THE Impact Ranking
THE Impact Ranking
The University of Calabria is committed to combining the pursuit of excellence in research with the promotion of sustainable development through concrete actions.
The recent THE Impact Ranking 2024 places Unical among the universities that contribute significantly to a more sustainable future.
The University's research, teaching, and technology transfer activities are increasingly focused on addressing the most pressing global challenges: from climate change to the fight against poverty, from health protection to the promotion of social justice.
In this section, dedicated to the THE Impact Rankings 2024, we will explore in detail how Unical is contributing to strengthening the culture of sustainability by presenting evidence of the choices made, actions taken, and results achieved in various areas:
- Research: innovative projects for the development of clean technologies, energy efficiency, sustainable resource management, and mitigation of environmental impacts
- Teaching: initiatives that promote environmental and social awareness among students, training future generations of professionals capable of addressing sustainability challenges;
- Collaboration: partnerships with institutions, businesses, and civil society organizations to create networks committed to building a more sustainable future;
- Impact on the territory: promotion of innovation and creation of new opportunities to contribute to the economic and social development of the Calabrian territory.
While acknowledging the importance and validity of all UN goals, the University of Calabria has concentrated its efforts on developing programs and initiatives specifically tailored to SDG 11, which focuses on inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities. Given its unique structure, the UniCal campus can serve as a valuable model for implementing advanced solutions to achieve the targets of Goal 11 in the context of Agenda 2030.
UniCal - the campus par excellence: look at the video https://youtu.be/5SVpvtZAqu8?si=EzGN2IgHhWmigzyU
Life in the Camppus: look at the video https://youtu.be/DTHW68ln6VE?si=wSiY5cYxKkH9mWSp
Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Goal 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable aims to transform urban centers into sustainable cities by ensuring that all people have access to adequate, affordable, and safe housing, basic services, and transportation, especially the most vulnerable.
Highlights of Unical's contributions to SDG 11
11.2.1
Provide public access to buildings and/or monuments or natural heritage landscapes of cultural significance
The University of Calabria is home to the Museum of Natural History of Calabria and Botanical Garden (MuSNOB), the most important natural history museum in Calabria. MuSNOB is a Natural Heritage Landscape of cultural significance and is accessible free of charge.
In the various sections of MuSNOB distributed throughout the Campus, collections are visible that together provide an in-depth overview of the natural history of this special region.
The Botanical Garden extends over 8 hectares within the campus and allows you to have a live view of the variety of species that characterize this extraordinary place in the heart of the Mediterranean.
Scientific work and educational activities of MuSNOB are combined with an incessant collaborative work with the main local and national institutions. In MuSNOB, educational and laboratory activities carried out with schools are also lively. MuSNOB is also committed to disseminating and making known the natural heritage and scientific culture connected with the increasingly urgent issue of environmental and ecological sustainability.
The sections of Paleontology, Zoology and Mineralogy and Petrography are an integral part of MuSNOB.
EVIDENCE 2023
During 2023, as part of the “Sustainability Week”, MuSNOB welcomed numerous middle school students from the surrounding area to illustrate the problems connected to climate change and to make the young participants reflect on the issues of sustainability.
11.2.2
Provide public access to libraries including books and publications
The library system of the University of Calabria is the biggest in Southern Italy, with 800 reading places and digital services for study and access to thousand books and magazines, both paper and digital.
The University Library System is composed by the Humanities Area Library “F. E. Fagiani” (BAU), from the Interdepartmental Library of Economic and Social Sciences “E. Tarantelli” and by the Technical-Scientific Area Library (BATS).
The libraries extend over 20 thousand square meters of surface area, host over 600 thousand volumes and offer 800 reading places and 300 telematic network points.
The University Library System has been carrying out various innovation activities for library services for many years, starting from the automated catalog up to modern services for searching electronic resources. Many of the services offered to library users are therefore provided on digital media.
