We promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and encourage turning ideas into solutions. We actively collaborate with external partners, social organizations and communities to address contemporary social challenges.

Through interdisciplinary research, networking and promoting sustainable solutions, we aim to improve the well-being of local communities and others. Our focus goes beyond theory, translating innovative ideas into concrete actions that have a tangible impact on people and society as a whole.

For us, social innovation is a practical guide to actively contribute to building a better and fairer future.

CLAIM. Contamination Lab Inner Mountain Areas

Together with the Ossola Valleys Mountain Union, with this project we were awarded funding from the tender included in the Area Strategy “The eco-community of the Ossola Valleys. New energies for a new development path", prepared as part of the "National Strategy for Inner Areas, Ossola Valleys Pilot Area" and approved by the Piedmont Regional Authority.

We seized this opportunity, merging different disciplinary skills: from economics to anthropology, from sustainability to the "hard" sciences, from law to tourism. This holistic approach allows us to achieve our three missions of research, teaching and public engagement in one fell swoop.

Between 2022 and 2024, we are carrying out initiatives, projects, orientation events and high-level training courses aimed at students, local administrators, people involved in the third sector, young people looking for employment, and people wishing to update or specialise.

The common objectives are:

• Guide students towards university studies and prevent their moving out to other regions/countries
• attract students with innovative training courses
• develop research activities on topics of local interest.

The topics, one per year, are:

• green economy, sustainability and circular economy
• enhancement and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage
• knowledge of tourism in inner areas

The 50-hour advanced training courses are completely free for a maximum number of 25 participants.

The Study Days bring together the top national experts in the sectors involved, and are open to the general public.

Course 2023: Enhancement and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage

Course 2022: Green economy, sustainability and circular economy

Study Days 2023: Inner Areas, communities, towns: heritage of proximity and future

Study Days 2022: Inner Areas, communities, towns: resources for a sustainabile future

PA.N.E. Panem Nostrum Everyday

This project has put "Pane Grosso di Tortona" bread on the market, made 100% with flour of the traditional Italian San Pastore variety, which had practically disappeared for over forty years. The project, implemented thanks to the 2014-2020 RDP of the Piedmont Regional Authority (Measure 16.1.1), has completely reconstituted the supply chain from 2016 to today.

We led the project, combining the skills of our teachers from DISEI, DISIT, DIMET and DISS along these thematic lines:

• chemical, biomedical and nutritional characterization of San Pastore wheat and flours and Grosso di Tortona bread
• traceability of wheat, flour and secondary transformation products
• strategic marketing of San Pastore.

Our indispensable partners are Impresa Verde – Coldiretti Alessandria, the National Consortium of San Pastore Producers, the “Elilu” agricultural company, the Municipality of Tortona and the Conte Gian Giacomo Morando Bolognini Foundation.

PA.N.E.

DNA Bank of the white truffle

A group of our teachers, interested from different perspectives in the field of product traceability, has developed a project to certify the origin of one of the products of excellence of the Piedmont region: the white truffle.

Today, in this period of market globalisation and growing fear of fake products, consumers are asking for guarantees: the high value of the prized white truffle and its exceptional nature must be accompanied by certainty regarding its origin. This, in fact, is not always guaranteed: the supply chain has always been based on trust towards quarrymen and traders, as no other means of verifying the origin of the product have been available until now.

Thanks to our project it is possible to identify the digital fingerprint of the territory in the product, with the creation of a DNA database of Monferrato truffles and the analysis of chemical microelements characteristic of the natural truffle grounds of the area.