach, the project will combine different techniques, such as geomorphological and thermal methods, environmental tracers, advanced geophysical methods, hydrochemical and biological techniques, applied to selected study sites in the Eastern Italian Alps. The results will highlight differences and similarities between intact and relict landforms, concerning the internal structure, hydrological response, hydrochemical and biological characteristics of spring water, and ground thermal regime. Comparing intact and relict landforms in a wide range of environmental conditions will also represent a ‘space-for-time’ substitution approach, to account for the possible future decay of intact landforms under atmospheric warming. 
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Padova
Principal Investigator unibz: Lorenzo Brusetti - Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences 
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022FR5FB7 - Hybrid Transient-machine learning approach for ANomaly DEtection and classification in water transmission Mains (TANDEM)

2022FR5FB7 - Hybrid Transient-machine learning approach for ANomaly DEtection and classification in water transmission Mains (TANDEM)

This proposal aims to integrate the machine learning (ML) methods and the Transmission mains (TTBTs - Transient test-based techniques, based on the analysis of transient pressure signals to detect anomalies in water systems) introducing a procedure for a periodic check-up of Transmission mains (TMs). The main idea is to monitor these pipelines, so important for the functionality of an entire water system, by periodically generating a transient, under certain favorable conditions and analyzing the acquired pressure signal by means of ML methods. Having performed an adequate training stage makes the ML method able to recognize the presence of an anomaly in a short time, thus paving the way for a real-time response of the check-up procedure. Moreover, the described executed classification of the anomalies can enable the model to make a complete and exhaustive diagnosis of the TM.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Perugia
Principal Investigator unibz: Andrea Menapace - Faculty of Engineering
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

2022RNMA92 - Thiresia - hierarchical clustering and abstracts making of case law decisions (THC)

2022RNMA92 - Thiresia - hierarchical clustering and abstracts making of case law decisions (THC)

With this research project, conducted in an interdisciplinary manner between legal scholars of different fields and data-scientists, we intend to develop a pilot project to provide judicial offices with the "memory" that is indispensable for a more efficient performance of their task, as well as to allow a more transparent knowledge of their guidelines by scholars, professionals and citizens. In Italy, only a few judicial offices, and only at the top level, benefit from some form of publicly accessible categorization of all their decisions. Using traditional methods, the task would in fact be impossible for territorial courts, given the huge number of documents and information to be processed. The newly established "ufficio del processo" itself, which should (also) take care of this task, cannot realistically be expected to fill this structural gap without having an adequate tool at its disposal.
In collaboration with the business section of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal of Rome, whose superiors have already adhered to the project, we propose to create an algorithmic system for the drafting of the summaries (“massime”) of all decisions issued by the two offices in the period from their establishment (September 2012) until 31 December 2021. The same activity will be conducted with T.A.R. Lazio, L'Aquila and State Council in a similar time extension. From a technical point of view, the project will use an advanced technology for the recognition of scanned text (Optical Character Recognition, OCR), in connection with refined data mining methods. The implementation of the research algorithm will constitute the maximum moment of integration between the different areas of competence (legal and data-science) involved in the project.
Coordinator: Libera Università di Bolzano
Principal Investigator unibz: Paolo Giudici -  Faculty of Economics and Management
Project Duration: 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

 

20227ZCTKZ - Co-design of immersive serious games for urban and periurban landscape education and interpretation in formal and informal contexts (THROUGH THE CITY)

20227ZCTKZ - Co-design of immersive serious games for urban and periurban landscape education and interpretation in formal and informal contexts (THROUGH THE CITY)

The REACT project aims at the design, implementation, testing and validation of participatory pathways of urban peripheral heritage education through the use of immersive representation technologies and serious games.
The project will be developed in collaboration with school principals and includes a co-design phase to be carried out with the schools and teachers involved, and by a subsequent experimentation with secondary school pupils from the suburbs of Bolzano, Milan, Bologna and Genoa.
The students will be asked to construct visual narratives also through the use of digital representation tools, such as imagebased virtual reality and augmented reality, integrating these technologies with gamification techniques for the construction of interactive and open pathways that can tell about the cities and the reappropriation of gathering spaces.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”
Principal Investigator unibz: Alessandro Luigini - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 15/10/2023 – 14/10/2025

 

2022CKWY77 - Mathematics standardized assessment as a tool for teachers' professional development (SAFT)

2022CKWY77 - Mathematics standardized assessment as a tool for teachers' professional development (SAFT)

The project aims to promote a good use in schools, at both the institutional and the classroom level, of all the materials produced during the national assessment INVALSI and of the good practices developed in connection with. This would encourage an effective use for the learning of the students of their conceptual frames of reference, of the designed tasks for assessment, of the methods of data collecting, and of the results themselves.
This objective will be pursued through the setting up of conceptual and operative tools designed for the different stakeholders: researchers, teachers, schools, local and national stakeholders.
The main expected outcome of this project is the development of models for pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers, based on an effective and conscious use of standardised assessments. We plan to develop ad hoc materials to promote the professionalism of teachers in the use of standardized assessment in classroom. As a preliminary step, a survey of teachers’ beliefs and needs about
assessment and standardised assessment will provide crucial information of societal and scientific relevance.
The project will be developed in five main phases: Collecting Data, Designing the model and the tools, Implementing and validating the models, Defining the final version of the models and the tools, Dissemination.
Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Ferrara
Principal Investigator unibz: Giorgio Bolondi - Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 15/10/2023 – 14/10/2025