EVIDENCE 2023
During 2023, interventions aimed at increasing the quality of training in university education and research were implemented through the acquisition of tools for the digitization of paper documents and the transition from electro-magnetic (EM) technology to identification technology in radio frequency (RFID) for the rapid management of operations related to lending, self-lending, checking the presence and position of bibliographic resources, inventory control and anti-shoplifting.
11.2.3
Provide public access to museums, exhibition spaces or galleries, or works of art and artefacts
The University Museum System of the University of Calabria (SiMU) presents itself to the public in an innovative way, with a series of educational and information services that tell, in a compelling and participatory way, the collections, the activities and the research. Environmental education and sustainable development are the other development directions of SiMU.
The MUSNOB, Museum of Natural History of Calabria and Botanical Garden, the Rimuseum, Museum of the Environment, and the MIAI, Interactive Museum of Computer Archaeology, are part of the SiMU.
The Museum System is open to the territory with a wide range of visits, itineraries and workshops dedicated to groups, families, schools and individual users. Access is free for both the academic community and the local community.
During the year 2023, SiMU's cultural initiatives were strengthened and numerous activities with a focus on the theme of sustainability were promoted, including the World Cleanup Day.
EVIDENCE 2023
On September 23, 2023, SiMU joined the World CleanUp Day, a day in which volunteers all over the world join forces and carry out separate collection of urban waste abandoned in the environment. The route took place along a river park, where a few hundred meters and the enthusiastic arms of the participants were enough to fill the bags with the most frequent waste: plastic, cigarette butts and unsorted waste. The associations Volley Cosenza, Progetto Meridiano and I Giardini di Eva joined the initiative. The ecological walk ended with a guided tour of the Rimuseum - Museum for the Environment.
11.2.4
Provide free public access to open spaces and green spaces
The Campus of the University of Calabria is the largest and best equipped in Italy. It extends over a green area of over 200 hectares, between the hills of the Crati valley, in the urban area of Cosenza and Rende. Therefore, there is plenty of free open and green space.
UniCal is one of the largest cultural and service infrastructures available to the country, the South and, in particular, Calabria, its institutions, businesses, administrations and territories.
At the center of the Campus is the Vittorio Gregotti Bridge project, which constitutes the axis to which the cubes of the Departments with the classrooms and laboratories are attached and to which all the other structures of the Campus are connected.
The Campus Districts are open to the territory. In each one it is possible to find, in addition to the student residences, spaces for cooperative study, recreational and sports activities, and the canteen service.
The green area of the residences is so large that it even hosts a fitness trail, made up of exercise stations and guided routes for running.
During 2023, the entire green area and open spaces were subject to maintenance and restoration of obsolete or damaged equipment.
EVIDENCE 2023
In 2023, the University of Calabria continued to make a concrete commitment to making sport a tool for individual training and growth, enhancing and ennobling teamwork, stimulating healthy competition and learning to know one's limits, pushing to move them with commitment and willpower. To offer the academic community cutting-edge facilities, in which to practice health-oriented activities, Unical is preparing to create a real "Sports Citadel", destined to become a regional sports center of reference, thanks to a massive investment by the Mur which co-finances an 8.6 million euro project, the largest in Southern Italy among the winners of the national tender for sports construction.
11.2.5
Contribute to local arts, in terms of number of annual public performances of university choirs, theatre groups, orchestras etc… either ad-hoc or as part of an ongoing programme
The Campus of Culture, animated all year round by theatrical performances, reviews, cultural events and concerts in 2 theaters, 2 cinemas and 2 open-air amphitheatres.
The cultural activity is managed by C.A.M.S. (Centro Arti Musica e Spettacolo) which, in collaboration with the UniCal study courses, organizes and promotes shows, concerts, exhibitions, theatrical and film reviews.
Although students are the "natural" recipients of these activities, they also involve citizens interested in the development of artistic culture and entertainment with cultural initiatives for educational purposes inspired by the following guiding ideas:
- Maximum differentiation in the cultural offering, with the involvement of a high number of artistic expressions.
