Press releases

Trieste is gearing up to host the third edition of the Big Science Business Forum (BSBF) in 2024, an international business-oriented conference that brings together major European research infrastructures. The stages leading up to the forum, set to take place from October 1 to 4 of next year at the Trieste Convention Center located within the Old Port of the regional capital, were unveiled today at Trieste Next, as part of the event “Non solo ricerca. Il valore delle infrastrutture scientifiche per l’economia e la società” (Not just research. The value of scientific infrastructures for economy and society), organized by Area Science Park in collaboration with SiS FVG. Trieste’s selection for BSBF 2024 is no accident: the city has one of the highest concentrations of researchers in Europe and is home to many national and international centers of scientific excellence. Among these is the Consortium for Central European Research Infrastructure (CERIC), an open access point to some of the most advanced scientific investigation structures from eight Central European countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary) in the fields of materials, biomaterials, and nanotechnology, with a special focus on energy and life sciences. “Unlike other external innovation support programs, BSBF is an initiative independently promoted by the scientific community to facilitate the meeting between research and international industry,” explains Paolo Acunzo of ENEA, Director of BSBF Trieste 2024 activities. “The fact that this important forum will be held in Italy for the first time is a clear acknowledgment of the leading role our national system has taken in building a European Big Science market. Until 2025, Trieste will be at the center of attention of the diverse world of Big Science, and as early next week, on September 26, representatives of all major international infrastructures will meet in Trieste to agree on the next joint activities in preparation for BSBF Trieste 2024 ” concludes Acunzo. Trieste’s candidacy, supported by Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia on the initiative of the regional councilor Alessia Rosolen and the Italian government, was also backed by the Central European Initiative, the first International Forum for Regional Cooperation based in Trieste. Co-organizers of the forum include a series of international research centers: CERN, ESA, ESO, ESRF, ESS, European XFEL, FAIR, ILL, F4E, SKAO. The local organizing committee consists of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Municipality of Trieste, Area Science Park, Promo Turismo FVG, the University of Trieste, and the Chamber of Commerce Venezia Giulia. Additional partners are the Industrial Liaison Offices: ILO (Denmark), ILO (Spain), and ILO Network Italia, a network made up of representatives from CNR, ENEA, INAF, and INFN. BSBF aims to be the first “one-stop-shop” for European companies and other organizations interested in interacting with large European scientific organizations. The goal is to create a common market for big science in Europe that is stronger, more transparent, and efficient, without entry barriers for industrial suppliers looking to establish relationships with large research installations. The first edition of BSBF, hosted by the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a huge success. Similar results were achieved by the second BSBF edition held in Granada, Spain: more than 1,000 delegates from over 500 companies and organizations from 30 countries attended. The exhibition area featured over 200 companies and organizations, and over 790 B2B and B2C meetings took place during the event. BSBF offered insights into procurement opportunities and contracts for companies worth nearly 10 billion euros in total per year.

The long-awaited start of the North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley (NAHV) is here at last. The first transnational initiative of this kind under the Horizon Europe program, supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, is being launched in Portorož-Portorose, Slovenia. More than 100 delegates representing 37 project partners from three countries, Croatia, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region in Italy, and Slovenia, will gather there for a project kick-off meeting. Beginning on 1st September 2023, the NAHV will run for 72 months. It includes 17 pilots to be developed in different locations in all three partner countries. The partnership, which has been awarded a grant of €25 million by Clean Hydrogen Partnership, and is led by HSE, Slovenia’s largest electricity producer and trader and the largest producer of electricity from renewable sources, includes 37 organizations: companies, universities, institutes and other public entities from the three participating countries, including Area Science Park. The project design covers the entire value chain of renewable hydrogen use, from production, through storage and distribution, to its end use in various sectors, notably industry and land and maritime transport, creating leverage to accelerate the transition to renewables on three target pillars: hard-to-abate industries, and the energy and transport sectors. These are the main reasons why the NAHV has received the Seal of Excellence, which is awarded under Horizon Europe to projects that have been highly rated. The key aim of the initiative is to create a market for green hydrogen on both the demand and supply sides, making it a competitive energy source for the future. Key industry players from all three countries will develop pilot projects to produce up to 5,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year from renewable energy sources, destined for energy storage, distribution and use. It is expected that some 20% of the produced renewable hydrogen will be exchanged between the participating countries, thus creating a primary regional market for hydrogen. By introducing advanced hydrogen technologies and developing skills and infrastructure, the partnership also pursues other key objectives of the European Green Deal. In particular, the NAHV testbed projects address the decarbonization of important industrial sectors such as steel, cement and glass production, and provide sustainable land and maritime transport solutions linked to reducing the carbon footprint. It is expected that the implementation of the planned mature stage innovation activities will unleash further investments in renewable hydrogen-related technologies in an amount of more than €300 million, destined to increase the capacity of hydrogen production, storage, transmission and use. Additional investments are expected to be funded on top, both during the course of the project implementation and afterwards, from private and public sources in the form of follow-up investments in the successfully implemented pilots in 17 testbed locations across the three participating countries, as well as through new initiatives which will contribute to the evolution of a social and economic ecosystem based on renewable hydrogen. The foreseen development creates the need for new competencies and skills, which makes the universities and research institutions which are partners in the initiative important protagonists in designing and disseminating new educational programmes, as the NAHV is destined to become a vehicle for job creation.

