COORDINATOR: Elza Bontempi (elza.bontempi@unibs.it) University of Brescia
University of Brescia (UNIBS) develops basic and applied research in accordance with its vocation to sustainability (https://sostenibile.unibs.it/). UNIBS participates in the project with the Chemistry for Technologies Laboratory, made by 3 professors and 1 researcher, 5 post-doc, and 6 PhD students. 10 researchers are young researchers (under 35). Some PhD positions are financed by companies, mainly interested in developing new technologies to manage their waste (for example fly ash and slag), in the circular economy context. The laboratory is involved in several national and international projects devoted to the circular economy, having a recognized expertise in waste management treatments to recover new eco-materials (see for example SMaRTPCBs, PHIGO, NEXT-LIB) and won several international prizes devoted to sustainability and circular economy.
The National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM) is the largest consortium grouping the materials scientists in Italy, drawing on the expertise of more than 49 universities. INSTM excels in providing the organisational, technical, and financial support necessary to promote research activities in science and technology within the affiliate research laboratories, making its affiliates highly competitive in making on innovative research projects. The INSTM projects support initiatives in the development of new technologies and in providing their transfer at the industrial level, allowing significant opportunities for the academic and industrial spheres to benefit from their mutual interaction. The INSTM active collaborations include CNR, Italy’s National Research Council; ENEA, Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development; the CINECA consortium for advanced information technology and scientific computing and Italy’s largest computing centre; IIT, the Italian Institute of Technology. This facilitates the project’s mutual support and researchers’ interactions among different institutions. Prof. Ivano Alessandri is associated with GISEL, the Italian Group for Electrochemical Energy Storage (http://www.giselnetwork.it). GISEL gathers all major Italian research and development stakeholders, aiming at sharing facilities and expertises in view of promoting synergistic activities. GISEL originates and drives the activity of the “GISEL- Centro di Riferimento Nazionale per i Sistemi di Accumulo Elettrochimico di Energia” that is the first Italian shared research center on Batteries, established at the INSTM. GISEL-INSTM participates in the project “Batteries Europe Secretariat” (BEST) funded by the European Community in the frame of the call HEU-CL5-2021-D2-01-07.
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) is a public university institute – with special autonomy – working in the field of applied sciences. SSSA brings an in- depth understanding in the field of Sustainable Production and Consumption policy instruments as results of previous carried out projects promoted in this field by the European Commission. The research project presented in this application will be carried out by the researchers of the area “Management Sustainability” within the Sant’Anna “Institute of Management”. The mission of this research area is to study and suggest new approaches to environmental management in Italy and especially at European level supporting private and public organisation, CRS and technological innovation management in private firms and supporting environmental public policies of Local Authorities. This research group has a relevant experience obtained through the implementation of several E.U. projects. All members of the research team have been involved in previous experimental projects (such as those financed by LIFE and LIFE + Programs) aiming at diffusion and adoption of soft managerial instruments (such as Environmental Management Systems, Ecological labels, etc.) among enterprises, with different innovative approaches. Moreover, this research group led some projects (a MED project and a Research Framework Program) aiming at analysing the impact of the adoption of managerial tools on technological innovation of enterprises. The Sustainability Management Laboratory (SUM Lab) is linked to the Institute of Management of Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy’s No1 university. SuM’s mission is threefold: (1) educate managers capable of allying efficiency with environmental protection in their organisations; (2) produce groundbreaking research in the field of sustainability management; and (3) use the latest scientific evidence and cutting-edge analytical tools to help private and public organisations to achieve sustainable growth. SuM Lab is a member of EFFRA, SPIRE, EERA, PREPARE platforms. We use multiple instruments to gather data (e.g., Surveys, Experiments, Focus Groups, Interviews, Reviews, KPI monitoring, projects management, etc.), we master several methods to analyse them (such as LCA and PEF, Network Analysis, Structural Equation Modelling, Regressions, etc.) and possess the theoretical background to put the outcomes of the analyses into the right perspective. These skills enabled SuM’s team to accumulate a vast experience working alongside industry and academic partners in international projects focused on: climate change, circular economy, environmental management and monitoring, industrial symbiosis, green marketing, life-cycle assessment, corporate social responsibility and energy and resource efficiency.
