Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

Note

Producing sufficient and safe food for a growing population without over-exploiting natural resources is one of the major problems that our society must face, finding solutions which are sustainable in the long term. This is a global challenge, placed in a difficult context of unstable climate, increasing competition for land, water and energy, in an increasingly urbanized and globalized world. The importance and the breadth of this challenge requires a significant research effort that is far beyond the capacity of any single institution. To adequately address this issue, it is mandatory to develop an integrated, large-scale, multi-disciplinary research programme.
This is the ambition of Agritech partners, which, by building upon pre-existing collaborative research, higher education initiatives, networking of infrastructures and large equipment sharing, have defined a programme motivated by the need to:
1. Combine the top research expertise required to adequately address in a truly multidisciplinary context the multifaceted problems associated with sustainable agriculture.
2. Integrate the research infrastructures and equipment available at each site.
3. Exploit and apply the most suitable Key Enabling Technologies (KET) that can allow a profitable advance in productivity, sustainability, ecological and digital transition in the agricultural sector.
4. Work with companies and farmers to co-design research efforts and exploit at the best the results to increase the resilience and economic competitiveness of agri-food supply chains.
5. Develop and disseminate new models and organizational capabilities to create and implement largescale, strategic research programmes that cross discipline boundaries and industrial sectors.
6. Train the next generation of Agritech scientists and managers to generate the necessary human capital and skills required.
7. Support policy makers and influence public opinion to promote a social context favoring the development of stable and equitable agri-food supply chains.
The main characteristic of Agritech research programme is its structural organization, which reflects the high level of integration among a broad diversity of participating research institutions and companies. Indeed, we have created national spokes focused on cutting-edge thematic areas, which are anchored into a central hub to form a cross-linked network supporting, at the same time, a focused approach, and the necessary interactions among different areas to enhance the overall impact of Agritech. The multidisciplinary environment within each spoke naturally generates functional links with other spokes that will allow the development of a 3 coordinated and highly integrated research programme, required to address the complex and ambitious
Agritech objectives.