ICGEB Group Leader, Mouse Molecular Genetics Lab, Dr. Andrés F. Muro and Research Associate, Dr. Giulia Bortolussi have taken part in the European research project CureCN, which aims to develop a curative gene therapy for the ultra-rare Crigler-Najjar syndrome (CN) – a life-threatening liver disease which affects one in a million individuals at birth. The project commenced in 2013 and is led by Généthon, France and sponsored by the European Commission programme H2020. The consortium includes 11 partners from six European countries and has involved the external collaboration of ICGEB which was pivotal in generating pre-clinical data using its Ugt1a KO mouse model, thus setting the basis for the subsequent clinical translation of the trial. The results of the trial were published on 17 August in a joint manuscript in the New England Journal of Medicine, co-authored by Dr. Bortolussi and Dr. Muro. These represent the first clinical demonstration of the efficacy of gene therapy in a metabolic disease of the liver, demonstrating the safety and tolerance for the treatment as well as its efficacy at the highest dose. The trial demonstrated restored long-term expression of the missing enzyme with a large reduction in plasma bilirubin levels in the three adult patients treated with the highest dose. The current part of the study, launched in January 2023, aims to confirm the observed effect in a larger number of patients including children aged 10 years and over, the age at which the liver matures. Should the results be conclusive, this would enable a product license application at the French and European authorities. Dr. Muro states: “We are very proud of our contribution to the trial. The obtained in-patient results represent a fundamental step forward towards the application of gene therapy non only for Crigler-Najjar patients, but also for other liver genetic diseases. This is the first report of a long-term correction of a disease caused by a non-secreted liver protein.”

Research published in the journal Nature Physics presents a new method for greater understanding of quantum materials. Employing an experimental technique using the synchrotron light source, an international team of researchers – including Italian organisations, the IOM Materials Foundry of the National Research Council of Trieste (CNR-IOM), University of Bologna, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and La Statale University of Milan – have succeeded in measuring the “winding” of electrons, a property that determines certain particular characteristics of materials, knowledge which will be essential for their possible use in future advanced applications. The study, conducted at Sincrotrone Elettra in Trieste, also involved academics from the University of Würzburg (Germany), the University of St. Andrews (UK), Boston College (US) and the University of Santa Barbara (US). “The quantum properties of materials determine the behaviour of electrons, including their ‘topological winding’, meaning the curvature of the space in which they move within matter,” explains Ivana Vobornik, a researcher at CNR-IOM in Trieste. “By studying this property, one can identify the quantum properties of a certain material, and this enables greater understanding for applications in various technological fields, from renewable energy to biomedicine, and from electronics to quantum computers.” Specifically, the team focused on a class of materials known as “kagome materials”, named for their close resemblance to woven bamboo threads in traditional Japanese baskets. “These materials are revolutionising quantum physics due to their magnetic, topological and superconducting properties. Understanding these properties is therefore key,” adds the researcher. “To measure the characteristic of electron winding, an experimental technique was employed that relies on a synchrotron light source. In this case, measurements were conducted at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste. Synergy with theoretical analysis and the use of powerful supercomputers was also key: theoretical simulations made it possible to guide the experiments to the specific area of the material in which the properties being studied manifest”. Rome, 12 June 2023 Image caption: Three perspectives of the surface on which electrons move, the Fermi surface. Left, the experimental result; centre and right, theoretical modelling. The colours red and blue represent a measure of electron speed. Both theory and experiment reflect the symmetry of the crystal, present in the Japanese “kagome” weave used to make traditional baskets. Summary Who: IOM Materials Foundry of the National Research Council of Trieste (CNR-IOM), University of Bologna, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and La Statale University of Milan, University of Würzburg (Germany), University of St. Andrews (UK), Boston College (US) and the University of Santa Barbara (US). What: “Flat band separation and robust spin Berry curvature in bilayer kagome metals”, Nature Physics (2023), DOI 10.1038/s41567-023-02053-z., link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-023-02053-z For information: Flavia Mancini, CNR-IOM, email: mancini@iom.cnr.it, mob.: +39 328 1230247, Giancarlo Panaccione, CNR-IOM, panaccione@iom.cnr.it, mob.: +39 335 5368898, Ivana Vobornik, CNR-Iom: vobornik@iom.cnr.it, mob.: +39 339 3967854 (contact details for professional use not to be published).

