The end of 2016 saw the publication of the report on scientific production for the period 2011-2014, produced by ANVUR, the national agency responsible for evaluating the quality of the research undertaken by Italian universities. The results placed the University of Trento first among the state universities. This success is particularly important in that it attests to the excellent level of quality of the researchers of our University and their work.
The positioning of the University of Trento in first place among the Italian universities in the international Times Higher Education ranking and among the top universities in the other Italian rankings (Sole 24 Ore and Censis-La Repubblica) is, for our university and the people who work in it, not only a cause for satisfaction. It is also a stimulus to do more and do better, in the knowledge of the important role that the university has today for the social and economic development of the country and of the region.
With this in mind, we look towards 2017: an important year in which the University will adopt its new strategic plan for 2017-21 and in which some of the initiatives begun in 2016 will come fully into operation.
The new Center for Agriculture, Food and Environment has been set up in conjunction with the Edmund Mach Foundation, which has become a fundamental strategic partner for the University of Trento.
In the area of industrial development I would like to mention the agreement signed at the end of September between the universities of the North East on our participation in the National Plan for Industry 4.0 and the establishment of a Competence Center in the North East. This will allow our region to be part of a national plan to relaunch the manufacturing system, and will intensify collaboration in the field of innovation with the other 8 universities involved in order to increase the competitiveness of businesses.
Lastly, the agreement with the local research institutes and with the Autonomous Province of Trento on technological transfer that saw the establishment of HIT (Trento Innovation Hub, the provincial consortium for innovation and technological transfer) bears fruit with a plan for synergistic integration between knowledge producers and the economic system. We know that research can only achieve excellence if it compares itself against the world, but we are also very aware that cutting edge knowledge can only enhance the competitive capacity of the region if it can permeate the business sector.
