Projects

Ca' Foscari researchers take part in a number of strategic projects of relevance.
This section presents all on-going projects related to Ca' Foscari's Global Challenges. To  discover the past projects, please visit the Archive.

Reconstructing the Past: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics meet Cultural Heritage (RePAIR)

The main goal of the RePAIR project is to develop innovative technology to virtually eliminate one of the most laborious and frustrating steps in archaeological research, namely the physical reconstruction of shattered artefacts. In fact, countless vases, amphorae, frescoes and other ancient artifacts, around the world, have not survived intact and have been extracted from excavation sites as large collections of fragments, many of which are damaged, worn out or entirely missing.

Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Marcello Pelillo 
Duration: 01/06/2021 - 31/12/2024
Funding: Horizon 2020 Excellent Science - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

ISEED - Inclusive Science and European Democracies

ISEED - Inclusive Science and European Democracies is an international research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (2021-2024). ISEED responds to the EU's call for supporting inclusive, innovative and reflective societies in Europe, specifically by "Developing deliberative and participatory democracies through experimentation". ISEED, coordinated by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, joins researchers from Italy, France, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Bulgaria, Uruguay and the United Kingdom for the 3 years to learn lessons from citizen science engagement projects in order to understand how to involve citizens in democratic deliberation.

Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Eleonora Montuschi
Duration: 01/02/2021 - 31/01/2024
Funding: Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

SunShine - Safe by Design Strategies for High Performance Multi-component Nanomaterials

SUNSHINE is an industry-oriented project, where leading research and technology organisations will cooperate with SMEs and large industries to develop and implement simple, robust, and cost-effective Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) strategies for materials and products incorporating advanced multi-component nanomaterials. To this end, the project will establish a user-friendly e-infrastructure to foster dialogue, collaboration, and information exchange between actors along entire product supply chains. The SSbD strategies will modify products and processes involving advanced multi-component nanomaterials in order to reduce their potential for release or hazard potency. The goal is to develop technologies that are safe and sustainable, but also retain the desired functionality for their intended uses. In addition to promoting safe and sustainable innovation, SUNSHINE will facilitate a two-way dialogue between innovators and regulators, which can help to raise awareness and address regulatory concerns in the early stages of innovation. Ideally, this can shorten the time of novel nanotechnology products to reach the market.

Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Antonio Marcomini
Duration: 01/01/2021 - 31/12/2024
Funding: Horizon 2020 Industrial Leadership: Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced materials

LIFE TRANSFER - Seagrass transplantation for transitional Ecosystem Recovery

The LIFE-TRANSFER project aims to trigger the process of recolonization of aquatic phanerogams in selected Mediterranea lagoons through the transplanting of small sods and rhizomes of Zostera marina, Zostera noltei, Ruppia cirrhosa and Cymodocea nodosa. In each lagoon, the species previously present will be transplanted, to promote the natural propagation capacity through seed production and dispersion. The intervention technique provides transplantation exclusively by hand with a reduced amount of material from donor sites, with advantages in terms of environmental impact, costs and of application on a larger scale.

Project website / EU LIFE Public database
Researcher: Adriano Sfriso
Duration: 01/12/2020 - 30/11/2025
Funding: LIFE

ELISE - European Learning and Intelligent Systems Excellence

ELISE is a network of artificial intelligence research hubs. Based on the highest level research, it spreads its knowledge and methods in academia, industry and society. The network invites all ways of reasoning, considering all types of data applicable for almost all sectors of science and industry. We do this while being aware of data safety and security, and striving to explainable and trustworthy outcomes. ELISE works in cooperation with ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems). ELISE is part of the EU Horizon 2020 ICT-48 portfolio, and is coordinated by Aalto University.

Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Marcello Pelillo
Duration: 01/11/2020 - 31/10/2023
Funding: Horizon 2020 Industrial Leadership - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

SHARE-COVID19: Non-intended health, economic and social effects of the COVID-19 epidemic control decisions

The non-intended consequences of the epidemic control decisions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are huge and affect the well-being of European citizens in terms of economics, social relationships and health. The overarching objective of this project is to understand these non-intended consequences and to devise improved health, economic and social policies. In our policy recommendations, we strive to make healthcare systems and societies in the EU more resilient to pandemics in terms of prevention, protection and treatment of the population 50+, a most vulnerable part of the population. The project’s team represents medicine, public health, economics and sociology and has worked together since the creation of SHARE. It is experienced in translating data analysis into concrete policy advice. The project’s policy recommendation is targeted at policy makers in the Commission and in national ministries as well as at national and international NGOs and social organisations.

Website
Researcher: Agar Brugiavini
Duration: 01/11/2020 - 30/10/2023

Cultural-E: Plus Energy Buildings

Cultural-E is a EU-funded project, which aims to define modular and replicable solutions for Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs), accounting for climate and cultural differences, while engaging all key players involved in the building life cycle. Cultural-E will develop technologies and solution sets that are tailorable to specific contexts and energy demands, as well as performing a comprehensive optimisation of the value/cost ratio of Plus Energy Buildings. Sets of design-for-assembly technologies will be developed through a careful mapping of European climates, building archetypes, and cultural energy habits. We are going beyond the state-of-the-art by maximising the share of the demand covered by renewable sources, towards zero emissions in the operational phase.

Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Wilmer Pasut
Duration: 01/10/2019 - 30/09/2024
Funding: Horizon 2020 Industrial Leadership - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced manufacturing and processing

Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice Core

The project "BEYOND EPICA - Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice Core: 1,5 Myr of greenhouse gas – climate feedbacks" will recover the first ever ice core record reaching beyond 1 million years (1 Myr) ago, extending our knowledge on climate and greenhouse gas forcing to 1.5 Myr, past the change in climate dynamics known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, where glacial/interglacial cycles changed from a 40,000 to a 100,000 yr cyclicity. This is a longstanding aim of international ice core science, and is eagerly awaited by the entire palaeoclimate discipline and the wider climate community. The overarching scientific goal driving BE-OIC is to obtain the first stratigraphically undisturbed, high-resolution ice-core record of climate and environmental changes over the last 1.5 Myr, and use it to elucidate the role of slow parts of the climate system (carbon cycle, ice sheets) in climate change. By obtaining for the first time ever a continuous ice core extending up to the last 1.5 Myr, we will cover the Mid Pleistocene Transition (MPT, from approximately 1.2 Myr to 0.9 Myr before present).

Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Barbara Stenni
Duration: 01/06/2019 - 31/05/2025
Funding: Horizon 2020

PARIS REINFORCE - Delivering on the Paris Agreement: A demand-driven, integrated assessment modelling approach

PARIS REINFORCE aims to underpin climate policymaking with authoritative scientific processes and results, and enhance the science-policy interface, in light of the Paris Agreement and associated challenges. In particular, the aim is to develop a novel, demand-driven, IAM-oriented assessment framework for effectively supporting the design and assessment of climate policies in the EU as well as in other major emitters and selected less emitting/developed countries, in respect to the Paris Agreement objectives. Building on an exhaustive facilitative dialogue and a strong ensemble of complementary -in terms of mathematical structure, geographical, sectoral and focus coverage- integrated assessment, energy system and sectoral models, we will create an open-access and transparent data exchange platform, I2AM PARIS, in order to support the effective implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions, the preparation of future action pledges, the development of 2050 decarbonisation strategies, and the reinforcement of the 2023 Global Stocktake. The project also seeks to enhance the legitimacy of the scientific processes in support of climate policymaking, by introducing an innovative stakeholder inclusion framework and improving the transparency of the employed models, methods and tools. PARIS REINFORCE will introduce innovative integrative processes, in which IAMs are further coupled with well-established methodological frameworks, in order to improve the robustness of modelling outcomes against different types of uncertainties.

Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Carlo Carraro
Duration: 01/06/2019 - 31/05/2025
Funding: Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials