The Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025
Osaka has hosted the signature of two new agreements involving
the National Research Council (CNR), Italy’s largest public
research body.
The first memorandum was forged with the Japan Agency for
Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and the second
with Tsukuba University.
The event was opened by the Commissioner General for Italy at
Expo 2025 Osaka, Ambassador Mario Vattani.
The Memorandum of Cooperation with JAMSTEK is the outcome of an
initiative taken after a meeting held on October 29, 2024 during
which the international relations unit at the National Research
Council welcomed a delegation of the Japanese Agency, laying the
groundwork for a structured collaboration on themes of common
interest.
The agreement provides for stronger bilateral cooperation on
joint projects, researcher mobility programs and the development
of common activities in the field of oceanography, marine
geophysics and climate modelling, as well as the use of common
infrastructures.
“This agreement will improve and promote our cooperation in the
exchange of researchers and in kickstarting new joint projects”,
stated Francesco Petracchini, director of the CNR’s Department
of Earth System Science and Environmental Technologies.
“We firmly believe in this accord and we are certain that, in
the future, we will start new projects and we will be able to
share data and information on important themes and programs such
as the deep sea, climate change, biodiversity and many others”,
added Petracchini.
JAMSTEC was represented by Professor Shuichi Kodaira, the
Executive director.
The Memorandum of understanding signed with Tsukuba University,
meanwhile, is aimed at favouring scientific cooperation in
research areas of common interest, through joint research
programs, visits and personal exchanges, as well as the creation
of a common platform for the development of strategic
initiatives, consolidating a collaboration that has been active
for over two decades between the Research Institute for
GEO-Hydrological Protection of CNR and the Japanese university’s
Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences.
Tsukuba University was represented by Professor Shuntaro Uchida,
a member of the Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences.
As part of the event ‘Knowledge as the key to protection’,
organized at the Italy Pavilion by the Department of Earth
System Sciences and Technologies for the Environment
(CNR-DSSTTA), Italian and Japanese experts met to discuss five
key environmental themes: biodiversity, the sea, polar regions,
climate change and natural hazards.
In addition, the theme of ‘environmental memory’ was explored
from an artistic standpoint with the exhibit ‘Liquid
Cartographies’ including six audiovisual contributions by
artists Elena Bellantoni, Elena Mazzi, Pamela Pintus and
Mariagrazia Pontorno, focusing on the issue of the ocean as a
space of memory, travels, a threshold of conflicts and
transformations, screened during the course of the day on
Friday, September 19, in a mosaic of different artistic visions.
The event was also attended by Lidia Armelao, Director of the
Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technology, Maria
Elena Martinotti, Head of Institutional Affairs at the
Department of Earth System Sciences and Technologies for the
Environment of CNR, and Gianluigi Serianni, Scientific Attaché
of the Italian Embassy in Tokyo.
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