Bologna to host the United Nations University

Today, as in the past, the link between Bologna and the academic world appears unbreakable. Once home to the first university in the Western world, it is now the fourteenth city to host the United Nations University (the first in Southern Europe).

This latest news was recently announced by the Councillor for Economic Development, Vincenzo Colla, during the Emilia-Romagna Legislative Assembly. "A network of expertise, multiculturalism and relationships will bring 1,500 researchers from all over the world to the Tecnopolo headquarters. This is a major project resulting from cooperation between the national and regional governments to achieve strategic objectives in the world".

These are the words of Colla, who proudly recounts how this development represents a historic turning point for the city and the entire region. Bologna's academic vocation has thus continued over the centuries, confirming how knowledge continues to represent an essential value for the region, both from a cultural and economic point of view.

The arrival of the United Nations University therefore appears to be a contemporary evolution written in destiny. Established in 1973 with the aim of contributing, through research and advanced training, to the resolution of the major problems afflicting humanity (security, sustainability, global governance, human rights, etc.), the project never intended to have a single campus but rather a network of institutes scattered around the world.

The one coming to the Emilian capital is the fourteenth and should focus on issues related to environmental and climate risks through research, training and collaboration with governments and international institutions. Scholars, UN officials and researchers from all over the world will be welcomed here, just as they were in the Middle Ages when the greatest thinkers and scholars of the time came to the city, and as they still do today thanks to the Alma Mater.

A new and important chapter in history is therefore beginning. And it is precisely in this encounter between ancient roots, the present and the international future that the deepest meaning of Bologna's identity can be grasped: a city of learning and knowledge.

Ph: Particolare da Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, da Wikimedia Commons