Over 80 researchers from 13 countries participated in the kick-off of the Horizon Europe MountResilience Project, which sees the University of Milan as leader with its UNIMONT hub, from Tuesday 19th September in Ponte di Legno, for three days.
The project, coordinated by Prof. Anna Giorgi, head of the UNIMONT – Ge.S.Di.Mont Centre of the University of Milan, started with the greetings of Marcella Gargano, Director General for University Education of the Ministry of University and Research, who highlighted the importance of international research projects such as MountResilience.
This introduction was followed by contributions from Gianfranco Pederzolli, President of FederBim and Ivan Faustinelli, Mayor of Ponte di Legno. The commission also presented the Horizon Europe framework program with speeches by Sophie Berger, Director General of Research and Innovation, Climate and Planetary Boundaries, and by Karsten Gödderz, of CINEA European Climate, Infrastructures and Environment Executive Agency.
Once the institutional greetings were over, the following days were dedicated to several technical tables relating to the development of the individual projects proposed by the pilot communities (Tyrol (Austria), Gabrovo (Bulgaria), Râu Sadului (Romania), Valais (Switzerland), Piedmont (Italy) and Lapland (Finland)) which will interact with businesses, public administration, research and civil society and will then use open innovation as well as participatory and co- design processes, to mobilise, involve and reach local communities and key actors to promote the sustainable development of the territory. The same projects will be subsequently proposed again by 4 communities in the role of “replicators” (Friuli-Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region (Italy), Catalunya (Spain), Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (Croatia) and Podkarpackie (Poland)).
During the three-day launch of the European Horizon Project MountResilience, the 47 partner organizations from 13 European countries were also able to participate in some in-depth field excursions. Particularly appreciated by all was the one in Case di Viso in the context of the Climbing for Climate event organized by RUS – Network of Universities for Sustainable Development in collaboration with UNIMONT, the centre of excellence of the University of Milan, and the CAI section of Pezzo – Ponte di Legno. On this occasion, promoted by Prof. Riccardo Guidetti – University of Milan delegate for RUS, participants were able to find out about different aspects of the impact that the climate change is having in mountain areas and some of the responses implemented following the Vaia Storm, explained both in Italian and English.
