landscape with fields and hills
Empowering rural communities to act for change

Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna

The origins of the University of Bologna go way back. It is considered to be the oldest university in the Western world. The presence throughout the territory, the international outlook, the research, the programme catalogue, the information services: in these and many other areas, today the Alma Mater paves the way for innovation. The University of Bologna is made up of 31 Departments and five Schools. There are also seven Interdepartmental Research Centres and 12 interdepartmental research and/or training facilities.

Role within RURACTIVE

As coordinator of RURACTIVE, the University of Bologna leads the overall project coordination and actively contributes to different tasks. Three departments of the University are involved in the project.

The coordination team of RURACTIVE is part of the Planning & Regeneration group of the Department of Architecture and focuses on spatial and urban planning. It has expertise in research that tackles environmental and economic crises, social disaggregation and climate change related impacts by envisioning new participatory planning and design approaches at the intersection of social, cultural, digital and nature-based innovations, aiming at increasing citizens’ health and wellbeing and communities’ resilience. In addition to coordinating RURACTIVE, the team is also responsible for the development of the conceptual framework for rural smart and community-led solutions, the policy analysis in Dynamos, the development of the methodology “Activating RIEs for community-led development and empowerment” in support of the co-creation process and the organisation of the knowledge transfer events among Dynamos and training of the Additional Dynamos.

The Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi" whose research and education activities cover a variety of fields of Industrial and Information Engineering is also involved in RURACTIVE. The core contribution of this team is the development of the RURACTIVE Digital Hub.

The third department involved is the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, which deals with teaching and research activities in the agricultural area. Within RURACTIVE they contribute to the development of the conceptual framework for rural smart and community-led solutions.

Main contacts

Photo of Simona Tondelli, PhD
Simona Tondelli, PhD

Full professor Department of Architecture & Coordinator of RURACTIVE

Photo of Claudia de Luca, PhD
Claudia de Luca, PhD

Junior assistant professor Department of Architecture & Project manager of RURACTIVE

Photo of Angela Santangelo, PhD
Angela Santangelo, PhD

Junior assistant professor Department of Architecture

Photo of Caterina Selva
Caterina Selva

Research fellow Department of Architecture

Photo of Simona Bravaglieri, PhD
Simona Bravaglieri, PhD

Research fellow Department of Architecture

Photo of Benedetta Cavalieri
Benedetta Cavalieri

PhD Candidate Department of Architecture

Photo of Alessia Bertuca
Alessia Bertuca

PhD Candidate Department of Architecture

Photo of Andrea Acquaviva, PhD
Andrea Acquaviva, PhD

Full Professor Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering

Photo of Francesco Barchi, PhD
Francesco Barchi, PhD

Junior assistant professor Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering

Photo of Samuel Zanella
Samuel Zanella

Research fellow Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering

Photo of Matteo Vittuari, PhD
Matteo Vittuari, PhD

Full professor Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences

Photo of Valeria Musso
Valeria Musso

PhD Candidate Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences

Photo of Anna Niero
Anna Niero

PhD Candidate Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences

Photo of Mara Petruzzelli
Mara Petruzzelli

PhD Candidate Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences