EU funding: Alma mater #1 in Italy

Bologna, the leading Italian university for European funds, prepares itself for Horizon 2020. As funding under Horizon 2020 expands, the University of Bologna will continue to improve its success achieved under FP7.

From 2007 to 2012, the European Union awarded more than 260 research projects in which the University of Bologna was involved. In total, nearly 86 million euros in funding were granted with most of it going towards the agro-food sector. This makes Bologna number one in Italy and 31st at the EU level.

Bologna’s main interests are in the agro-food sector. The outcomes achieved in this field are mostly reached thanks to the Unibo trans-disciplinary approach in which several complementary research units are connected in Intergrated Research Teams (IRTs). “Alma Food” IRT gathers a critical mass of approximately 600 scientists and researchers focused on  a wide variety of food-related competences, covering the whole supply chain. Starting from primary production, “Alma Food” incorporates: food safety, health, quality and sustainable production, food chain management, communication, training and technology transfer, and customer science. A long list of achievements speaks to its success: patents and new vegetal varieties, five spin-offs, twelve executive courses, two schools of specialization.

The excellent results are based on Unibo’s multidisciplinarity and a systematic support  to their research community, boosting relationships with the European Commission and submitting innovative EU proposals. It is along these lines that Unibo will continue to improve and strengthen its strategy in preparation for the new EU funding programme Horizon 2020.