PRIN 2022 - Scorrimento

Sustainable high-value compounds production by improving CO2 sequestration in microalgae and cyanobacteria

Breve descrizione, finalità e risultati attesi: Climate change, increased world population, and increased food demand are key challenges for human society. As stated by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, “zero hunger”, “climate action” and “sustainable consumption and production” are among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to build a better world for people and our planet by 2030. The idea behind this research project is based on the observation that the vast majority of CO2 removed from the earth's atmosphere comes from the photosynthesis process. This research project aims to develop innovative solutions to sustainably consume CO2 producing organic biomass by which high value bioproducts can be extracted to be used as novel food, feed or nutraceuticals. This will be done by exploiting the carbon fixation properties of cyanobacteria and microalgae. These organisms can be cultivated in non-arable land using artificial systems, and rely on sunlight, CO2, and nutrients to produce biomass to be used as food source or other high-value compounds. The limitations hampering industrial development of microalgae or cyanobacteria cultivation are several, among which the low production yields and limited carbon fixation observed despite their high potential. The scientific challenge taken by this research project aims to improve (or increase) CO2 assimilation in unicellular photosynthetic organisms by engineering improved metabolic processes linked to carbon fixation and by designing novel metabolic pathways for macromolecules accumulation. While several biotechnological approaches has been attempted previously to improve carbon fixation in plant cells, the ground-breaking aspect of the research activity herein proposed is the integration of synergistic biotechnological strategies taking into consideration possible bottlenecks limiting CO2 assimilation, from light harvesting and energy conversion to CO2 assimilation, metabolic carbon flow and carbon storage into complex polymers with high nutritional profile as antioxidants and proteins. This project will thus investigate and develop a sustainable, circular, and renewable system for CO2 fixation leading to biomass production with different industrial applications.

Importo totale UniUrb: € 275.222 di cui € 71.402 co-finanziati

Periodo: 04/02/2025 - 03/02/2027

Struttura UniUrb di riferimento: Dipartimento Scienze Biomolecolari (DISB)

Referente UniUrb: Prof. Andrea Pompa

Codice progetto: 2022ASSR9R

CUP: H53C24001230006 

I-DASY: Instrument-based holistic DigitAl twinS for monitoring neuro-motor developmental trajectorY in preterm infants

Importo totale UniUrb: € 186.218 di cui € 14.000 cofinanziati

Periodo: 04/02/2025 - 03/02/2027

Struttura UniUrb di riferimento: Dipartimento Scienze Pure e Applicate (DiSPeA)

Referente UniUrb: Prof.ssa Sara Montagna

Codice progetto: 20222X4M4T

CUP: H53C24001000001

Loyalty and disloyalty to the Italian Republic. The difficult path towards the construction of a democratic citizenship

Breve descrizione, finalità e risultati attesi: The research project intends to analyse the theme "Loyalty and disloyalty to the Italian Republic", between the end of WWII and the 1990s. In fact, throughout these decades, various moments have arisen in which individuals, political groups and sectors of the institutions have implemented conduct that contradicted the duties of loyalty to the Republic and observance of its laws (Art. 54 Const). The main reasons behind the "disloyalty" were charges against the Republic of not respecting founding values of the Constitution; perceiving it as expression of the interests of the wealthy classes, focused only on their own privileges; the belief that Republican institutions were unable to protect the "true" interest of the nation.The still little explored topic, for an innovative approach, requires the questioning of some consolidated interpretations. For a long time, an important part of the historiography has narrated the history of the country, and of the Republic, in a predominantly negative way. A story, told in a succession of failure or missed opportunity.Examples are the formulas that have marked much of the debate on the most dramatic moments of national life: the unfinished Risorgimento, the Mutilated Victory, the betrayed Resistance, the unfulfilled Constitution and the massacres in the 70s that were left unpunished. The innovative dimension of the research lies in the intention of starting from the accusations of disloyalty and from the claims of loyalty to the Republic, to go beyond the ideological oppositions and analyse the complex process of building a democratic citizenship. To this end, the following areas will be considered: 1. Discussions on the concept of loyalty/disloyalty in the formation and development of the Constitution; 2. The intricate relationship between forms of disloyalty to the Republic, and defence of the values of the Constitution, in the world of youth protest between the 60s and 70s, in the galaxy of the anti-mafia, and among former Italian colonial settlers, divided between nostalgia for the imperial past, and recovery of the relationship with post-fascist Italy; 3. Tensions within military institutions, split between isolated subversive tendencies and a majority loyal to the institutions; 4. The variegated world of pacifism, which by disobeying the laws in force, considered to be in contradiction with certain constitutional principles, laid the foundations for the future recognition of fundamental civil rights. The research intends to focus on the dialectic between divisive and constructive elements in the history of republican Italy; not erasing the shadows, but not necessarily making them the center and the end of the story. In other words, we want to explore the difficult path toward the construction of the Republic which, despite deep contrasts, has seen loyalty and dedication to some common values that have been and still are the basis of democratic coexistence grow and consolidate. 

Importo totale del finanziamento: € 293.768 di cui contributo MUR € 172.743

Importo totale Uniurb: € 72.626 di cui contributo MUR € 52.709

Periodo: 04/02/2025 – 03/02/2027

Struttura UniUrb di riferimento: Dipartimento Scienze della Comunicazione, Studi Umanistici e Internazionali (DISCUI) 

Referente: Prof.ssa Anna Tonelli 

Codice Progetto: 2022JNZ4S8

CUP: H53C24001440006