Department of
Economics
Economics
ERC (European Research Council) was established in 2007 by the European Commission. It is the main European funding body for excellent frontier research. It funds researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based across Europe.
MSCA (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions) funds excellent research and innovation and equips researchers at all stages of their careers with new knowledge and skills through mobility across borders and exposure to different sectors and disciplines.
PI: Paolo Pellizzari
Duration: 01/03/2021 - 28/02/2025
Funding programme: MSCA - Innovative Training Networks
Total budget: € 3.982.061,52
Budget assigned to Ca' Foscari: € 522.999,39
Website: EPOC
Many of the main current economic and societal challenges in Europe are characterised by complex dynamic patterns stemming from path dependency, irreversibility, systemic risk and (local) interaction of heterogeneous agents. The Innovative Training Network EPOC aims at advancing the state-of-the-art and the applicability of computationally intensive methods for decision and policy analysis and at using these methods in the domains of climate change and innovation. This agenda will be pursued by combining an interdisciplinary research agenda with an innovative European joint doctoral training programme. Early Stage Researchers will gain expertise and skills in data science, network theory, agent-based simulation, and economic modelling, with focus on climate change and innovation, and will apply these skills in their individual research projects. The academic training will be complemented by Transferable Skills Training Measures, Inter-Sectoral Training Measures, provided by non-academic partners, and Career Development Training. Interaction with stakeholders, policy makers and the general public will play an important role in pursuing the EPOC agenda and disseminating the results.
PI: Carlo Giupponi
Duration: 01/02/2019 - 31/12/2022
Funding programme: MSCA - Individual Fellowships
Budget assigned to Ca' Foscari: € 262.269,00
More than 286 internationally shared river basins supply 60% of global freshwater. The United Nations and the Council of European Union has highlighted the potential of transboundary water diplomacy. The complex interdependencies between humans and water in these transboundary basins remain poorly understood in the newly proposed discipline of socio-hydrology. Therefore, an assessment of social-ecological interdependencies in transboundary water resources systems is now urgently required for implementing target 6.5 of SDGs and for fulfilling the EU’s commitment on international peace and security. The overall objective of the envisaged research is to develop new understandings of complex human-water systems in large transboundary river basins with an aim to contribute scientific advancement of socio-hydrology and to enhance transboundary cooperation for international peace and security. The proposed research will be hosted in two highly qualified laboratories (during outgoing phase at MIT, with Prof. Susskind and during return phase at UNIVE with Prof. Giupponi). Going beyond the state-ofthe-art, the proposed project will develop for the first time: an analytical framework of complex tranboundary water system; comparative network analysis for social ecological systems in two river basins; consideration of negotiation theory and role-play game in developing transboundary cooperation strategies. The proposed project is fundamentally interdisciplinary in characters. The scientifically innovative and socially relevant (for EU and the Globe) proposed project will help me achieve higher levels of professional maturity through innovative research, advanced training, the transferrable skills and interdisciplinary experiences in two highly qualified institutions both at MIT and at UNIVE. These unique experiences will support to achieve my short- (e.g., human-water interactions), medium- (e.g., young investigator) and long-term (permanent position in academia) career goals.
PI: Francesco Vallerani
Duration: 01/02/2019 - 31/01/2022
Funding programme: MSCA - Individual Fellowships
Budget assigned to Ca' Foscari: € 251.353,92
Global water challenges call urgently today for additional and deeper research by social scientists in order to achieve sustainability.
By combining methods of geo-morphology and anthropology, HYSOTIB will provide an in-depth ethnographic study of one of the globe’s key river heritage landscapes – the China’s Qinghai Headwaters including the sources of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers. The on-going transformation of the the Qinghai headwaters into a national park hinges on a profound socio-ecological paradox, where the locals (97% ethnic Tibetan) are considered by Chinese authorities as both drivers of environmental impact as well as central to local natural and cultural heritage preservation practices. HYSOTIB will disentagle the underlying dynamics of this phenomenon by investigating socio-cultural and environmental issues, thus bridging the still huge scientific gap between heritage- and water/river studies. The primary fieldwork will take place at the upper reaches of the Yangtze river in the Yushu Tibetan Prefecture (Qinghai Province).
Selected case-study areas from the Three-River Source National Nature Reserve will be examined as hydro-social contexts of global encounters arising within defined ecological, ethnic and territorial boundaries.
Thanks to the researcher’s knowledge in Tibetan and Chinese language, and her previous fieldwork experience in Tibetan areas of China, HYSOTIB will provide a timely and improved understanding of the global context. Urgent environmental and anthropic risks, currently at the core of the EU-China 2020 Strategic Cooperation Agenda, will be addressed. The training in river science and heritage studies at the universities of Auckland (NZ) and Ca’ Foscari in Venice (IT) will significantly cement the candidate’s status as a leading geo-social scientist.
PI: Enrica De Cian
Duration: 01/02/2018 - 28/02/2023
Funding programme: ERC Starting Grant
Budget assigned to Ca' Foscari: € 1.495.000,00
Website: ENERGYA
ENERGYA will improve our understanding of how energy and energy services can be used by households and industries to adapt to the risk posed by climate change. Specifically, the project will develop an interdisciplinary and scalable research framework integrating data and methods from economics with geography, climate science, and integrated assessment modelling to provide new knowledge concerning heterogeneity in energy use across countries, sectors, socioeconomic conditions and income groups, and assess the broad implications adaptation-driven energy use can have on the economy, the environment, and welfare.
The key novelty of ENERGYA is to link energy statistics and energy survey data with high spatial resolution data from climate science and remote sensing, including high-resolution spatial data on meteorology, population and economic activity distribution, electrification, and the built environment.
ENERGYA has three main objectives. First, it will produce novel statistical and econometric analyses for OECD and major emerging countries (Brazil, Mexico, India, and Indonesia) to shed light on the underlying mechanisms driving energy use. Second, it will infer future potential impacts from long-run climate and socioeconomic changes building on historical empirical evidence. Third, it will analyse the macro and distributional implications of adaptation-driven energy use with an economy-energy model characterising the distribution of energy use dynamics across and within countries.
Given the central role of energy as multiplier for socioeconomic development and as enabling condition for climate resilience, the research proposed in ENERGYA will result in timely insights for the transition towards sustainability described by the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations as well as the Paris International Climate Agreement.