Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II

The primary mission of UNINA is a balanced combination of research and teaching, which the University pursues by promoting the organisation, processing and transmission of knowledge, the cultural and professional training, and the growth of students’ civic awareness and critical thinking. In addition, UNINA contributes to the progress of the cultural, social, and economic well-being of the country by cooperating with public and private corporations, both nationally and internationally. UNINA employs over 2,800 faculty members (professors and researchers), affiliated to 26 Departments, 23 interdepartmental Research Centres and 17 inter-university Research Centres, covering the full spectrum of disciplines, offered to a population of over 75,000 students.

In the last 10 years, UNINA has participated as partner in 114 projects financed by the European Commission within the H2020 framework, 23 of which coordinated by UNINA, with an average of 13 international partners and a total financial contribution of over 47 million euros from the EU. In the same time frame, UNINA has participated in 23 international projects other than H2020, 6 coordinated by UNINA. It currently runs 226 projects funded by the Italian Ministry for Research and several tens of applied- research grants financed under the Operative National or Regional Program (PON, POR), with a total financial contribution of several tens of million euros. UNINA has been the host institution for 16 grants of the European Research Council (ERC) and UNINA faculty members have been principal investigators for 27 ERC grants.

The ability of UNINA to develop research programs with an interdisciplinary and holistic approach is proved by the success of several initiatives that UNINA leads such as: 1) the UNESCO Chair for "Health Education and Sustainable Development" which aims to promote the health of the population by acting on cultural, nutritional and environmental factors; 2) the centre of excellence for the diagnosis and treatment of obesity “C.I.B.O.” (Centro Italiano per il Benessere dei pazienti con Obesità) accredited with Italian Association of Obesity (SIO) and the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO); 3) three Task Force in “Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods”, in “Industry 4.0 and sustainable development” and in “Microbiome Studies”; 4) the Interuniversity Centre "European Laboratory for the Study of Food-Induced Diseases" (ELFID), an international centre of excellence for the study of all human pathologies induced by food, from obesity and other forms of malnutrition to adverse reactions to food, from celiac disease to food allergies and intolerances.

In the last 10 years, 60% and 45% of the publications have been produced with national and international collaborations, respectively. UNINA, in the last decade has signed over 260 international collaboration agreements (http://www.international.unina.it/international-agreements/) with universities, research institutions, companies, most of which are relevant in the context of EP10. Moreover, UNINA portfolio of both national and large EU projects, with a significant portion under UNINA coordination, will allow to build upon the existing network of collaborations in the framework of EP10, aiming to further promote: (i) Sharing of research plans to maximize productivity and impact, (ii) Mobility of young researchers, (iii) Joint educational and dissemination initiatives and (iv) Expansion and involvement of the stakeholders to promote co-designed research and technology transfer. This will be pursued by signing specific agreements between relevant EP10 spokes and selected institutions.