“Area Science Park is a hub for global, and above all Italian, knowledge, intelligence and expertise. It represents a concentration of our ability to excel. This area is the nucleus of a growing and ever stronger scientific community. A community that shows us again and again how powerful academic cooperation can be both for Italy’s innovation and as a diplomatic tool with international partners.” These were the words of the Minister for Universities and Research Anna Maria Bernini, during her visit to Area Science Park today, where she was welcomed by the President of the research institute, Prof. Caterina Petrillo, and General Manager Anna Sirica. Others present included the Regional Councillor for Research, Alessia Rosolen; the Mayor of Trieste, Roberto Di Piazza; the Prefect, Pietro Signoriello; and representatives of the scientific and technological institutions of SiS FVG, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Science and Innovation System. The President, Prof. Petrillo illustrated the core activities, strategic priorities and future development prospects of the research body to Minister Bernini, focusing on the investments that Area Science Park is making in the field of research and technological infrastructure. “We are very pleased that the Minister of Universities and Research has accepted our invitation to visit the institution and meet representatives of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region’s Scientific and Innovation System,” commented President Caterina Petrillo after the meeting with the ministerial delegation. “Area Science Park is a national research institution under the aegis of the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR), with a unique profile and expertise developed over 45 years in the field of research and innovation serving the country. Today, thanks in part to funding from the MUR National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the institution is taking a further step forward, investing in new state-of-the-art equipment and attracting young talent. In fact, alongside two national partners, we are working on the finalisation of two research structures, one dedicated to the study of pathogens and another to the study of innovative materials.” Later, the Minister had the opportunity to visit some of the most important business and scientific entities at Area Science Park, starting with modefinance, a company with a technological and financial foundation, now part of the TeamSystem group. Modefinance is a native fintech company, founded in 2009 as a University of Trieste spin-off and incubated at Area Science Park, and develops artificial-intelligence and data-science solutions for credit risk assessment and management. Next was the ICGEB (International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology), an intergovernmental organisation with 45 cutting-edge laboratories across three continents. It forms an interactive network of 68 member states, with operations aligned with those of the United Nations System. It plays a key role in biotechnology by promoting research excellence, training and technology transfer to industry, making a tangible contribution to global sustainable development. At ICGEB, welcomed by centre Director-General Lawrence Banks, the Minister visited the Tumour Virology, Bacteriology, and Functional Cell Biology laboratories. In the afternoon, the ministerial delegation moved to the Basovizza campus, where Minister Bernini visited Area Science Park’s Laboratory of Genomics and Epigenomics (LAGE), a leading national centre in the field of genomics and epigenomics and a key element of the Life Sciences Platform, an open research structure providing expertise and services aimed at experimental testing, and applied and industrial research projects, and which will be further enhanced thanks to MUR National Recovery and Resilience Plan funds. The next stop was the R&D laboratories of Alifax, one of the most important Italian companies specialising in the development, production and distribution of clinical diagnostic tools for laboratory automation, with a strong focus on scientific research and technological innovation supported by a constant programme of investments. Before leaving Area Science Park, the Minister visited Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste,the third-generation Italian synchrotron radiation facility serving the national and international scientific and industrial community. Alongside Elettra, since 2010 there has been Free Electron Laser FERMI, one of the few laser facilities of this type operational in the world, capable of ultrashort, microscopic observations at the atomic and molecular level. The Minister’s busy day ended with a visit to the icebreaker ship “Laura Bassi” of the OGS – National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics.