- Complete coverage of all periods of the year affected by educational activities.
- Involvement, where possible, of university operators in the artistic cultural field.
- Valorization of artists and associations that carry out cultural activities.
- Plenty of space for the growth of young talents, in the most diverse fields of artistic and cultural expression.
During the year 2023 there were more than 30 cultural, theatrical, cinematographic, musical, etc. events within the UniCal Campus.
EVIDENCE 2023
During the European Researchers' Night, from 25 to 28 September 2023, at the "Cinema UniCal", the recreational club of the University of Calabria has organized a Film Festival for the European Researchers' Night. This is just one example of the over thirty events that UniCal has organized in the field of theater, cinema and cultural events in general.
11.2.6
Deliver projects to record and preserve intangible cultural heritage such as local folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge. This can include the heritage of displaced communities.
A research group on Roots Tourism operates at the Department of Business Sciences. The group's activities were particularly intense throughout 2023.
Roots tourism, also known as origins tourism, genealogical tourism or return tourism (equivalent English terms: roots tourism, genealogy tourism, ancestral tourism), represents "that tourism generated by migrants who go on holiday to their country of origin, often after having been away for a long time, or by their descendants, who want to visit and learn about their family's land of origin. The journey and the related stay in the homeland constitute an experience with a high emotional content: for the former, in fact, they represent the opportunity to see their loved ones again and above all to rediscover the places that marked their life before leaving; for the latter, it becomes a way to search for their roots and discover the places where their ancestors lived, especially for those who have partially or totally lost the connection with their land of origin". According to some authors, it is a niche in the cultural tourism segment.
‘Roots Tourism’ is the title of the International Conference that will be held from 12 to 15 December 2024 at the University of Calabria. The international conference was developed at the instigation of the guest editors (Tullio Romita, Fabio Corbisiero, Antonella Perri, Philippe Clairay) of the special issue ‘Roots Tourism’ published in 2023 by the Scientific Journal ‘Fuori Luogo’, and is fully launched thanks to the ongoing scientific collaboration between the Tourism Research and Studies Centre (CReST) of the Department of Business and Legal Sciences of the University of Calabria and the University Observatory on Tourism (OUT) of the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II.
EVIDENCE 2023
In evidence is a proposal on roots tourism developed at UniCal and presented to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
https://www.esteri.it/mae/resource/atti_concessione/P_13228.pdf
11.4.1
Measure and set targets for more sustainable commuting (walking, cycling or other non-motorized transport, vanpools, carpools, shuttlebus or public transportation, motorcycle, scooter or moped, or electric vehicles)
The University of Calabria has adopted a planning tool called the University Home Travel Plan (UHTP), aimed at the analysis, development and the verification of a series of measures aimed at rationalizing and making commuting trips sustainable (work and study). The activities are coordinated by the university mobility manager. As stated on the Sustainability Strategic Report 2023-25, the UHTP is always been updated; during the year 2023 the plan extended the investigations on travel behavior of the academic community to both students and employees. The main objectives of this activity were the identification of strategies and actions useful for ensuring more sustainable home-work and home-study commuting and the definition of measurable objective indicators.
The actions defined in the plan to reduce travel by private motor vehicle can be identified in the promotion of the use of local public transport, the introduction of collective transport services on campus, the encouragement of the use of bicycles, the promotion of car pooling, the promotion of sharing mobility, the management of infomobility.
EVIDENCE 2023
During 2023, continuing the work of updating the Home-University Travel Plan started in 2022 within the terms identified by the Decree of the Ministry of Ecological Transition in agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility of 12 May 2021 and with the aim of ensuring completeness of evaluation of the phenomena connected to home-university commuting, a new analysis activity was conducted, partly deriving from a survey on mobility aimed at the student population of the University of Calabria, as well as the doctoral students and research fellows of the University. The analysis activity made it possible to integrate the first version of the document adopted in 2021.
11.4.2
Undertake actions to promote more sustainable commuting
The University of Calabria is served by public transport, all parking slots are free of charge, provides bicycle parking and storage facilities and an electric vehicle recharging station.
