Members

Founded in 1343, the University of Pisa is one of the most ancient and prestigious universities in Europe, counting today about 54.000 students, 1.604 faculty members and 1.574 administrative staff. Organised in 20 large departments covering all subject areas, Unipi is committed to promoting high-quality research and teaching in all fields of knowledge. The quality of the research of Unipi is attested by a significant number of research projects funded by the European Framework Programmes including fourteen prestigious ERC grants won in different research fields. Projects funded in Horizon 2020; projects funded in Horizon Europe

Unipi is member of several European and international networks like EUA, EOSC Association, Science|Business and UNIMED and is involved in many of the most important EU initiatives related to the framework programmes (e.g. EERA, Biobased Industry Consortium (BIC), European Technology Platform Nanomedicine   (ETPN), International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed  (IPIFF), Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency  (A.SPIRE), Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform  (SNETP), European Food Security Authority  (EFSA) etc.).

Founded in 1240, the University of Siena perfectly combines its historical roots with a forward-looking worldview. Students from different countries (international students are 10% of the total) live in an intercultural town and enjoy innovative teaching courses, 18 of them entirely taught in English. Researchers, whose articles appear in important peer-reviewed journals, work in cutting-edge laboratories and promote spin-off companies. University of Siena’s high-quality research is proven by many independent rankings besides more than 80 EU-funded projects since 2014 until now, 50 under Horizon 2020 (one of the them in the ERC Synergy strand) and 6 under Horizon Europe. Four Departments have been selected by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research as “Departments of Excellence”.

From 2020 to 2022 three major achievements should be stressed:

The establishment of UNISI-IA, the network of University of Siena labs in Artificial Intelligence and the and the UNISI Ethics Committee for Research in the Human and Social Sciences. Within UNISI-IA, the interaction among the labs can take the form of seminars, discussion groups, project building. Such interaction will therefore lead to the sharing of a common base of knowledge which is essential for future perspectives of AI.

Further information are available here: https://sites.google.com/unisi.it/unisi-ia/the-network

Since 2015 the European Commission has been promoting the Seal of Excellence (SoE), a quality label awarded to project proposals submitted to Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe to help successful proposals not receiving fuding by European commission to find alternative funding. In this perspective, the University of Siena promotes, with its own funds, the recruitment of young and promising researchers, thus being able to carry out their research ideas in a stimulating and collaborative work environment within the city of Siena. On 1st December 2021, 4 research fellows selected under the MSCA SoE @ UNISI call started their work at University of Siena. The University of Siena allocated 200,000 euros as part of the 2021 Research Support Plan, with the aim to provide support to 4 projects presented by researchers  who have received an excellent evaluation (i.e. a score higher than 85/100under the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions – Individual Fellowships 2019 and 2020 calls.

Further information are available here: https://en.unisi.it/research/unisi-host-institution-apply-us/seal-excellence

In 2022 UNISI has obtained the accreditation process “HumanResources Strategy for Researchers – HRS4R”,a European label that the European Commission grants to those academic institutions that work to implement the principles of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights Researchers and the Code of Conduct for Their Recruitment and therefore it identifies universities and institutions that generate and support the existence of a stimulating and encouraging research environment.

Further information are available here: https://en.unisi.it/research/hrs4r-human-resources-strategy-researchers

Being part of the central administration, the DRGM provides professional support to researchers and administrative staff during the whole research project lifecycle. After information about funding opportunities, RGM Division can help researchers to submit a competitive application, including matchmaking and budgeting. Moreover, it has a consulting role in negotiation, management and reporting phases.

Discover DRGM on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/usiena-ricerca

The University for Foreigners of Siena is a public university whose mission is to study the interaction between the Italian language and culture with other languages and cultures to promote processes of encounters, dialogue and mediation between people from different languages and cultures. The University is specialized in teaching Italian to foreigners, in scientific research on the diffusion of Italian language and culture in the world and in the mediation of the contact between Italian and foreign cultures.

The University for Foreigners of Siena is also involved in the training of professionals specialized in linguistic and intercultural contact, as well as in the training and updating of Italian teachers to foreigners. The University for Foreigners of Siena has only one and very active Department, which has been selected by the Italian Ministry of University and Research as “Department of Excellence 2018-2022”.

The University received eleven times the European Language Label, a recognition that is awarded each year by the European Commission to the most innovative projects that promote language teaching and learning. The University has also undertaken, since 2009, the UNI EN ISO 9001: 2008 certified Quality Course, which covers all the didactic and instrumental activities related to degree courses, language courses, CILS and DITALS language and teaching certifications.

The University for Foreigners of Siena offers the following degrees and certifications: undergraduate bachelor’s degrees (three years); postgraduate master’s degrees (two years); one-year postgraduate non-degree courses (master level I and master level II); postgraduate studies; Ph.D studies; Italian language and culture courses for foreigners; training, refresher and specialization courses for teachers; e-learning and distance education; certifications for language learners and teachers.

All of the undergraduate degree courses, master’s degrees, master programmes, postgraduate schools and certifications of teaching competences are open to Italian and foreign students. They include courses in teaching and promoting Italian language and culture, linguistic and cultural mediation and translation in the tourism business. The Italian language and culture courses are intended for foreigners, who may also sit the Certificate of Italian as a Foreign Language (CILS) exams.

At the University for Foreigners of Siena students can learn European languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan, as well as non-European languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Ukrainian and Turkish (Swahili since a.y. 2023/2024) to become a professional in the tourism, translation, economics, legal and sociological fields.