PICOSATS today announced the signing of a contract with the space logistics transportation company D-Orbit for the In-Orbit Demonstration of the RADIOSAT Ka-band transponder and the BEAMSAT K/Ka band horn antenna aboard the ION Satellite Carrier. ION Satellite Carrier is a multipurpose vehicle capable of performing satellite transport, payload hosting and advanced edge computing services in orbit in a single mission. The mission is scheduled for October 2023 and the target orbit is SSO, at an altitude of 500 – 600 km. “This opportunity will enable PICOSATS to reach flight heritage and enter the SATCOM equipment market with flight proven products” said Arianna Cagliari, VP Business Development. Founded in 2014 as a spin-off of the University of Trieste, PICOSATS is a company committed to the research, development, and commercialization of cutting-edge telecommunications systems for the small satellite market and beyond. The increasing use of small satellites in low orbits for satellite communications and the spectrum congestion has demanded the development of high-frequency, miniaturized telecommunications systems, and PICOSATS has seized the opportunity to enter this rapidly expanding market. PICOSATS is currently testing in an operational environment two transponders designed for CubeSats and small satellites, one in K/Ka and one in Ku-band for applications in LEO and GEO. The development of these products makes use of the know-how acquired by the company through various opportunities provided by the European and Italian Space Agencies. Along with the transponders, PICOSATS has also developed K/Ka-band and Ku-band horn antennas, and a V-band double reflector antenna for small satellites.

The kick off meeting at the Area Science Park officially got the “Pathogen Readiness Platform for CERIC-ERIC Upgrade” PRP@CERIC underway, the national project funded by Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (Ministero dell’università e della ricerca — MUR) within the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza — PNRR) and coordinated by the research institute Area Science Park in partnership with the National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche — CNR) (Institute of Materials [Istituto Officina dei Materiali] and Institute of Crystallography [Istituto di Cristallografia]), the University of Salerno, the University of Naples and the University of Salento. The project, which can count on funding of 41 million euro, aims to create a highly specialised research infrastructure, unique in Europe, which integrates instruments and expertise in biology, biochemistry, physics, bio-electronics, bio-informatics and data science to study pathogens of human, animal and plant origin and intervene quickly to prevent the spread of potential new outbreaks of diseases. A multidisciplinary approach is the key to achieving the fundamental and applied research objectives that the project aims to implement in compliance with the DNSH (Do No Significant Harm) principle, namely, not to cause significant harm to the environment. In line with practices already in place at the Area Science Park and Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste laboratories, both academic and industrial users will be provided open access to the new infrastructure for studies and analyses. PRP@CERIC provides for the construction of new laboratories, as well as the updating of existing instruments and services. In fact, the laboratories of Area Science Park, Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, CNR and ICGEB (institutes of scientific excellence collaborating to implement the project) will be potentiated. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to leverage solid scientific principles and interdisciplinary and international collaboration, which are all fundamental to successfully reducing the human, social and economic impact of potential future risks of epidemics. Research infrastructures can play a key role in understanding the fundamental aspects of pathogenicity and in the effective development of prevention and healthcare strategies. Cutting-edge instruments, methodologies and technologies on diverse and mutually integrated scales (from single molecules to whole organisms) have the potential to meet the sensitivity and selectivity requirements required by the study of complex biological systems, thus contributing to shedding new light on host-pathogen interaction mechanisms. “The PRP@CERIC project was developed based on the expertise in genomics and data science already present at the research institute, integrating these competencies with those of the Area Science Park system. I refer, for example, to the research excellence in the field of virology at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), as well as the experimental capabilities of the Electra synchrotron light source, a research centre of international importance”, commented the President of Area Science Park, Caterina Petrillo, during the project’s kick off meeting. “This consolidated scientific expertise is complemented by certain specialties at the universities of Naples, Salento and Salerno, partners with whom we have already developed projects of national importance. The integration of varied expertise and the networking of laboratories located in different geographical areas will create a unique infrastructure in Europe that will be at the service of the world of research and business, nationally and internationally”. The PRP@CERIC project, which will continue for 30 months, it also adheres to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data guidelines, that is, the data produced will be processed in such a way as to be easily available, accessible, interoperable and reusable, in the spirit of open and collaborative science at an international level. Sustainability will also be extended to models of higher education, since the project involves the setting up of master’s course for graduates and training for the next generation of researchers. The “Pathogen Readiness Platform for CERIC-ERIC Upgrade” PRP@CERIC project is funded by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) under Mission 4 “Education and Research”, Component 2 “From Research to Enterprise”, Investment Line 3.1 “Fund for the creation of an integrated system of research and innovation infrastructures”, funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU.