There are about 200 daily round-trip bus trips that provide the connection service between Unical and the urban area. The university is connected to other locations in the region with over one hundred daily bus trips.
The campus is connected to the nearest train station (Castiglione Cosentino) with a dedicated bus service. This service, which runs every hour during off-peak hours and every 30 minutes during peak hours, is provided with a integrated tariff system with the train service. The University is identified as a “virtual” train station, where it is possible to purchase a ticket exactly as for all other “real” stations. The virtual station creates an integrated “rail-road” transport service that allows you to travel more easily to and from the university.
The academic community and their families can also benefit from a 10% discount if they rent a bike at a local bike-sharing company.
During the year 2023 a carpooling service has been activated for the academic community (for both students and employees).
EVIDENCE 2023
The University of Calabria, given its commitment to promoting sustainable forms of transportation for the university community, has launched an academic community carpooling service as part of its mobility management activities.
The entire academic community has access to a digital “corporate” carpooling platform, accessible via a mobile app, for sharing and managing car travel.
Carpooling has undoubted practical advantages: sharing a car allows, for example, to socialize during the journey, to independently manage home-university travel, without having to depend on public transport timetables.
11.4.3
Promote or allow telecommuting or remote working for employees as a matter of policy or standard practice, or offer a condensed working week to reduce employee commuting
Smart working for employees has been introduced since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and is still in place under certain conditions.
The implementation methods of agile working in the University of Calabria represent the result of a complex action in the areas of the adoption of specific organizational measures, the possession of technological requirements and the activation of specific training interventions.
The provisions on smart working and the implementation methods are identified in the University Strategic Plan, which defines the actions to be undertaken starting from 2023 (page 57).
EVIDENCE 2023
In order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of technical-administrative action, the University of Calabria has launched specific initiatives with the belief that the quality level of an organization is strongly determined by people and working conditions.
By investing in the human factor, it is expected to root forms of agile work, aimed at increasing the effectiveness and productivity of technical-administrative action, which make people responsible for results, quality and reliability and, at the same time, recognize flexibility and autonomy to the worker, improving organizational well-being.
https://www.unical.it/organizzazione/chi-siamo/linee-strategiche/
11.4.4
Provide affordable housing for employees
For employees not residing in the urban area of the Campus, UniCal provides a guesthouse service.
The service is aimed at university staff (teaching and technical-administrative) with a permanent contract; if available, anyone who has a relationship of interest with the University of Calabria can also use it.
For long stays, you can use the guesthouse service in an apartment (studio or multi-room apartment), while for those who occasionally work with the university, the Socrates Residence offers a hotel-type service.
During hospitality related to conference activities at the University, it is possible to use the apartments for guesthouse use, even for very short periods.
The guesthouse service can be used by:
- university staff in service (Professors, Researchers and Technical-administrative Staff) with a permanent and fixed-term contract;
- if available, anyone who has a proven relationship of interest with the University of Calabria can also use the guesthouse service;
- on the occasion of hospitality connected to conference activities at the University, it is possible to use, even for short periods, in any case not less than a week, the apartments for guest use. In this case the rates applied will be proportional to the actual period of use;
- within the scope of availability, ten studio-type guest houses are reserved for international students enrolled in PhD courses.
During 2023, both the Socrates residence and the guesthouse were subject to constant maintenance.
EVIDENCE 2023
UnicalLife
During 2023 for all the university's employees was available "UnicalLife" a Mobile app for access to the services provided by the Residential Center to the staff.
With UnicalLife, teachers and technical-administrative staff can request and manage some services provided on campus relating to the canteen, accommodation and guesthouses.