The research projects of the University for Foreigners of Siena, co-financed with extra-European, European, national and regional funds, involve multi-disciplinary scholars whose studies relate to the following scientific-disciplinary fields: IUS-14; L-ANT/06; L-ART/01-02-03-04-06; L-FIL-LET/04-10-11-12-13-14; L-LIN/01-02-04-07-09-12-14-21; L-OR/12-21-22; M-DEA/01; M-FIL/05; M-GGR/01; M-PED/01; M-STO/01-02-04. The researches carried out broach different topics focused on language issues and on the analysis and mapping of migratory phenomena from the point of view of contact, education and linguistic and cultural mediation: from the education of Italian L2 through new technologies (MOOCs) to the study of immigrant languages in Italian society and culture; from historical and comparative linguistics to Italian lexicography and lexicology; from textual philology to etymological and semantic studies of specific lexical areas; from aspects of morphosyntax to the theory and practice of literary and audiovisual translation from Italian into Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Korean, French, Japanese, English, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, German (and vice versa). Studies then focus on the following topics centered on the history of culture from ancient times to the present day: from the history and protection of cultural heritage, with a focus on painting and sculpture and on the archives of artistic culture, to the history of the Italian language; from European political and cultural history to that of educational and research institutions; from the history of historiography to socio-religious history and of migratory movements. Lastly, the University for Foreigners of Siena carries out research on the following themes: from the philology of Italian literature to scientific, odeporetic and post-colonial literature; from dialectology and linguistic geography to epistology and memoirism; from ethnographic research on refugees to medical, gender and visual anthropology; from gender studies to the geography of work, to socio-political geography and the international protection of human rights, in particular of the vulnerable.

The IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca is a Public University School for Higher Education and Research with a special statute that focuses on the analysis of economic, societal, technological and cultural systems.

The IMT School promotes the full integration of research and education.
Since its institution by ministerial decree of November 18th 2005, the School has distinguished itself thanks to the quality and innovativeness of its research and doctoral program and its interdisciplinary nature, characterized by the complementarity and discourse between methodologies drawn from economics, engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, physics, archeology, art history and the analysis and management of cultural heritage.

The fusion between art and technology is also reflected in the School state-of-the-art Campus, located principally in the newly restored San Francesco Complex. The entire campus is found within the historic city center of Lucca, which is completely surrounded by a fully-intact Renaissance-era walls. The campus includes spaces for research and laboratories, courses, and living and recreation. The campus is completed by the IMT Library, which offers a plethora of resources and offers additional working and research areas for the IMT community, and the city of Lucca in general.

The School’s research agenda is decidedly interdisciplinary, and is characterized by the complementarity and discourse between methodologies drawn from economics, engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, physics, archeology, cognitive and social neuroscience, art history and the analysis and management of cultural heritage. The IMT School is characterized therefore by the simultaneous presence of multiple analysis methodologies, able to interact at both the educational and the research level.

The interdisciplinary nature of the School translates into the various research areas, articulated in Research Units that cover distinct disciplines, namely: archaeology and art history, including disciplines such as law, economics and the management of cultural heritage; theory and methodologies of empirical research applied to the analysis of social, financial and production systems, with particular emphasis on the analysis of the evolution of institutions, markets and socio-economic networks; cyber-physical systems that range from computer science to control techniques, computational mechanics and numerical methods for mathematical modelling and the simulation of natural and artificial physical systems and cognitive, social and computational neuroscience, focusing in particular on the in vivo study of the neurobiological correlates of cognitive functions, emotions and behaviour in economic and social spheres.

The Research and Technology transfer Office supports scientific research and innovation as well as relationships with businesses. In particular, it provides information, support and assistance services on financial, management and administrative aspects to projects funded by national, European and international bodies, both public and private as well as on intellectual property, patents, software protection, spin-offs and start-ups.

Since 2015 the Office collaborates with the Joint Technology Transfer Office JoTTO set up with Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Scuola Normale Superiore, Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS Pavia. JoTTO focuses on the exploitation of research results (management of Intellectual Property, licensing activities, start-up creation) derived from the activities developed as part of various projects and laboratories. Moreover, it also organizes courses, events and opportunities for the research valorisation across various scientific fields and about the Third University Mission. In 2020, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) and Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) have joint JoTTO.

The IMT School also belongs to the Regional Technology Transfer Office (URTT) which, on the initiative of the Tuscany Region, brings together the universities of the Tuscan territory to promote collaboration with companies through scouting initiatives and the enhancement of patents and skills.

The Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa is a public institute for higher education with unique features: students’ selection exclusively based on merit, lessons on a seminar basis, deeply intertwined teaching and research, an integrated college life and the encouragement of international exchanges based on the best European model of higher education. SNS was founded by Napoleon, over 200 years ago, on the model of the Ecole Normale Superieure in France, and has, since, kept the highest teaching and academic standards. The institution has a long and excellent tradition of academic research and a remarkable experience in fostering brilliant academic researchers in the areas of hard sciences and humanities.

Two types of course are available: the undergraduate course and the PhD course.

Teaching activity takes place in three academic structures: the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Sciences, placed in Pisa; the Department of political and social sciences located in Florence.

SNS is part of a wide network of higher education centers worldwide targeting student exchange, joint research programs, professor exchange.

The Research and Technology Transfer Office is in charge of promoting funding opportunities for research and for the management and reporting of research projects funded by national and international institutions.

SNS promotes as well the exploitation of research results, mainly in terms of support for intellectual property protection, start-up creation and collaborative research activities (projects, infrastructures, labs) with industry. Since 2015, a Joint Technology Transfer Office (JoTTO) has been created by Scuola Normale, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa, Scuola IMT Alti Studi di Lucca and Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS Pavia in order to provide unified services. Recently two other public institutes for higher education have joint JoTTO: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) and Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI).