This section presents all past projects related to Ca' Foscari's Global Challenges. To discover the on-going projects, please visit the page Projects.
Making the Most of Social Science to Build Better Policies - Knowledge for Use
Knowledge For Use (K4U) is an ERC Advanced grant hosted by the University of Durham, involving Ca' Foscari researchers.
The project will construct a radically new picture of how to use social science to build better social policies and it will launch an entire new field in philosophy: the philosophy of social technology.
K4U will provide not just a theoretical but a practical understanding‐ for users: intelligible and practically helpful to those who need to estimate and balance the effectiveness, the evidence, the chances of success, the costs, the benefits, the winners and losers, and the social, moral, political and cultural acceptability of proposed policies.
Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Eleonora Montuschi
Duration: 01/11/2015 - 30/10/2020
Funding: European Research Council
BIFLOW - Bilingualism in Florentine and Tuscan Works
The BIFLOW project explores multilingualism in central and northern Italy from the thirteenth century to the beginning of the fifteenth.
It will begin with the systematic gathering of texts available in multiple languages and then lead to the construction of the first digital catalogue of these works.
This will then facilitate the creation of a map of the multilingual environments in which intellectuals were immersed at the time of Dante.
The subject of this ERC Starting grant, therefore, is not merely the texts themselves, but also the mindset of mediaeval intellectuals, whose immersion in a multilingual context in some ways parallels our contemporary experience of globalization.
Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Antonio Montefusco
Duration: 01/10/2015 - 30/09/2020
Funding: European Research Council (ERC)
NANOFASE - Nanomaterial Fate and Speciation in the Environment
Ca’ Foscari researchers have been involved in the Nanomaterial Fate and Speciation in the Environment NANOFASE project (Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies), funded by Horizon 2020.
Progress is needed in the prediction of environmental distribution, concentration and form (speciation) of nanomaterials, to allow early assessment of potential environmental and human exposure and risks, to facilitate safe product design and to include these aspects in nano regulation.
Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Antonio Marcomini
Duration: 01/09/2015 - 31/08/2019
Funding:Horizon 2020 Industrial Leadership: Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Nanotechnologies
Reevaluating minor rivers as cultural landscapes
The project "EUWATHER - European Waterways Heritage: Reevaluating European minor rivers and canals as cultural landscapes" is funded by the EU Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and aims to promote a knowledge of the unique cultural heritage of minor waterways and historical canals in 4 European pilot regions located in Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
The overall objective is to develop a better governance, focusing on new opportunities for sustainable development and ecotourism.
Website
Researcher: Francesco Vallerani
Duration: 01/09/2015 - 31/08/2017
NANORESTART - Nanomaterials for the Restoration of works of art
Funded by Horizon 2020, "NANORESTART - NANOmaterials for the REStoration of works of ART" will develop a new framework with respect to the state of the art of conservation science.
It is devoted to the development of nanomaterials to ensure the longterm protection and security of modern/contemporary cultural heritage by taking into account environmental and human risks, feasibility and the cost of materials.
The project brings together centres of excellence in the field of the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials, world- leading chemical industries and SMEs operating in R&D and International and European centres for conservation, education and museums.
They will assess new materials through their use with artefacts in urgent need of conservation and then disseminate the resulting knowledge internationally.
Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Antonio Marcomini
Duration: 01/06/2015 - 30/11/2018
Aristotle in the Italian Vernacular
Funded by an ERC Starting grant, this project aims to offer the first detailed and comprehensive study of the vernacular diffusion of Aristotle through a series of analyses of his primary texts.
Works that fall within the two main Renaissance fields of speculative philosophy (metaphysics, natural philosophy, mathematics and logic) and civil philosophy (ethics, politics, rhetoric and poetics) will be studied.
In light of their respective competencies, two research teams in Venice and at the University of Warwick will each generally focus their investigation on one of these two bodies of work.
Project website / EU Cordis database
Researcher: Marco Sgarbi
Duration: 01/05/2014 - 30/04/2019
Funding: European Research Council (ERC)
Coping with rising damp in buildings
The aims of the project "EMERISDA - Effectiveness of methods against rising damp in buildings: European practice and perspective", within the framework of JPI Cultural Heritage, is to achieve a scientifically based evaluation of the effectiveness of different methods against rising damp and develop a decision support tool for the knowledgeable selection and successful application of these methods in the practice of conservation.
These aims will be achieved by gathering and sharing existing knowledge, until now scattered across the EU, and by acquiring new knowledge through the application of selected methods in case studies.
Website
Researcher: Elisabetta Zendri
Duration: 01/02/2014 - 31/01/2017
Europeana Space
The aim of the Europeana Space project is to create new opportunities for employment and economic growth within the creative industries sector based on Europe’s rich digital cultural resources.
It will provide an open environment for the development of applications and services based on digital cultural content.
The use of this environment will be fostered by a vigorous, wideranging and sustainable programme of promotion, dissemination and replication of the Best Practices developed within the project.
The extensive resources and networks of the Europeana Space consortium will be drawn on to ensure the success of the project funded under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP).
Website
Researcher: Leonardo Buzzavo
Duration: 01/02/2014 - 31/01/2017
SEREASTO - Sea grass recolonization in the venetian Lagoon
SERESTO - SEagrass RESTOration, funded by LIFE programme: this project aims to trigger a process of aquatic angiosperm recolonization in the environment “Northern Lagoon of Venice” environment, mainly through the transplantation of Zostera marina and Nanozostera noltii to small sites distributed throughout the area.
The technique, however, would also be suitable for largescale application, in order to consolidate and restore the aquatic habitat and contribute to the achievement of a positive ecological status in transitional bodies of water.
Project website / EU LIFE Public database
Researcher: Adriano Sfriso
Duration: 01/01/2014 - 30/04/2018
Funding: LIFE