Currently, the Unical Life app allows Unical staff to:
Request the guesthouse service (first request or renewal) -
Report malfunctions/breakages/faults in accommodation -
Access the canteen service, after activating the Virtual Canteen Badge -
Consult your status of the accommodation and canteen services -
https://www.unical.it/servizi-ict/servizi-digitali-per-il-personale/unical-life/
11.4.5
Provide affordable housing for students
The Campus Residences are open to the territory. In each one, in addition to student residences, you can find spaces for cooperative study, recreational and sports activities, and a canteen service.
- The Chiodo Residences is located near the Unical Libraries between the Martensson A and B neighborhoods. A few steps from the central square of the Martensson neighborhood where there is a canteen, a bar and a common area with equipment for studying and free time.
- The Chiodo 2 quartier is located near the Engineering departments. Not far from the Martensson neighborhood where there is a canteen, a bar and a common area with equipment for studying and free time, laundry, and wifi network.
- The Maisonnettes quartier represents the symbol of the University of Calabria's residential area. The Maisonnettes complex is immersed in the fascinating natural landscape of the Arcavacata hill and includes three dining rooms, a bar, an amphitheater and common areas for cultural and social recreational activities, laundry, wifi network.
- The Martensson A quartier is located in front of the "E. Tarantelli" Library. The district is developed around the central square where there is a canteen, a bar and a common area with equipment for studying and free time, laundry, wifi network.
- The Martensson B quartier is located about 500 meters from the Unical Libraries. Near the district there is the canteen and a common area reserved for residents with equipment for studying and free time, laundry and wifi network.
- The Mira quartiert is located about 850 meters from the Pietro Bucci Unical Bridge. In the district there is a common area reserved for residents for studying and free time, laundry, multipurpose sports field.
- The Molicelle quartier is located about 500 meters from the Aula Magna. Near the district there is the canteen and a common area reserved for residents with equipment for studying and free time, laundry and wifi network. wi-fi.
- The Monaci quartier is located along the road that runs alongside the P. Bucci University bridge, at the height of the Unical Libraries. The district is equipped with common areas for sports, cultural and social recreational activities, laundry, wifi network.
- TheNervoso quartier is located about one kilometer from the Cosenza Nord motorway junction and about 500 meters from the Castiglione Cosentino train station. The University, about 2 kilometers away, can be easily reached by bus.
- The San Gennaro quartier is located along the road that runs alongside the Unical multifunctional center. Within the district there are common areas available for sports, free time, aggregation and socialization of the students staying there.
- The De Lieto quartier is located about 2.5 km from the Cosenza Nord motorway junction and about 2 km from the Castiglione Cosentino train station. The University, about 3.5 km away, is easily reachable by bus.
During 2023 the various residence's quartiers have been subject to continuous and constant maintenance to ensure their efficiency and sustainability.
EVIDENCE 2023
As every year, also in 2023 the University of Calabria has provided financial support to use the accommodation service and other services of the residential center, thus making accommodation affordable for less well-off students and for international students.
At the following links all the information for the Competition Notice for the assignment of Benefits and Services of the Right to Study - year 2023 - for the various types of students.
Step by Step - Guida per gli studenti neo immatricolati
https://www.unical.it/media/medias/2023/Bando_Bds_Unical_CR_2023.24.pdf
11.4.6
Prioritise pedestrian access on campus
The University of Calabria is built along a 1.5 km bridge which is called "Pietro Bucci" Bridge. All of its 46 cubes, which host the University Departments and Halls, can be reached by walking on this two-level (open and roofed sides) bridge. The lower level bridge can only be traveled on foot. The upper level is closed to motorized traffic, except for emergency vehicles and a few authorized vehicles; it can be traveled by bicycle, scooter or on foot.
In addition, along the main road (Viale delle Scienze), which connects all the campus facilities, there is a cycle/pedestrian path (east side) and a pedestrian path (west side) for a total length of approximately 2.5 km.
The university has a tactile-plantar path for the blind and/or visually impaired in plasticized PVC with vibrated-compressed concrete blocks. The path, equipped with "Vettore Evolution" type flooring that uses passive RFID transponders, extends from the bus terminal (one of the access "gates" to the campus) to the entire vehicular bridge, with extension to all the campus facilities.
