According to the objectives defined in the joint constitution of the Center between the University of Bergamo and the University of Augsburg, the Center has promoted joint research, teaching and third mission activities. First, the directors of the Center for the two operational headquarters, respectively Prof. Michele Meoli and Prof. Erik Lehmann are in fact engaged in teaching activities and carry out research, also involving colleagues and doctoral students, in both universities.

Second, they organize on a yearly base the Excellence Initiative "Global Perspective of Public and Private Sector Interaction", The initiative was established and still works in virtue of the collaboration between Prof. Lehmann, Prof. Meoli, and Prof. Audretsch from the Indiana University. Students from the three universities are required to work together in order to enjoy an intercultural experience, where the different students’ backgrounds allow to enlarge and enrich students’ perspective. Specifically, student participation takes place in two ways: (1) collective participation in an intensive study period, partly at the University of Bergamo and partly at the University of Augsburg; and (2) the individual study of a topic, aimed at drafting the final thesis. At the editions of the three-year period 2018-2020, a total of 112 students, belonging (for the University of Bergamo) to 5 master's degree courses, participated in the intensive study period (summer school).

The initiative consists of a wide array of lectures and guest speakers, all of which are intended to better inform students understanding of the readings, of topics surrounding students’ research project: economic development, local management and policy, as well as personal development and cultural/historical context. This breadth and depth of material is intentionally designed to reflect the complex and interdisciplinary nature of economic development, thus giving students the opportunity to apply multiple perspectives to their work. Nonetheless, students have the chance to personally know exponents from the key players of the territory, ranging from private companies to start-up accelerators, from public agencies to financial institutions.

A presentation of the initiative is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iCOwF3bcRY

 

Key people:

Alice Civera: Member of the Center

Michele Meoli: Director of the Center

Flyer Summer School 2023 - Bergamo

HERe is a research center established in 2015 with the aim of promoting research into higher education systems, institutions and processes. The HERe group is composed of scholars from the University of Bergamo and from the CRUI (Conference of Italian University Rectors) Foundation, who devote their research activity to a wide range of issues related to higher education. HERe promotes the study of university systems and supports key actors involved in the governance of universities, in collaboration with prestigious international partners, such as step4EU, Centre for Higher Education (CHE), and UNESCO Chair on Gender at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

 

Research staff: 

Alice Civera: Assistant Professor. Member since 2015

Michele Meoli: Associate Professor. Scientific coordinator since 2015 

Stefano Paleari: Full Professor. Scientific director since 2015

The "REAL Cities" project is a joint teaching and research program with the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), which has been part of the CCSE Center since 2019. The first part of each year is dedicated to training on the themes of design thinking and the exploration of potential design areas consistent with the specific theme of the year. The second part is instead dedicated to project development in collaboration with GSD students. In the three A.A. from 2017 to 2020 as part of the program, a workshop was organized in Bergamo with students and professors of the Harvard GSD to kick off the development phase of the ideas. The workshops were also attended by external guests, both Italian and foreign, with experience in the sector investigated in the specific year. The external interventions were aimed not only to deepen the chosen topics but also to inspire the initial design phase of the project ideas.

In the years of the program from 2017 to 2020 the following topics were addressed.

  • 2017-2018: The future of retail (15 UNIBG students + 12 GSD students): Using the city of Bergamo as a prototype case, the program analyzed the social, economic and urban issues relevant to the territory, focusing in particular on the theme of the relationship between physical stores and online.
  • 2018-2019: The Future of Air Travel (17 UNIBG students + 13 GSD students): The program aims to improve the air travel experience, with a view to meeting logistical, economic and safety needs without losing in view of the aspects related to the virtual, spatial and physical livability of the places linked to this mode of transport.
  • 2019-2020: The Healthy City (12 UNIBG students + 12 GSD students): The program was initially titled "At the heart of the problem" and the initial idea was to investigate cardiovascular diseases to understand how to build focused solutions on the patient to improve his experience in managing the relationship with the doctor, with the therapies to be followed and with a correct lifestyle.

The "Material Culture, Science and Technology" is a research and teaching program between the University of Bergamo and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. The program was conceived as a collaborative relationship between students, researchers and professors at the University of Bergamo and the Max Planck of Berlin.

The research perspective consists in the common will to investigate and analyze the developments of material culture and technical knowledge and their possible consequences not only on science, but also in its anthropological, sociological, legal, economic, engineering, industrial, university, as well as ethical-philosophical, psychological and educational.

The program has placed particular emphasis on the growth and qualification in an international perspective of the specific knowledge of students through the provision of seminar workshops, delivered for each year of activation of the program and carried out with the participation of 12 students selected from all courses. degree from the University of Bergamo.
The workshops are held both in Bergamo and in Berlin (with at least three workshops in the Max Planck headquarters), with exchanges of teachers by both institutions.

The Excellence Initiative "Rediscovering the Sources of Sustainable Development" has promoted an official partnership with FGV - Fundação Getúlio Vargas (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and McGill University (Montréal, Canada) and was developed with the participation of managers and researchers of various institutions: EC - European Commission, IADB - Inter-American Development Bank, IMF - International Monetary Fund, OECD - Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and WB - World Bank Group.

The project investigated how collective actions can, under specific circumstances, generate institutional contexts that serve to better manage essential common goods - such as knowledge, economic and financial resources and natural resources - for sustainable development, as well defined in the 2030 Agenda, which offers a common framework for action to all actors on the international scene.

The analysis focused in particular on the characteristics and roles played by people and organizations in the public and private sectors, which support and promote organized complexity, creativity and institutional resilience, thus providing a system of governance, economic means and applied strategies. for sustainable development.

During the project, seminars and conferences were held at partner institutions (FGV, McGill University) and participants (EC, IADB, IMF, OECD, WB); missions were carried out by teachers / researchers of the partner institutions to the partner institutions themselves and to the participating institutions; periods of study and research were carried out for students from the University of Bergamo and the Fundação Getúlio Vargas at the partner institutions and at the participating institutions.