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.
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
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