On Tuesday December 12th, the national and international mountain networks were invited to participate at the kick off meeting of the ITALIAN MOUNTAIN LAB project at CIME A MILANO – Networks, Research, Innovation for Mountains, organized by UNIMONT in collaboration with the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI). The working day ” ITALIAN MOUNTAIN LAB – A participatory platform for the research and development of Italian mountains in the European context” was dedicated to the research and innovation for mountain areas. The project is supported by MIUR’s special supplementary fund for research (FISR) and brings together the University of Milan, the University of Eastern Piedmont and the University of Tuscia.
Over 140 people took part in this working day, a real moment of exchange of views, collaboration and coordination at national and international level which aimed to promoting coordination in order to implement the synergies between national and international networks, as well as trigger future initiatives in favor of mountain areas. The Italian Mountain Lab project begins with a real “call for action” to set up a common “coordination” platform to favor collaboration and exchange between research and innovation networks working in mountain areas, by encouraging the comparison, exchange and capitalization of knowledge and experience and establishing new and fruitful alliances.
CIME A MILANO was a two-day event full of events and initiatives dedicated to research and innovation for the mountains. On December 11 the “Mountain-Hack”, the first Hackathon of the Italian school, promoted by MIUR in collaboration with UNIMONT, saw 100 students and teachers from all the Italian regions models, solutions and prototypes to deal with the theme of development, enhancement and protection of mountain environments. The winner teams of this marathon will go to Nepal for a summer school, organized within the Italian Mountain Lab project.
A conference dedicated to the heritage of the CAI shelters took also place: “CAI Shelters: Comparing and Contrasting Protagonists“. Besides, the book festival “racCONTA LA MONTAGNA”, dedicated to fiction and non-fiction related to mountains was launched with the presentation of the book “The Lesson of the Cold” (by Einaudi) by Roberto Casati, and a discussion with the coordinator of the festival Claudio Gasparotti and some UNIMONT students. The festival will continue with a rich and stimulating calendar of appointments with the author that will take place during 2018.
The mountains need the attention of creative “minds”: researchers working in strategic sectors for mountain development and management, operators and administrators aware of these specific topics, young people ready and prepared to do business. CIME A MILANO was a great opportunity to bring out the resources, the great potential and the trajectories of a possible future for the mountains.
NETWORKING DAY– 12/12/2017