In 2023, an analysis of the levels of pedestrian accessibility to the facilities on campus was conducted with a focus on people with disabilities.
EVIDENCE 2023
During 2023, as part of the actions envisaged by Ministerial Decree 752 of 30 June 2021, the activity of surveying and mapping accessible routes on the Campus and the development of a forecast plan for the removal of architectural and sensory barriers was started.
The "accessibility mapping", understood according to current legislation in terms of accessibility, visitability and adaptability, concerned buildings and places within the campus for which the current state of affairs was examined with the verification of the access conditions considered and the usability of the spaces through the detection of critical issues, with the related surveys and photographic acquisitions.
11.4.7
Work with local authorities to address planning issues and development, including ensuring that local residents are able to access affordable housing
The University of Calabria, through its participation in the Innovation Hub for Sustainable Building (Green HoMe), is active at a local, regional, national and international level in the implementation of projects on thematic areas that include energy saving technologies , the study of new competitive materials from the point of view of sustainability, the redevelopment interventions of the existing building heritage.
During 2023, some study and information activities were promoted on Green Communities.
EVIDENCE 2023
The Green Communities event, an important opportunity for technical discussion and sharing of territorial development prospects according to the green model, involved a large-scale audience, including all mayors, local administrators, employees of public bodies, but also citizens, students and local associations.
11.4.8
Planning development - new buid standards - Build new buildings to sustainable standards
During 2023, the construction of 3 buildings (cubes) intended for university classrooms began which, in addition to the standard classroom typology, can also be equipped for cooperative learning and distance learning (e-learning). These are not currently present in the university and therefore represent an important expansion of the educational offer. The intervention arises from the need to have new classrooms, both for the activation of new study courses and to improve the forms of teaching and be able to respond to the ever-increasing needs of students. The construction of two new "cubes" is planned (which will be called 28E and 37A) along the axis of the University Bridge and one in the Multipurpose area.
The classrooms planned in the 3 buildings will be able to accommodate from a minimum of 24 to a maximum of 150 seats each (the number of seats varies depending on the type of teaching method used), and will be structured as follows: 8 classrooms will be equipped for cooperative learning, and 6 classrooms will be equipped for e-learning.
In total, 1,312 seats will be available, of which 480 for both cube 28E (5 classrooms) and cube 37A (5 classrooms) and 352 for the Multifunctional (4 classrooms).
EVIDENCE 2023
All the structures, previously described, will be equipped with cutting-edge systems for almost zero energy consumption (NZEB Nearly Zero Energy Building), with thermo-mechanical winter and summer air conditioning systems and controlled mechanical ventilation.
11.4.9
Build on brownfield sites, where possible
During the year 2023, the monumental complex of San Domenico, the gateway to old Cosenza, has become the location of the Nursing Sciences lessons. Students will follow the teaching activities in three technologically advanced classrooms. In total there will be 119 students.
This complex was practically in the process of being abandoned and unused, has been recovered, in agreement with the Municipality of Cosenza, to create the headquarters of the new UniCal training offer.
On the one hand, in fact, there was the University with the desire to open up to the territory but also to offer more adequate and logistically convenient accommodation to the students of the new degree course in Nursing Sciences whose internships will be hosted mainly at the Annunziata hospital. Palazzo dei Bruzi for its part had long sought a way to bring at least some of the freshmen to the historic center. This combination has finally created, after years of discussions, the conditions to make the respective ambitions concrete.
EVIDENCE 2023
note: The teaching activities, to which the evidence refers, began in 2024, but the works for the recovery of the building were carried out during 2023
Cultura e territorio
- Public Engagement
- Percorso partecipativo di ricerca e sviluppo del PE
- Notte delle ricercatrici e dei ricercatori SuperScienceMe
- FameLab, il talent show di comunicazione scientifica
- Giornata Nazionale delle Università
- Job Placement
- Libraries
- Museums
- Theater and cinema
- Sports
- Health
- - Menù in evidenza