An international research team led by Milan’s Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies – part of the National Research Council (Cnr-lfn) – has used an innovative approach to investigate the chirality of molecules, an essential property to develop technologically innovative solutions in the fields of materials science, pharmaceutics, and catalysis processes. The study was conducted at the laboratories of the Elettra Synchrotron Research Centre in Trieste, home to the FERMI free-electron laser. This is a last generation instrument that has enabled chirality at the level of individual atoms to be “photographed” during an ultrafast process. The results of the study have been published in the scientific journal Physical Review X. “A chiral molecule is not superimposable on its mirror image: in other words, it is a molecule that does not have mirror symmetry, and that exists in two different forms, called enantiomers, which cannot be superimposed by rotation or translation”, explained Caterina Vozzi, director of Cnr-lfn. “Understanding this property is important to many aspects of chemistry, biology and physics: the chemical reactivity and biological and pharmacological activity of chiral molecules can vary significantly depending on the configuration of the enantiomers. In applications with these complex molecules, it is therefore important to understand how each atom contributes to total chirality, especially during chemical reactions”. In the study, the variation of the chiral properties of a molecule were analysed over time using the radiation produced by a free electron laser (FEL), a cutting-edge technology that produces extremely intense and short pulses of light, lasting a few femtoseconds (1 femtosecond corresponds to a millionth of a billionth of a second). “The FERMI free electron laser is the only one in the world capable of producing pulses of circularly polarized light capable of exploring these phenomena. This type of light is able to provide detailed information on the structure and dynamics of molecules, opening up new perspectives in basic and applied research ”, added Oksana Plekan, researcher at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, co-author of the study. “In this study, we have shown how the chirality of a molecule changes during an ultrafast process when we observe it from the perspective of the atoms forming it. This ability to observe chirality from multiple points of view is similar to stereoscopic vision in humans, thanks to which we can perceive the depth and three-dimensionality of the world around us”, stated Davide Faccialà, researcher at Cnr-Ifn and first author of the study. “The technique we have demonstrated enables us to observe in real time how the chirality of a molecule changes at an unprecedented level of detail, opening up new avenues for understanding the chemical and physical properties of chiral molecules in chemical reactions”. The study demonstrated the importance of combining expertise in different scientific fields to achieve innovative results in research. ———– The Italian Institute for the Structure of Matter (Istituto di struttura della materia — Ism) of the National Research Council (Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche — Cnr), the French National Centre of Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) and the University of Bordeaux (France), the University of Nottingham (UK), the German Electron Synchrotron (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) and the University of Hamburg (Germany), the Polytechnic University of Milan (Politecnico di Milano) (Italy), the University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia), the Sincrotrone Soleil (France) and the University of Tokyo (Japan) contributed to the research.

A close collaboration between scientific institutes and companies in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region has produced promising results in the treatment of difficult wounds. A new advanced therapy for the effective resolution of difficult wounds has been published in the Nature group journal npj Regenerative Medicine. The study has shown how certain fat cells, named Stromal Vascular Fraction or SVF, are able to promote the formation of new blood vessels at the wound level, with important acceleration of healing time. Difficult wounds are extremely painful skin lesions that do not heal, and in fact worsen over time. This is caused by the coexistence of underlying chronic diseases, primarily diabetes and peripheral arterial disease, which do not allow adequate vascularization of the wound, which is necessary to ensure sufficient oxygen and nutrient supply, and thus healing. This is a common condition in people over 60, at least as common as heart failure, with major limitations in daily activities. The economic implications are important. About 3 percent of the global health budget is spent on the care of difficult wounds, which require specialized and expensive therapies: in Italy, more than 3 billion euros per year. Added to this is the reduction in the patient’s ability to work and the sometimes constant need for health care. This research, led by Serena Zacchigna, head of the Cardiovascular Biology Laboratory at the ICGEB and professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Trieste, was made possible by the PREFER project-Development of a Biocompatible PRoduct for the tErapy of Difficult FERites, funded by the 2014-2020 European Regional Development Fund Operational Program of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In addition to ICGEB and UniTS, two regional companies, Zeta Research and Vivabiocell, led the project. “Currently available therapies are based on the application of skin substitutes to promote wound healing,” Zacchigna explains, “However, their effectiveness is limited by the inadequate vascularization that usually underlies this disease. How does this new therapy work? We took cells derived from the patients’ adipose tissue and applied them to the wound bed. After a few days, we observed the formation of a new vascular network, functional and connected with the pre-existing vessels.” “Restoring adequate blood supply to the wound is critical to support healing of the skin lesion,” continues Giovanni Papa, UniTS professor and Director of the Plastic Surgery Unit of the Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Giuliano Isontina (ASUGI), which provided the cells and enabled validation of the efficacy. Collaboration between academia and business enabled this first milestone toward better care and quality of life for people with difficult wounds. Crucial to this journey was the participation of VivaBioCell, a leading manufacturer of bioreactors for cell therapies, which brought its industrial expertise and ability to transform research results into implementable solutions in a clinical reality. “The joint work between us academic researchers, hospital clinicians and the industrial research and development department was essential to define concrete goals that were compatible with the needs of the industrial scaling-up process,” says Roman Vuerich, first author of the paper and a doctoral student at UniTS and ICGEB. “This project was an example of how the synergy between academia and business can lead to concrete solutions to public health challenges.” “We are confident that this collaboration can continue in the future to bring an advanced therapy product to patients and serve as a beacon to promote other collaborative projects between research centers, hospitals and industry. Only through funding that supports the synergy between these entities will we be able to ensure that research results reach patients and that this can also happen in Italy,” Zacchigna and Papa concluded in unison. Link to the paper.

Trieste, 20 December 2022 – The research programme REFIBER, developed by Area Science Park and Innovando srl landed in Paris, as part of efforts to establish a national recycling chain for fibreglass boat hulls. The meeting took place at the recent Paris Boat Show, one of the most important events in the sector, seeing some 150,000 visitors and 650 exhibitors in attendance. “We met with representatives of the ‘Association pour la Plaisance Eco-Responsable (APER)’, the French consortium for collecting and dismantling pleasure boats and watercrafts, which today represents European best practice in the sector,” said Marcello Guaiana,president of the Temporary Association of Scope implementing the REFIBER programme. Our goal is to find the convergence between our research initiative and APER’s operations, to jointly evaluate innovative technologies for recycling materials from dismantling, and solutions for replacing critical materials to improve the sustainability of these vessels.” How to decommission and manage the disposal of end-of-life pleasure crafts is a major environmental, and socio-economic, issue. To date, there is still no structured collection model in Italy to correctly manage 10-24 m boats at the end of their life. So much so that, over the last ten years, only a very small percentage of the approximately 10,000 vessels removed from the official registers have been properly managed. The aim of REFIBER is to create a hub to concentrate and exploit the flows of materials left after a boat has been decommissioned. One of these materials is fibreglass, a multi-layered material made up of plastic and glass, which accounts for the largest proportion at 60% by weight and is the most difficult to process. One management model being analysed as part of the programme is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) model, already well established in other fields. This model involves both the manufacturers and distributors from within the sector. “We want to contribute, in a coordinated way, to a harmonised development of European sector standards,” said Ivana Lazarevic, deputy director general of APER. “By working together, it will be easier to establish and share communication and awareness-raising activities with national and international stakeholders.” At this stage, the focus of the REFIBER programme is pleasure boats, but the system may be opened up to include vessels under 10 metres in the future. Francesco Di Pierro and Cveta Majtanovic of Innovando both hope that, “better mutual communication can speed up implementation of the REFIBER programme, building on APER’s many years of experience with private operators and public institutions, and sharing more good operating practices”. “In the medium term,” concluded Matilde Cecchi of Area Science Park, “we will be able to assess the optimum conditions for promoting and implementing collaborative initiatives and research projects aimed at experimenting with new technologies, to make the nautical sector more sustainable”.

The Mediterranean region warms 20% faster than other regions in the world and local authorities are at the forefront of the actions for adapting to and mitigating the multiple impacts of climate change. To this end the Urban Transports Community*, an Interreg MED Programme initiative, promotes sustainable urban mobility planning in the Euro-Mediterranean region as an effective tool to reduce carbon emissions and improve the quality of life of the population and the environment. The Community has gathered together almost 200 organisations (public authorities, associations, mobility planners, universities and international organisations, amongst others) from 12 Euro-Mediterranean countries. In support of local authorities it has elaborated and published a selection of tools and solutions with the highest replicability potential. As part of the project, the Area Science Park experts have developed several reports which constitute reference guides and a scientific basis for policy makers and urban planners to develop the planning of mobility and related infrastructures. Urban mobility Adaptation to Climate Change is the topic of the latest policy brief presented on December 14th 2022 during the online event “Mediterranean cities and climate change: making the urban transport sector more resilient and less impactful”. The policy brief describes the main impacts of climate change on urban mobility, with the aim of raising awareness among policy makers, suggesting possible solutions to minimize its effects and make the mobility system more resilient to climate change. Transport infrastructures will be exposed, in the next decades, to an increasing number of new challenges from climate impacts. Panning today for the construction of new and the management of existing infrastructures will require the consideration of new environmental, climatic and socio-economic parameters and conditions with respect to those used in the past. During the project Area Science Park drafted two other technical reports. The first one focused on the analysis of technological trends relating to electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and the second one on the spread of automated vehicles in the cities. The reports are available here: https://urban-transports.interreg-med.eu/policy-briefs/ *The Urban Transports Community is featured by a project led by MedCities (Barcelona, Spain), in partnership with UNIMED Mediterranean Universities Union (Rome, Italy), Area Science Park (Trieste, Italy), CODATU (Lyon, France), CIVINET CY-EL (Cyprus-Greece), POLIS, Cities and Regions for transport innovation (Brussels, Belgium), and Durres Municipality (Durres, Albania).

Alzheimer’s disease is not the same for men and women: certain molecular mechanisms in fact differ between the two sexes, particularly in terms of metabolism of an amino acid that has recently been proposed as an early marker of this disease and which would therefore not be equally reliable for men and women. These are the findings of an Italian study published in “Cell Reports” in September and led by the University of Milan, with collaboration of the Insubria University, University of Milano-Bicocca, Rome’s Tor Vergata University and the Area Science Park Genomics and Epigenomics Laboratory (LAGE). The research paves the way for distinct and personalised treatment based on gender. Researchers analysed post-mortem samples from the brains of men and women with normal ageing and from patients of Alzheimer’s disease. Area Science Park’s contribution, explains Danilo Licastro, Head of LAGE, was focused on genomic and epigenomic analysis. The greatest challenge was to define and implement an analysis protocol that was compatible with the RNA tissue samples sent by the University of Tor Vergata and previously provided by biobanks, because this post-mortem tissue did not present the same quality as fresh tissue. Analysis highlighted marked differences in terms of the metabolic pathways altered. Two examples are insulin response and metabolism of the amino acid serine (which generates an important regulator of cerebral function, D-Serine). This is of particular interest because D-Serine modulates neurotransmission and also because its levels in the blood have been proposed as an early marker of this disease. “These results demonstrate how Alzheimer’s changes and, in certain aspects, inverts some features in the two sexes”, commented Elisa Maffioli, from the University of Milan, “highlighting how different mechanisms are active or not based on gender and opening the possibility of treatment with innovative approaches that differ for men and women”.   Read the whole article: Insulin and serine metabolism as sex-specific hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease in the human hippocampus