Many of the challenges we are facing come from the difficulties and complexity of the times we are in. Institutions are called to address these challenges to ensure a sustainable quality of life for the widest number of people. The agreement that the Municipality of Rovereto and the University of Trento signed today is another step in this direction.
The framework agreement, that will lasts five years from next January, in fact aims to strengthen the collaboration between the City and the University, that will cooperate in initiatives of mutual interest, enhance the presence of the University of Trento in Rovereto and the inter-university collaboration with the University of Verona, maintain and increase the teaching and research activities of UniTrento in Rovereto through more resources and spaces. The areas of intervention are different and range from teaching and learning to research to scientific dissemination initiatives for the citizens of Rovereto. Other initiatives will focus on school and university orientation activities and teacher training. The agreement also aims to rediscover the history of Rovereto and of its notable citizens, its economic, industrial and social aspects, its architecture and tourist attractions, to give visibility to its territory involving other cultural institutions, such as its museums.
Year after year, the partners will make joint planning decisions on actions and activities, providing detailed information on their scientific content, expected impact and costs. Overall, in the last three years, Rovereto allocated more than 600,000 euro mainly for research contracts and collaborations and for dissemination activities aimed at citizens, for example for the conferences of the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences in the field of neuroscience and, in particular, on cognitive decline and active ageing, the events of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science on mental well-being, and specific initiatives for high school students. Among the activities carried out in recent years, it is worth mentioning the development of biomedical silk in Rovereto, the support provided to scholars at risk, the initiatives of the Geography and cartography research centre-GeCo, including in collaboration with the Italian War History Museum, the research work in Mechatronics and the project focused on the life and works of Antonio Rosmini.
Mayor Francesco Valduga underlined the importance of the University's presence in the city: "What we have been through has shown us that skills are important. It is important to provide young people with skills for the future, but also to take advantage of the skills that are already available in our territory. It is with this in mind, and hoping to further integrate the University in our territory, that we sign this agreement that will give us new perspectives".
Deputy Mayor and Municipal Councillor Giulia Robol repeated the importance of investing in education and training for the development of the city: "The efforts made to bring the University of Trento to our city, carried out by several administrations, are renewed today with this agreement that continues on the path that makes Rovereto a protagonist in the area of education and research. We have allocated a significant amount of the budget, and many spaces, for initiatives that are an investment in the growth of the city and the University itself".
Flavio Deflorian, Rector of the University of Trento, said: "The agreement we are renewing today is a valuable resource for the growth of our University and the city of Rovereto, which is a university city. The agreement also confirms the effectiveness of the collaboration between the University and the Municipality and the mutual satisfaction with the many results achieved in recent years. I am pleased that the activities included in the agreement are so varied and interdisciplinary. As a University, we are ready for a fruitful and broad collaboration, to achieve increasingly ambitious goals and strengthen synergies at the local level".
In the last year, the agreement opened the way to several projects. Among these are, for example, the project "Valutazione del benessere lavorativo delle persone che lavorano da remoto" (workplace well-being of people who work from home) by Arianna Costantini, grant holder at Dipsco. While the team led by Lorenzo Avanzi is working on a research study on the impact of working from home, after two years of pandemic that extended the opportunity of remote work to categories of workers who were not used to this working arrangement.
Ilaria Corridori, researcher, talked about the “Sviluppo della seta biomedicale” project of BIOtech, Department of Industrial Engineering, led by professor Antonella Motta, that aims to manufacture medical grade silk in Trentino by rearing silkworms (bombyx mori), together with Lagarina Sas, and to launch a start-up for the production of made in Italy medical grade silk products. Some silk has already been produced in the first year of research. The product can have many possible applications and the results are promising.
Rovereto is also the home of other funded projects, such as CIMeC's "Neuroimaging avanzato per studiare l’invecchiamento", which aims to investigate RM neuroimaging markers that can help identify cognitive decline, thus opening the way to the development of new diagnostic protocols; "Ecocultura. Per un’ecologia della cultura" of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science and the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, that was established to enhance the material and immaterial assets stored in archives, libraries, museums in Trentino; "Imago militaris tridentina: censimento, analisi e valorizzazione della cartografia di origine militare", of the Geography and cartography research centre-GeCo, for the acquisition, study, digitization and valorization of the archive of the Italian War History Museum. Another research project, conducted by the Antonio Rosmini Study and Research Centre, is investigating Antonio Rosmini at the local, national, European and international level.
To conclude, the Cerin project, conducted in collaboration with APSS in the area of neuroscience and rehabilitation, is in its final year.