| Research, Development and Advanced Education |
In the HiCo Region, as a whole, the five universities offer a large range of technical and humanistic courses, including post-degree courses.
Trieste University is the largest and enjoys a study tradition deeply marked by the city history and by its geographical position. Udine University is a well-established and constantly growing reality. It is well integrated in the territory and perfectly respondent to the local labour-market needs.
The International School for Advanced Studies represents a centre of excellence for Ph.D. education.
The Nova Gorica Polytechnic and the University of Primorska are relevant local reference points and are undergoing full development.
Teaching autonomy is accompanied by a standard transfer practice of academic knowledge and scientific research results, according to the wish expressed by the European Commission document “The Role of Universities in Europe”.
The attention of Institutes to international programmes is a natural consequence of the territory cross-border feature.
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University of Trieste The University of Trieste is the first research centre in the Region, with almost 1,000 permanent professors and researchers and 44 Departments divided into 12 Faculties. Moreover, it hosts centres of excellence in the sectors of biocrystallography, nanotechnologies and telegeomatics and interdepartmental centres of neurosciences, molecular medicine and Euro-Mediterranean studies. Within the context of technological transfer activities, the University registered 7 patents in the 2001-2003 period and actively participates to the “Network for the enhancement of university research”.
The University of Udine features, among its institutional purposes, research, advanced education and service to the territory, all of them at the same level. In this sense, it is particularly focused on the transfer of knowledge and innovation to the economic system. This is achieved also through the Friuli Innovation Consortium and the International Research Centre for Mountains. The research areas covered by the University, both internally and in cooperation with national and international centres, are: agricultural and veterinary sciences, engineering sciences, computer sciences, medicine, economics and law. The University performs several research projects for each area.
The Nova Gorica Polytechnic carries out research activities in five main fields: environment, astroparticle physics, nanostructures, multiphase processes and cryptography. The Polytechnic is one of the founders of the Primorski Technology Park, which encourages the transfer of knowledge and innovations to the enterprise world and which promotes the development of businesses with a high technological content, thus steering research in order to respond to market needs. Through the Park, the Polytechnic is linked to other organisations, for regional, national and international cooperation projects.
The University of Primorska is particularly oriented towards cooperation with national and international research institutions and towards the transfer of scientific discoveries and innovations to the worlds of economy and research. To this aim, the Primorska university incubator was established, with the purpose of promoting the creation of spin-off enterprises. Research programmes and projects are enacted by the Faculty of Management, the Faculty of Educational Studies, the Scientific Research Centre of Koper, “Turistica” (College of Tourism of Portorož) and the Primorska Institute of Natural Sciences and Technology.
The International School for Advanced Studies performs high-level research activities in eight independent sectors, in which it carries out post-graduate education and training courses. The first Italian institute to offer Ph.D. titles, its productivity index (number of publications per teacher) for technical sciences is the highest in Italy (source: CRUI - Conference of the Italian University Rectors). The School manages the relations with the research institutions in the territory, favouring professional careers of students and cooperations among different disciplines and competences.
