Research Unit 2 - Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and the bio-economy

Strategic research lines

1. Sustainable and Competitive Agriculture for Safe and Secure Food
Contact person: Anna Ilaria Trapè, annailaria.trape@unimc.it

This interdisciplinary and collaborative research team studies all the aspects of "food area" (production, consumption, safety/security and quality, the link with territory and landscape) from a Social Sciences and Humanities point of view. It is aimed at integrating different specialisations so as to effectively address the social, economic, environmental and institutional challenges and to assure sustainability and competitiveness to food chains and its actors.
The team promotes the integration of a variety of disciplines - including law, economics, statistics, marketing, sociology, anthropology, philosophy - in order to improve quality of life and wellbeing, through the promotion of sustainable consumption and agriculture, also considering environmental, cultural, anthropological, healthy, active ageing aspects and evolving lifestyles.
Moreover, other topics of investigation are: relationship between city/territory/landscape/agriculture, urban agriculture, suitable urban solutions for an aging society, and gender aspects related to food and agriculture.

Expertise and projects

2. Sustainable and Competitive Agriculture for Safe and Secure Food
Contact persons: Andrea Caligiuri, andrea.caligiuri@unimc.it, Federico Niccolini, federico.niccolini@unimc.it

The goals of this research line are: conservation and enhancement of fish stocks of the affected area; sustainable socio-economic development, particularly in micro entrepreneurship and local employment; improving the quality, differentiation and the seasonal adjustment of tourism.
The main outputs are: identification of innovative systems of regulation, management and development of the fishing sector, applicable to the context of reference, in order to achieve effective implementation of the principles of the Common Fisheries Policy; definition of the Multiannual Fishery Managements Plans for the Adriatic and Ionian seas; identification of key socio-economic players on which to act to orient the fishing supply chain in terms of sustainability and competitiveness; definition of innovative methods of traceability of fish products and processing of the regulatory framework, including the modalities of international cooperation; development of a brand for the products and services of the fishing supply chain to be used as a tool to diversify and improve the tourist offer in the region; inclusion in the tourist routes of the sites linked to the observation and regulated withdrawal of the fish fauna; identification of communication strategies and collective awareness to the sustainable use of fisheries resources.

Expertise and projects

3. Sustainable, Rural and Enogastronomic tourism: innovative processes and products for place branding
Contact person: Alessio Cavicchi, alessio.cavicchi@unimc.it

Researchers involved in this field of study belong to different economic disciplines (such as management, organisational studies, political economy, finance) and to socio-cultural disciplines (moral philosophy, socio-cultural-linguistic communication, geography, pedagogy, anthropology and ethics). The main topics investigated are:
- the role of internal resources for promotion and internationalisation of firms in the tourism sector;
- the role of food&wine and rural resources for a sustainable local development.
- management and valorization of cultural heritage (with attention also to issues relating to the identity of place/consciousness of place, the concept of "value" of territory, the link between tourism/narration of places / "practices of places" ) and its relationships with territorial brands, tourism industry, place identities.

Expertise and projects

Coordinators of Research Unit and contact person:

- Andrea Caligiuri: andrea.caligiuri@unimc.it

- Alessio Cavicchi: alessio.cavicchi@unimc.it

- Federico Niccolini: federico.niccolini@unimc.it

- Anna Ilaria Trapè: annailaria.trape@unimc.it