Today, at the Alpine Troops Command of the Italian Army, Army Corps General Claudio Berto and Rector Paolo Collini signed two partnership agreements to formalize the collaboration between the University of Trento and the Bolzano-based Command in the coming years. A three-year agreement promotes scientific collaboration between the Alpine Troops Command and the University of Trento, while a four-year agreement involves specifically the Department of Humanities of the University.
In general, the purpose of the collaboration is to implement and consolidate a number of teaching and research activities at the University of Trento. In particular, the agreements aim to promote meetings, conferences, seminars, studies and workshops on a wide range of subjects including geography, weather and snow forecasting, cartography and avalanche studies, and scientific and cultural studies on the mountain environment. The publication of history and science papers, and the participation in national and European research projects are part of the goals.
The framework agreement enables collaborations with different departments of the University in very interesting projects. The Department of Humanities will work with the Alpine Troops Command of the Army in joint initiatives in research, training, informal education, communication, science and culture. Research will focus on the Alpine environment, historical geography, history of geographical thinking, historical and current cartography. Teaching and dissemination activities will also be included.
Research activities supervised by Professor Dai Prà (professor of geography and director of the Geography and cartography research centre-GeCo, created under the memorandum of understanding between the University of Trento, the Autonomous Province of Trento, and the Municipality of Rovereto) may lead to publications (posters, books, papers of maps) on historical geography, historical cartography, local governance, environmental risk management, human-caused risk management, history of geographical thinking. The partnership will also facilitate joint participation in research projects, supervision of dissertations and doctoral theses, scholarships, grants and internships.
Meteomont, the forecast service of the Alpine Troops Command of the Italian Army, created in 1970 to provide data and forecasts on the risk of avalanches, will also be involved in the partnership. Meteomont, with weather stations positioned in many locations on the Alps and Apennines, will play a key role in joint activities to renew and strengthen relationships with local stakeholders and organizations, citizens, tourists, and will promote advanced training. Teaching and dissemination activities will be aimed at schools and citizens with university seminars and other events.
The agreement with the Department includes some higher education activities already in progress on a regular basis, within undergraduate and graduate degree programmes offered by the Department of Humanities, and within the PhD programme in "Cultures of Europe , Environment, Spaces, Stories, Arts, Ideas ", such as historical and cultural visits to military units of the Army, and participation in training activities conducted specifically by the 2nd Sappers Engineers Regiment of Trento, in line with past experience when Army experts provided students with the know-how required for the observation and analysis of the outdoor landscape.
The Alpine Troops Command includes most of the mountain units of the Italian Army and it is responsible for their training and preparation. Located in Bolzano, the Command has got at its dependencies the Alpine Brigades, the Alpine Training Centre and the support units deployed along the Alps and in Abruzzo. It also oversees Meteomont and, on request from civil protection authorities, can provide highly skilled professionals from the Army mountain rescue troops (SSAM).
The Alpine Troops Command is involved in collaborations and research projects with academic and private organizations to promote mountain culture and environmental protection.