Organisation Name: Sapienza Università di Roma (SUR)

Role: Partner, Benchmarking of citizen science initiatives related to the approach of the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change – Leader

Short Description: (general info. here: https://www.uniroma1.it/it/).

With over 700 years of history, more than 122,000 students, almost 3500 teachers and 2100 employees, technicians and librarians, in addition to 2000 administrative staff in university hospitals, Sapienza is the first university in Europe. Our mission is to contribute to the development of a knowledge society through research, excellence, quality education and international cooperation. Sapienza currently offers 300 study programmes (Bachelor’s and Master’s) – among which over 60 are taught in English- almost 200 vocational master courses and 90 PhDs. The School of Advanced Studies provides a programme of excellence and free tuition for the best students.

Giacinto Donvito, architect and PhD in Spatial and Urban Planning at Sapienza University, has been involved in many research projects in Italy and abroad, and has been serving as professor since many years. The research, teaching, publications, and experimentation activities, as well as the basic topics of urban planning disciplinary debate (with a specific focus on the New Urban Plan of Rome during its long path of elaboration) are mainly developed through some main themes – strongly interrelated with each other and among the different activities – an the element of continuity over time: (1) the role of the environmental system in the construction of the contemporary urban territory; (2) the protection and enhancement of the historical-settlement and landscape heritage and the role of permanences in the planning and design of territorial transformations; (3) the Urban Project in Europe; and (4) the Territorial Project.

Sara Altamore, after a PhD in Regional Planning and Public Policies from University IUAV of Venice, is a postdoctoral fellow focused on the intersection of urban policies, marginality, and everyday practices. Passionate about spatial justice, coproduction processes, and Action-Research, she has lived and worked in Spain, Italy, and South Africa, collaborating with various local and international organizations and communities on planning practices for more equitable urban development.

Camilla Ariani; architect and Ph.D. in Territorial and Urban Planning, is currently research fellow at the Dept. of Planning, Design, Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University Rome. She has been visiting researcher at Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) and University of Massachusetts Boston. Previously she worked as architect and urban designer in several architectural firms with strong interest in international, large scale developments; as a scholar and a practitioner she has experiences in China, Algeria, France and US. Her research interests are related to the variety of collaborations between stakeholders in urban transformation and the spatial output of decision-making process, with a focus on inequalities, displacement and distressed neighborhoods.

Valentina Vittoria Calabrese is an architect and PhD student with a PON grant of the 37th cycle in Landscape and Environment on Lakescape and Water Management. In 2020 she graduated in Architecture at Sapienza University of Rome with a thesis entitled “Re-generation Al-Zaytoun: Children’s participation as a planning tool” [Supervisor: Prof. Daniela De Leo], an urban regeneration project developed for one of Cairo’s semi-informal neighborhoods, Zaytoun, Egypt, through the direct participation of children and young people. In the same year she took part in the research-action group “Prototype of coastal citizenship” in Tricase, Puglia, in collaboration with the association “Città Fertile”, which is a participatory urban design process that tries to reinterpret the land-sea relationship characteristic of the Salento peninsula. Her research interests are related to the relationship between water, environment and society in the hydrosocial basin.

Third Parties organisation Name: Federico II Naples
The DiArc Dept. is part of the Federico II University of Naples, one of the oldest universities to be founded by a head of State while other educational institutions by and large were a product of corporate initiatives.The University has over 2000 agreements with foreign universities. Moreover the DiArc Dept. mission is to contribute to the development of a knowledge in cities and society through research, excellence, quality education with a large international activities.

Daniela De Leo – Daniela De Leo is full professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the Dept. of Architecture of the “Federico II” University of Naples. From 2010 to 2023 she served as professor at the Sapienza University in Rome where she has been also deputy rector in Public engagement (2020-23); fellow at the SSAS- Sapienza’s School for Advanced Studies, (2018-23) and member of the Doctoral Collegium in “Landscape and Environment” (from 2017-current) after being a member of the Doctoral Program in “Territorial and Urban Planning” in the same University (from 2011 to 2016). As full-time professor, she does research about cities and territories and experiments urban planning practices within the public university through technical-scientific agreements and consultancy with local, regional and national institutions and associations (Urban@it; Forum DD; SIU; AESOP). Moreover, she has conducted and coordinated national and international research activities in Nablus, East Jerusalem, and Beirut and been Visiting Scholar and visiting professor at the IURD-UC Berkeley (2013) DUSP-MIT (2011-2013), Cornell University (2018; 2023).