UNIBO (www.unibo.it) was founded in 1088 and is considered to be the oldest University in Western Europe. Nowadays it still remains one of the most important institutions of higher education across Europe with more than 100.000 enrolled students par year, 11 schools, 33 departments, 3.000 academics and 3.000 administrative staff. Furthermore, it is organized in 5 operating sites: Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini. Since its establishment, UNIBO has been offering important social services, as the scientific and teaching staff often participates in national and international committees, carries out educational and other research projects, organizes and participates in seminars on various social groups, etc. UNIBO is perhaps the most prestigious university in the country and has established its own tradition in science and in creatively participating in the society. With regard to the capability of attracting funding, the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna has gained a considerable experience both in National and European research projects. UNIBO successfully participated in FP6 with a total of 106 projects funded by the European Commission in the different specific Programs and acted as coordinator in 12 of these. As far as FP7 is concerned, up to now UNI With regard to the capability of attracting funding, UNIBO is very active both at National and European level. At European level, with 91 million Euros from FP7 and other EU funded programs (268 projects funded in 2007-2013; in 56 of them UNIBO was coordinator)
In particular under the theme Energy, three projects have been funded (CORES, GREENSYNGAS and ABRACADABRA). With regard to the international reputation, UNIBO is among the top 4/5 Italian universities in the main International rankings, e.g., 1st Italian university (188th position) in the international QS – World University Rankings of the world best universities; 5th Italian University (288th position) in the World University Rankings; 2nd Italian University (93rd position) in the Ranking Web of World Universities.
UNIBO is the first Italian university for the attractiveness of European funding for research, 31st in the European ranking of institutions of higher education. UNIBO is also affiliate partner of the EIT KIC “EIT ICT Labs”. At National level UNIBO ranks second for competitive research funding from the Italian Government. BO is involved in more than 260 approved projects, among those 56 as coordinator (total funding approximately 84 M€).
Following the recent reform, the University of Bologna reorganized its formation and research activities in 33 departments, among which there is the Department of Architecture. DA inherits from one side the long experience of the Faculty of Architecture “Aldo Rossi” based in Cesena, and on the other the history of the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism of the Faculty of Engineering of Bologna – founded in 1935 and directed, among others, by the architect Giovanni Michelucci – then transformed into the Department of Architecture and Urban development Planning. Today DA is constituted by professors and researchers, who participate to set up a young teaching staff engaged in the historical tradition of UNIBO, renowned as the oldest University in the world. The focus of its research activities faces the different scales of the built environment, from the urban setting to the definition of the building envelope and the related technological components. The main activities concern the following fields: i) technical architecture and analysis of building types; ii) construction techniques, renovation and maintenance of building systems; iii) architectural and urban design; iv) design and planning at the urban scale-settlement, analysis of the urban systems; v) history of architecture and urbanism.
The Department of Architecture works on topics related to: Sustainable Design, Development of Intelligent Materials, Energy Performance of Buildings, Energy Efficient Technologies, IT Technologies applied to Buildings, Energy Management Systems, Monitoring and Control of Indoor Environmental Conditions, Design and Integration of Smart Systems in Buildings and the Urban Environment, Urban Environmental Quality, Energy and Environmental Rating, etc.
The DA stands out for its involvement in several national and international research programs with relation to sustainable design, urban renovation, building retrofitting and restoration. The focus of its research activities concern different disciplines in a multidisciplinary approach: Design Innovation; Cultural & Living Heritage; Building Performance & Architectural Livability; Climate & Energy Challenges; Urban Design.
DA is developing tools and indicators to support PA shared choices on technological, structural, safety and management solutions, and at the same time about human behavior and positive outcomes on a higher degree of environmental awareness among the end users. The possibility of obtaining a comparative assessment of different strategies, allows to define a design method characterized by subsequent phases of control leading to a progressive definition of performances, both in terms of energy saving, environmental quality and end-users comfort perception.
Department of Economics, University of Bologna (http://www.dse.unibo.it):
The University of Bologna is among the top 100 universities in the world in the “Tilburg University Top 100 Worldwide Economics Research Schools Ranking” for the Economics disciplines, the thirtieth in Europe and the second at the national level. According to this ranking, Bologna places better than University of California-Santa Barbara, Stockholm School of Economics, University of Tokyo and London Business School.
According to REPEC, the Department of Economics, University of Bologna, is ranked first among the Italian University Departments.